Soccer watching Gangnam style: Seoul CBD's LTE traffic up 73 percent
The group H match between South Korea and Russia at the Brazil world cup caused a surge in traffic on long-term evolution (LTE) networks in downtown Seoul where fans gathered to cheer on their heroes, a local telco reported.
ZDNet staff in Sydney, Australia can attest to Korean fervour as a big screen at our local mall was swarmed by excited Korean soccer fans.
According to SK Telecom, Korea's largest mobile carrier, data traffic at Gangnam and Gwanghwamun districts during match time surged 73 percent from the previous week.
“We believe the higher-than-usual traffic during this time was caused by people watching the game through their sports broadcasting apps and search engines,” said a SK spokesperson.
However, traffic in subways showed a surprising decrease of 37 percent from the week before. Despite expectations people would watch the game on the subway during rush hour via their mobile devices, SK believes they went to work early to watch the match at the office, or their working hours were postponed for the game.
SK vowed to better support radio stations and increase network capacity for future matches in metropolitan areas where people gather for "road cheers".
SK Telecom is a major Korean business with reported annual revenue of 16.6 trillion won ($16.2 billion) and net profits of 1.6 trillion won ($1.56 billion) in its last annual report.
Meanwhile, South Korea and Russia drew (1-1) the first match of Group H.
Source: ZDNet Korea (zdnet.co.kr)