MEDIA RELEASE - Vodafone saw a remarkable increase in data traffic during the DHL New Zealand Lions Series, reaching its highest peak during kick off of the final Test between the British & Irish Lions and the All Blacks.

At that moment, the network inside the stadium carried almost 50 gigabytes of traffic – roughly two and a half times as much data traffic when compared to the All Blacks and Wales Test match in 2016.

Vodafone’s Head of Networks Sharina Nisha said, “At special events like these we know the network is going to see more action but it’s always amazing to see just how much the data use surges year on year.”

Fans watching the second Test live in Wellington on July 1st used twice as much data compared to last year’s Investec Super Rugby Final.

“It just goes to show how much we love to share our experiences online and on social media at live events like rugby – we don’t see these trends stopping anytime soon,” Sharina said.

In the lead up to and during the tour, Vodafone’s technology team added extra capacity at key sites around the country, like fan zones and stadiums.

They also had a special team of engineers on site at Vodafone’s offices during the live matches to ensure the network could be optimised in real time to react to fans’ ever changing network usage trends.

The total recorded mobile data traffic at stadiums and Fan Zones during the DHL New Zealand Lions Series came in at 2940 gigabytes – equivalent to just over 1 million selfie uploads to Facebook.