Vodafone says its UK broadband network saw an increase in use of around 15 percent during weekdays last week after the UK Government announced a lockdown.

The network says daytime usage now mirrors a typical Sunday – typically the busiest day of the week with people streaming films and new TV episodes.

That figure is a lot lower than some were expecting when streaming providers including Netflix and Prime Video were asked to lower their streaming quality by the EU. 

In contrast, mobile music streaming traffic reduced by around 16% from the start of last week as people stopped commuting. 

As we've previously reported, demand on broadband networks is well within the capability of the network after early fears that constant streaming, gaming and home working would strain the network. In fact, as BT told us last week, the highest registered daytime peak didn't even reach half of what the network is capable of. 

BT's highest peak during daytime so far was 7.5TB/s while the highest evening peak recorded by BT (before the crisis) was 17.5Tb/s. That was caused by a trio of events - an update to Red Dead Redemption II and the release of Call of Duty: Warzone plus Spurs vs Leipzig on BT Sport in the Champions League.

Following the Government’s directive for people to stay at home this week, we have seen unprecedented demand across our mobile, fixed telephony and broadband networks. Whilst demand continues to rise at unprecedented levels, our network remains reliable and strong, and we’re within our capacity thresholds and are continuing to service our customers in these difficult times.

Vodafone says that there was an increase of nearly 20% in mobile call traffic on Monday (23 March) versus the previous Monday. And because more people were at home, they were using Wi-Fi Calling more - the network saw a 28% increase in Voice over the Internet (VoIP) usage last week.