Press Release | 01 Jan 2015

VODAFONE UK SEES IN THE BUSIEST NEW YEAR EVER FOR DATA AND REVEALS FOOTBALL TOPS MONTHLY MOBILE EVENTS OF 2014

On the 30th anniversary of the first ever mobile phone call made on the Vodafone network, New Year saw a massive rise in the use of social media and streaming services on the Vodafone UK network with customers using about 50% more mobile data than the same period last year.

The growth in mobile data traffic makes it the most connected New Year ever as customers went online to wish their friends and family happy New Year and shared their celebrations.

In total, Vodafone carried tens of thousands of terabytes of data – the equivalent of downloading around 180 million copies of the film Frozen – across its UK high-speed network in 2014. Increasingly, customers are checking news and sport results online, accessing social media sites and sharing photos via their mobile devices.

Sport, and in particular football, dominated the top monthly mobile data events of 2014. In the single busiest hour, the equivalent of approximately 200 million web pages showing live football scores were viewed by customers. The main mobile data events each month were:

January 31, 2014 – Football transfer deadline day and England v Australia one-day cricket
February 8, 2014 – Liverpool v Arsenal football match
March 17, 2014 – St. Patrick’s Day
April 25, 2014 – The death of former FC Barcelona coach, Tito Vilanova
May 22, 2014 – Local elections
June 24, 2014 – England v Costa Rica football match
July 4, 2014 – France v Germany football match
August 28, 2014 – British motorcycling
September 27, 2014 – Chelsea v Aston Villa football match
October 26, 2014 – Chelsea v Manchester United football match
November 22, 2014 – Arsenal v Manchester United football match
December 14, 2014 – Manchester United v Liverpool football match

Vodafone UK Head of Mobile Networks Petek Ergul said: “2014 broke all previous records for the amount of data which travelled across our network. From a single call 30 years ago, we now carry tens of thousands of terabytes of information.”

“The continued success of our 4G plans, which offer customers a choice of leading content, coupled with our investment of more than £1 billion on the network and services played a big part in this growth. For example, our 4G customers streamed more than 35 million hours of music on Spotify over the last year, with average listening time for an active Spotify user of 20 hours a month.”

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Note to Editors
Vodafone is spending more than £1 billion on its network and services across the country this year, including extending its 4G coverage to 382 cities and towns and thousands of smaller communities across the UK.

About Vodafone UK

Vodafone UK is a technology communications company that connects people, businesses and devices to help our customers benefit from digital innovation. Our services span mobile, fixed-line connections, home and office broadband, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

We have a strong track record as a tech pioneer, making the UK’s first mobile phone call, sending the first text message, and making the UK’s first live holographic call using 5G in 2018. We were the first to start carrying live 5G traffic from a site in Salford, Greater Manchester and now have 5G in locations across Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain as well as the UK. Meanwhile, our 4G network coverage currently reaches over 99% of the UK population.

Today, Vodafone serves more than 18 million mobile and fixed-line customers in the UK. Vodafone is the largest provider of full fibre in the UK – our superfast broadband services are now available to nearly 12 million homes across the UK.

Sustainability is also at the heart of what we do: as of 1 July 2021, 100% of the grid electricity we use in the UK is certified to be from renewable sources.

For more information about Vodafone UK, please visit: www.vodafone.co.uk.

Vodafone UK Media Relations

Telephone: +44 (0) 1635 693 693

Email: ukmediarelations@vodafone.com

Twitter: @VodafoneUKNews

Website: https://vodafone.co.uk/newscentre/

Vodafone Limited

Registered Office: Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2FN

Registered in England No: 1471587