At the turn of the year, more data was processed again than in previous years. Several mobile providers in the Netherlands and Belgium report an increase in data traffic in the night of December 31 to January 1, compared to a year earlier.
KPN says that approximately 38 percent more data was processed compared to a year earlier. Between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., 353TB of data was processed on KPN’s network. Last year it was 248TB. KPN saw the peak moment between 00:05 and 00:10. Fewer text messages were sent than last year. Last year 1.8 million text messages were sent, this year 1.4 million. However, there were slightly more calls, 4.1 million calls, compared to 3.8 million calls a year earlier.
Vodafone customers sent 15 percent more data at the turn of the year than last year, with a peak at the same time as at KPN. Between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. Vodafone processed 212TB data. Vodafone customers called 2 percent less than a year ago, and 16 percent fewer text messages were sent than at the turn of the year. The fixed network saw a 2 percent higher peak than the year before.
T-Mobile says customers sent almost as much data last New Year’s night as they did on other busy days of the year. 20 percent more data was sent on New Year’s Eve than a year earlier. T-Mobile saw comparable peaks during Formula 1 in Zandvoort and during the European Football Championship.
The Belgian provider Proximus processed 180TB of mobile data in 2020; this turn of the year it was 243TB, between 8 PM and 8 AM. That is an increase of 35 percent. The number of telephone calls also increased slightly from 2 million to 2.7 million. Slightly fewer text messages were sent, 7.2 million compared to 7.3 million a year earlier.
Update 12.00 noon – The Belgian provider Telenet processed 168TB data between 8:00 PM and 8:00 AM; that is an increase of almost 68 percent compared to a year earlier. Orange Belgium also saw an increase in mobile data traffic. Orange processed 258TB of data, an increase of 22.7 percent.
