02.01.2020
New Year's Eve 2019/2020:New record values on New Year's Eve herald decade of mobile communications
The decade of mobile communications is starting with new records and an outstanding firework of data. On New Year's Eve 2019/20, customers in the O2 network consumed more data than ever before. In the first hour of the new year (0-1 o'clock) alone, around 190,000 GB of data flowed through the O2 mobile network - a new record! This means that at the turn of the year around one and a half times as much data was used as in the previous year. The number of New Year's greetings per call also increased on the two days at the turn of the year.
These record figures show that mobile communications are more important than ever for German consumers. Millions of customers networked via the O2 network on New Year's Eve to send each other greetings, messages, pictures and videos. The network played to its full potential even during such peak periods of usage and reliably transmitted the countless congratulations. So the new year can begin.
New Year greetings via messaging services let data shoot up
Punctually after midnight, O2 customers sent numerous New Year messages and congratulations by phone, SMS, WhatsApp or via social media. Data usage from 0 to 1 a.m. was the equivalent of around 53 GB per second. This means that almost twice as much data flowed through the O2 network as on a regular, average day (around 31.8 GB per second).
The biggest driver of data usage on New Year's Eve was the numerous messaging services and social media platforms. The field was led by WhatsApp, followed by Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.
Berliners are party kings when it comes to data usage
At the start of the decade of mobile telephony, people in large cities in particular were having a real blast. The capital Berlin secured the top position in data usage in the first hour of the new year with 16,300 GB (previous year: 11,000 GB). Astonishingly, more than a twelfth of the total data usage in Germany is attributable to customers in Berlin. Next in line are Hamburg (7,250 GB; previous year: 4,780 GB), Munich (5,500 GB; previous year: 3,800 GB), Cologne (4,650 GB; previous year: 3,310 GB), Frankfurt (3,150 GB; previous year: 2,170 GB), Düsseldorf (2,600 GB; previous year: 1,650 GB) and Stuttgart (2,300 GB; previous year: 1,560 GB).
And that was only the first hour of 2020. If you add up the nationwide data consumption on New Year's Eve (31.12.2019) and New Year's Day (1.1.2020), the transferred data volume was around 5.6 million gigabytes. In the previous year it was just under 3.4 million gigabytes, at the turn of the year 2017/18 it was 2.3 million gigabytes.
Millions of calls for personal New Year greetings
For many people, personal contact with their loved ones still comes first on New Year's Eve. Almost 180 million telephone calls were made on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, which is almost 20 million more than in the same period last year. The number of telephone calls made via the O2 network in the first hour of the new year was around 13.3 million, this time below the previous year's figure (16 million). The New Year's greetings were short, as on average only about one and a half minutes were spent on the phone - before the New Year's Eve party hopefully continued cheerfully into the early hours of the morning.
Network expansion roadmap for 2020 is fixed
The start of the new year also marks the beginning of a further, enormous network expansion programme in the O2 network. Telefónica Deutschland will ensure that millions of consumers in Germany have an even better network in 2020 and will be able to use the new 5G mobile phone standard for the first time this year. As part of the nationwide LTE expansion, the company is focusing on densifying the network in cities and providing additional LTE (4G) capacity. In rural areas, LTE expansion will be pushed forward across the country to make the mobile communications standard available everywhere.
At the same time, a new era is dawning for many O2 customers: Telefónica Deutschland is starting to build the 5G network, which will enable private and business customers to enjoy higher speeds, more capacity and intelligent networking of their digital devices in future. In this way, the company wants to meet the constantly growing demand for mobile data. The 5G roll-out will start in the five largest German cities Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Frankfurt. By the end of 2022, 30 cities with a total of 16 million inhabitants are to be covered. At the same time, the company will be able to expand 5G nationwide in terms of projects and applications, for example within the framework of industrial cooperation.