London,
27
June
2017
|
09:53
Europe/London

Glastonbury 2017: A record year of 4G sharing with more data used than ever before

  • Revellers at Glastonbury Festival used a whopping 54 terabytes of data via EE’s powerful 4G network – more than double the amount of last year’s event
  • More mobile capacity than ever before was installed at Worthy Farm and surrounding fields to handle the unprecedented demand for data as Festival-goers embraced the latest live streaming technologies including Facebook Live and Instagram Stories
  • The official Glastonbury Festival app from EE was accessed over 5.9 million times during the festival – seeing nearly 50% more usage than in 2016

Glastonbury Festival has broken records to become the most shared live event of 2017 to date with a massive 54 terabytes of data used across the five day event. EE, the official technology and communications partner, analysed how the network was used across the Festival, and found that this year beat all previous records as recent development of video applications such as Facebook Live, Snapchat Stories and Instagram Stories drove massive amounts of data usage on the 4G network. Over nine terabytes of this data was used for uploading content – up from five terabytes last year – as fans shared more pictures and videos of their Glastonbury experiences than ever before.

This year’s Festival at Worthy Farm saw data usage increase by 116 per cent compared to last year. The 54 terabytes of data used across the 900 acre site is equivalent to 560 million Instagram selfies, 5.6 million minutes (or 10.6 years) of Facebook Live video streaming, 13.5 million1 downloads of Sunday’s Pyramid Stage headliner Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’ and almost 850,000 downloads of his latest studio album, ‘Divide’.

Research conducted before the festival revealed that 42 per cent of festival-goers have previously lost their tent, an experience which no doubt contributed to 48,000 map location pins dropped via the official Glastonbury app from EE – 20 per cent more than in 2016. The app was accessed a total of 5.9 million times during the festival as 175,000 users accessed it an average of 33 times each. Tracks from artists playing at Glastonbury Festival were listened to over 430,000 times thanks to new Apple Music integration and the most popular day to do this was Friday as people planned their Festival itinerary.

BBC Music coverage was streamed via the app 33,600 times. The Pyramid Stage was the most popular stage with 14,300 streams via the app across the Festival, however the most popular performance was from the John Peel Stage at 5pm on Sunday when The Killers descended for a secret set.

EE once again installed the world’s largest and most powerful temporary 4G network on site to meet the data demands of customers at Glastonbury. This year also saw a permanent mast installed on site as part of EE’s ambition to increase 4G coverage across the UK, reaching 95% of UK landmass by 2020.

Mat Sears, Director of Communications and Sponsorship at EE said: “Once again Glastonbury firmly cements itself as one of the biggest and most exciting music events on the planet – and people want to share their experiences when they’re there. We do everything to ensure our 4G network can handle that demand. 54 terabytes of data is an extraordinary amount, but with video applications like Facebook Live, Instagram Stories and Snapchat Stories in the palm of every festival-goer’s hand, we can only see this number increasing at each event. This year, as part of our ambition to cover 95% of the UK landmass with 4G, we’ve installed a permanent mast on site to keep the area around Worthy Farm connected all year round.”

For more information on EE’s partnership with the Glastonbury Festival, please visit ee.co.uk/Glastonbury.

- ENDS -

For more information, please contact the EE press team at M&C Saatchi PR:

eeglasto@mcsaatchi.com / 0207 544 3600

1 Based on an average of 4MB to download one song

About EE

EE, part of BT Group, is the largest and most advanced mobile communications company in the UK, delivering mobile and fixed communications services to consumers.

EE runs the UK's biggest and fastest mobile network, having pioneered the UK's first superfast 4G mobile service in October 2012 and was the first European operator to surpass 14 million 4G customers in December 2015. EE has more than 550 shops across the UK. EE's 4G coverage extends to 80% of the UK’s landmass (equal to more than 99% of the UK population) and EE plans to extend 4G to 95% geographic coverage by 2020.

EE has received extensive independent recognition, including being ranked the UK's best overall network by RootMetrics®; Best Network at the 2014 and 2015 Mobile News Awards; Best Consumer Network at the 2015 & 2016 Mobile Industry Awards; as well as Fastest Network at the 2014 and 2016 uSwitch Mobile Awards.

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