eir, Ireland’s superfast broadband network, has revealed its ‘2022 Year in Data’, an annual snapshot of home broadband and mobile data usage across its national customer base across the year.
Showcasing when, where and how we use our data, the ‘2022 Year in Data’ highlights some interesting trends across the last 12 months including:
Fixed Broadband
Total broadband data usage in 2022 dropped slightly versus 2021, with 4,400 PB in 2022 vs 4,500 PB in 2021 as Covid restrictions lifted.
For the first five months of the year, data in 2022 was lower than in the same months in 2021 as customers returned to normal post Covid.
Fibre-to-the-Home broadband data increased by 37% in 2022 at 1,500 Petabytes (PB ), up from 1,100 PB in 2021.
On average, each household used just under 6,000 Gigabytes (GB ) across the 12-month period, this is equivalent to eight hours of video per day.
The record high in data usage in 2022 so far was 15.9 PB on Sunday 4th December.
Lowest data usage for fixed broadband in 2022 was on Wednesday, May 4, at 9.3 PB.
Surges in eir TV traffic occurred at several moments in the year including the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final on Sunday December 20th, the RTE Late Late Toy Show on Friday 25th, the GAA All Ireland Finals on July 17 and 24.
On average, Sunday was the highest data usage day of the week across 2022.
Weather incidents such as Storm Eunice in February saw a surge in usage as households spent more time at home.
The total broadband usage across the network (4,400PB ) is the equivalent of 220 billion hours gaming, or 13 billion hours of video chat, or 2 billion hours film streaming or 678 billion songs streamed.
Mobile Data
12 million minutes of mobile voice calls were recorded on Christmas Eve, making it the busiest day for mobile conversation as people shared festive wishes with friends and family.
Tuesday, December 27th was the busiest day for mobile data usage, as customers streamed video and music services.
The equivalent of five million movie downloads took place across the mobile network over the festive period, December 24-28, an increase of over 40% on the same period in 2021 as customers streamed entertainment on the go.
Traffic doubled across eir’s 5G network versus the same period in 2021. 5G, is the fifth generation of mobile technology that is up to 100 times faster than 4G, providing faster connectivity speeds, ultra-low latency and greater bandwidth, excellent gaming and video streaming experiences.
“At eir, we provide our customers with access to world leading technologies and the highest-quality connectivity. The ‘2022 Year in Data’ report provides interesting insights into how our customers use eir’s services, helping us to continuously innovate to ensure that we are constantlyW delivering what they need, when they need it and helping them connect throughout the year. To this end, eir is investing €250 million per annum in our network to improve speed, coverage and resilience, with 5G already available to over 530 cities and towns and full fibre broadband made available to more than 900,000 homes and businesses across the country. We are well on our way to our ultimate target of 1.9 million homes and businesses across Ireland connected with full fibre superfast broadband," eir CEO Oliver Loomes, stated.
