The power of KPN Wholesale during COVID-19
“We have seen a clear growth in voice and data traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic for activities like making an appointment, the Dutch public health service (GGD) confirming an appointment or a vaccination reminder, and installing the CoronaCheck app to access public buildings and events. The work we do at KPN Wholesale helps support the large-scale activities of the Dutch government in this area. For instance, we provide the required capacity to process the voice traffic to the service and appointment telephone numbers of the Dutch public health authority, RIVM, and the GGD. We do this via our voice interconnect service, which provides a platform for all connections between all other operators and a service number. We also do a lot more to keep essential processes going during COVID-19.
Thousands of alerts are sent every day to warn people that that may have been in contact with a person who has tested positive. As one of the partners of the Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare & Sport, KPN Wholesale shares its Content Delivery Network (CDN) service. CDN provides the scalable capacity to ensure that peaks in demand and traffic volume can be processed efficiently.This ensures that the underlying infrastructure does not get overloaded and that COVID-19 alerts on possible exposure continue to get through to users, and so prevent others from being unknowingly infected.
"Business SMS messages increased by nearly 25%."
Although SMS messages (SMS) may sound like an old-fashioned service, it remains the most effective method for reaching people. After all, SMS is supported on every device and delivered in almost 100% of cases. What’s more, nearly everyone in the Netherlands has a mobile phone. With our Business SMS service, we enable our Large Account customers, also known as SMS gateways or brokers, to deliver mass quantities of SMS messages to mobile devices in a short space of time. For instance, when a person makes a COVID-19 test or vaccination appointment in the Netherlands they need to use their digital identification(DigiD), for which an additional check is carried out via SMS. In addition, with so many people working from home during the pandemic, SMS is being used to log on to a company network as part of multi-factor authentication.
The past year has also spurred online shopping: the volume of parcel and meal deliveries has grown, which in turn has led to an increase in data traffic.SMS is also being used a lot for logging in to the sites of (online) shops, and for sending alerts when a parcel is due to be delivered or a courier is nearby. The volume of business SMS messages increased by nearly 25% in 2021 compared to 2020. Together with our Large Account customers, e.g. brokers like CM.com, Sinch and Messagebird, we ensure the precise delivery of these SMS messages, so that the business community can continue to operate as before despite all the restrictions. In my view, the power of KPN Wholesale is evident and more tangible than ever.”
