50% boost for Eir services on Christmas Day
With the shadow of Covid looming large this Christmas, staying connected with loved ones took on a new importance, and this is reflected in the latest set of statistics from Eir, which recorded a staggeriing 50% increase in its mobile network data usage on Christmas Day, compared to the same time last year.
The company, which is the principal provider of fixed-line and mobile communications services in Ireland, saw "significant increases" in usage and demand for its network right across all services, including voice, data and mobile, during the four day period of December 24 to 28.
With Online streaming services now seen as an integral part of the Irish Christmas Day experience, Eir customers streamed the equivalent of almost three-quarter of a million hours (730,000) of Netflix shows on Christmas Day alone!
Overall, during the festive period (December 24 to 28) Eir recorded a 44% increase in mobile network data usage versus the same period in 2020, with the single busiest day for online services being Tuesday, December 28. Fixed broadband similarly saw a 19% surge in usage on Christmas Day this year, making this the busiest day of data usage ever recorded by the network.
Phone calls remain an inherent part of Christmas as customers connect with loved ones over the festive period, with Christmas Eve being the busiest day for a Christmas catch-up. On Christmas Eve 14.85 million minutes worth of voice calls were logged, and more than 57 million minutes of calls took place over the festive period. The demand for phone calls continue to rise with Eir recording a 7% increase in service use over the festive period this year compared to the same period in 2020.
However, the latest set of statistics from Eir shows that it wasn't just the demand for data that increased over Christmas, as new mobile handsets continued to top Christmas lists around the country – the iPhone 13 and Samsung Galaxy S21 were the most popular bill-pay handsets for Christmas 2021, while the Samsung A22 and OPPO A54 were the top selling 5G pre-pay handsets this year.
Carolan Lennon, Eir CEO said “again this year staying connected is all the more important when so many of us can’t be together. The usage trends of Eir’s network over the Christmas period provide interesting insights to help us understand the demand on different elements of the network and ensure we are delivering the best service possible for our customers. We continue to see usage increase across the board on all our services and we’re pleased to be able to support our customers in connecting during what has been a difficult Christmas for many. Eir has ambitious plans for 2022 and we look forward to continuing investing and expanding Ireland’s largest 5G network and fibre rollout programme to enhance our customer experience every day.”