How Has COVID-19 Impacted Regional Internet Ecosystems? One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses and work are still online while the pressure on Internet ecosystems remains unprecedented. This has put the question of Internet resilience to the fore. As networks continue to struggle to cope with traffic spikes and connectivity hiccups, we examine how COVID-19 impacted some regional Internet ecosystems in 2020. Africa As discussions from the fourth session of the Virtual Peering Series â Africa show, African Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) experienced lows and peaks during the pandemic. First there was a dip in traffic as governments imposed lockdowns in the early 2020, then a gradual rise thereafter.