Vodafone gears up for massive mobile demand on New Year’s Eve
2014: The year that saw a 1,200% increase in 4G data usage
Vodafone is deploying extra resources and staff on New Year’s Eve to ensure its customers around Australia are able to have a trouble free evening contacting friends and family during the celebration.
More than four and a half million voice calls are expected to be made on the Vodafone network between 10pm on New Year’s Eve and 2am on New Year’s Day, while around 11 million SMS will be delivered.
To cope with this demand, a special team of engineers will be closely monitoring all key sites to make sure call, text and data services operate normally. Technicians will also be on site at key CBD locations around the country.
Vodafone will be boosting its network capacity at several major events, including Sydney’s New Year’s Eve party around the harbour, by putting in place special event parameters and by deploying mobile cell sites called Cells On Wheels (COWs).
“New Year’s Eve is about having fun and sharing the good times and memories with your mates and family,” said Vodafone’s Chief Technology Officer, Benoit Hanssen.
“Our job is to make sure our customers can call, text, send photos – or whatever they usually do with their mobile phone or device – during this celebration. We’re there to help them share the moment, and make sure they don’t have any trouble doing it.”
Vodafone’s special provisions for New Year’s Eve is on top of its deployment in November of a Self Organising Network (SON) solution for 3G ,which has already improved mobile phone call reliability during high usage periods.
“The SON deployment provides better call success rates, faster connections and consistent data downloads for our customers during peak periods such as New Year’s Eve, especially when they’re on the move, ” said Mr Hanssen.
Vodafone is expecting an almost 70% jump in data usage by its customers this Christmas/New Year holiday period, compared to the same period last year. It is also expecting a 10% increase in SMS delivery for the same period.
“As Australia’s love affair with smartphones continues to blossom, there’s been a corresponding growth in data usage – and the increased consumption figures are impressive to say the least, especially on 4G,” said Mr Hanssen.
During 2014, 4G data consumption on the Vodafone network grew by 1,200%.
There are around two million devices connected to Vodafone’s 4G network which now reaches 95% of Australia’s metropolitan population.
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Notes to editors:
Vodafone 4G is available in selected areas and is only available with a compatible device with an active Vodafone prepaid recharge or a plan with Vodafone alerts.