Coronvirus: Netflix Cuts Traffic To India

Streaming giant Netflix has said it will reduce traffic over telecom networks in India by 25 percent over the next 30 days.

The move is to ease data congestion and comes after video streaming quality has been cut in regions such as Europe and South America.

The move comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Tuesday that 1.3 billion people in India will go under “total lockdown” for 21 days to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

India streaming

Police in India are said to be enforcing lockdowns in the country, with curfews in some places, Reuters has reported.

Indian health officials are reportedly concerned the coronavirus is spreading out of big cities into more rural areas.

“Given the crisis, we’ve developed a way to reduce Netflix’s traffic on telecommunications networks by 25 percent, while also maintaining the quality of our service,” Ken Florance, vice-president of content delivery told Reuters in a statement on Tuesday. “So consumers should continue to get the quality that comes with their plan.”

According to WHO data, Coronavirus has so far killed 17,147 people around the world, as of Tuesday 24 March. On Monday 23 March the death toll stood at 15,485 deaths.

There are now 392,230 Covid-19 cases (that we know of) around the world.

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