Last year the whole world was wrapped up in World Cup fever for Russia 2018. Many conversations were had with customers around what peaks were expected during the final rounds and making sure there was sufficient bandwidth to support it. This year when the topic was raised it was met with a consistent response of “We aren’t worried about the Women’s World Cup. People aren’t that interested in women’s football.”
At iBASIS we were always interested in women’s football. With our main offices in the USA and the Netherlands, we had high expectations of our two home teams. Attitudes changed very quickly as subscribers found themselves hooked on the games, particularly as the last rounds approached. We saw roaming peaks completely in line with the equivalent games in the men’s tournament, coming to a head with an almost doubling of the GRX traffic for Dutch networks and 10 to 20% increases seen across many of our customers for the 90 mins of the game.
Overall iBASIS traffic increased 26% during the match and despite roaming season only beginning we surpassed the data usage peak of last summer. We are looking forward to seeing what other events will bring unexpected highs this summer. But here at iBASIS, nothing is unexpected, as we are fully prepared and ready to enable our customers to give their roamers a Summer experience they will never forget.