The Lock-In, Ep. 3: Eileen Gallagher from the Internet Neutral Exchange [Video]

On today’s podcast we are joined by Eileen Gallagher from INEX – the Internet Neutral EXchange Association of Ireland, for a peek under the hood of Ireland’s Internet, which is seeing record traffic due to The Lock-In.

Click on the player below to play the audio (you can download it here: 14:25; 8MB; MP3), or scroll down for the video.

INEX is a peering exchange, where traffic is exchanged between different Internet Service Providers. Eileen confirms what we’ve seen at Blacknight, and others are reporting as well: traffic is up 25% – 35% across the board due to the extraordinary change in lifestyle brought about by social distancing practices due to COVID19. Usage patterns have changed as well: traffic which would have gone to offices during the day is now going to private homes. Last week, traffic on INEX exceeded 500GB/s for the first time.

Eileen reveals that preparations for COVID19 began early in February at INEX, as the non-profit organisation contacted its member companies to discuss their anticipated requirements, adding additional network capacity and ports.

We also spoke to Jonathan Thomas on this episode. Jonathan works as part of the Blacknight team from his home in Indiana, USA. We’ll be speaking to him from time to time about the situation where he lives.

Join us on Wednesday for another episode of The Lock-In.