Germany’s cell phone users ended the year using much more data than before. On New Year’s Eve, 2.9 million gigabytes were flown over the Telekom mobile network between 8 pm and 3 am, 30 percent more than the same period a year earlier, Deutsche Telekom announced. According to company information, competitor Vodafone had three million gigabytes of data, corresponding to a 20 percent increase. O2 Telefónica reported 5.5 million gigabytes (plus 25 percent).
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Things had already picked up in previous years – interrupted by the Corona fallout – and this trend continued. Five years ago – on New Year’s Eve 2019/20 – O2, for example, transported only 1.1 million gigabytes, a value that has since increased fivefold.
One reason for the increase is the increasing use of data services like WhatsApp, FaceTime or Signal, through which calls are made only in audio format or video. Additionally, many people are sending not only photos, but increasingly videos as well, and as a result the amount of data they use is increasing on New Year’s Eve.
5G networks are getting better
Vodafone Germany boss Marcel de Groot also points to improved 5G networks, which enable much faster and stable connections. “The number of dead spots has decreased over the past year and the area with fast 5G coverage has increased,” the manager says. “Today, mobile communications can deliver large amounts of data in a very short time without any lag: people used it on New Year’s Eve.” Apart from Vodafone, O2 Telefónica and Deutsche Telekom also significantly improved their 5G networks last year.
More classic telephone calls on Telecom
When it comes to classic telephone calls, the development of network operators varies: in the time period from 8 pm to 3 am, telecoms made approximately twelve million cell phone calls, ten times more than a year earlier. lakh more. For comparison: a typical night has only five million.
The use of classic telephony has been declining over the years as people are increasingly using data services to chat or call. New Year’s Eve figures from the telecom’s competitors confirmed the trend: there were 31 million phone calls on O2 between 8pm and 3am, 4 million fewer than a year earlier. At Vodafone it was 13.5 million, slightly lower than in 2023/24 (13.9 million).
(mho)
