Cumbrian football fans helped send internet usage for one broadband provider to record levels this week.
A rise in customers has already seen Fibrus Broadband reaching new heights for its network in Cumbria and Northern Ireland, but Wednesday night’s Amazon Prime live sports special took it to a new level.
Twice a year – towards the start of December and around Boxing Day – the video provider streams multiple football matches. This week Amazon Prime began its programme on Tuesday, with three days of matches.
However, Wednesday, December 6 was always predicted to be the biggest of the days, with six live football matches being broadcast simultaneously including Liverpool, Manchester United and Man City – and Fibrus’ network figures reflect the surge in interest with traffic 33 per cent higher than normal.
Neil Isherwood, Fibrus’ Chief Technology and Information Officer, explained: “Normally matches are on terrestrial or satellite, and so there is not much traffic through the internet. BT Sport uses the internet but also uses multi-cast to lower the usage.
“Amazon broadcasts solely across the internet and without multi-cast – so every single person gets their own stream. We hit a peak of 299Gbps at 8.50pm on Wednesday – a new record.
“Our previous highest day had been when the new Call of Duty game was released on November 9, when we hit 241Gbps. Wednesday was a 30 per cent uplift on this previous record.”
The record-breaking traffic followed one of Fibrus’ most successful days overall in recent history, when Sunday’s launch of the new Fortnite season saw gamers leading to an all-day traffic surge.
Neil said: “The game was released early in the morning and our network saw a surge which then remained high all day.
“Normally on a Sunday we have a slow ramp up followed by a peak for streaming at home from about 8pm to 10pm. Last Sunday the peak began at 8am and then stayed until the end of the streaming.”
He continued: “The biggest thing to come out of all of this, for me, is that we have had these record peaks and yet none of our customers would know: their streaming was completely uninterrupted.
“Even with record numbers, we still ran at only about 40 per cent of our capacity. We are constantly looking at expected usage and releases and are fully prepared: it’s the swan effect!”
Fibrus has invested over £700 million in support of its mission to bring Full Fibre broadband to homes across Northern Ireland and Cumbria in previously underserved areas.
