Virgin Media O2, TalkTalk see record data spikes
February 16, 2023
TalkTalk saw its highest ever data usage peak on February 15th, overtaking the previous recorded spike in December 2022. At around 9:12pm, TalkTalk customers were using a combined 10.25 Tbps.
Season 2 of the popular Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 video games was released at 6pm, followed by the Premier League match between top-of-the-table Arsenal and Manchester City streamed live on Prime Video. Additionally, Chelsea faced Borussia Dortmund in the last-16 stage of the Champions League on BT Sport.
Demand on the network has been increasing year-on-year. The latest usage peak is the highest ever demand seen on the TalkTalk network and is equivalent to delivering 427.08 hours of HD video per second.
Phil Haslam, Chief Technology Officer, said: “Our network forecasting team is continually looking ahead to ensure we have the right capacity and resilience across the network to exceed our customers’ demand to download or stream. And last night was no different – the growth of our network over our 20-year history has been huge and shows the demand for connectivity has never been higher.”
Virgin Media O2 also reported its busiest day on record for network traffic on February 15th – attributing the spike to the same reasons as TalkTalk – hitting a peak of 24.77Tbps at peak (8-10pm average), a 10 per cent increase on the previous record.
Jeanie York, CTO of Virgin Media O2, said: “We have once again seen records smashed on our network with football fans and gamers using our ultrafast speeds on Wednesday to enjoy some midweek entertainment. This rising demand and the continued importance of connectivity is why we keep investing and innovating to ensure that we deliver for our customers.”