Voice and SMS traffic over the festive season increased when compared to previous years, but the backlogs that usually accompany high traffic volumes were minimal, according to operators.
Virgin Mobile CEO Steve Bailey says the operator saw a 10% increase in SMS traffic between Christmas 2009 and 2010, and a 17% increase between New Year 2009 and 2010. He adds that Virgin Mobile's SMS traffic totalled three million messages sent on Christmas day and New Year's day combined.
“Over the December period, Virgin Mobile saw a 19% increase in call volumes when compared to 2009. Call volumes on Christmas day increased by approximately 16%, compared to 2009, and call volumes on New Year's day increased by 24%.”
Executive head of corporate communications at Vodacom Richard Boorman says the operator saw an increase in traffic compared to last year, particularly in the number of pictures and videos that were sent via mobile devices.
“We typically transmit hundreds of millions of SMSes over the period, with traffic peaking at Christmas and New Year - and this year was no different.”
Cell C also notes an increase in voice and SMS traffic over the 2010 festive period, with volumes reaching three times the amount experienced in the same period in 2009.
MTN says its voice traffic on New Year's day was up by 14.5% and mobile originating SMS usage over the New Year improved by 5.5%. Overall, SMS usage by all applications was up 11.3% this year, and MMS usage on 31 December and 1 January was up 136%.
Festive challenges
Bailey says Virgin Mobile experienced no significant breakdowns or delays in customer messaging over December.
“We experienced minor issues and incidents over the December period. However, no serious network-related issues occurred and our contact rate remained low and stable as a result.”
Cell C attributes its challenge-free festive season to its recent network expansion, which increased capacity.
Boorman says Vodacom's network also performed well over the festive season with no major issues reported.
MTN, however, highlights a significant incident over the period. “We experienced a technical challenge in the Newlands SGSN [Serving GPRS Support Node] on 2January 2011. This is the node controlling data access for Bloemfontein, the West Rand and some areas of Johannesburg.
“All traffic was rerouted to other SGSNs, which is an extensive task and kept us extremely busy for some time.”
The operator adds that all traffic has been rerouted and all services have been fully restored at this stage.
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