TalkTalk Customers Switched off the Internet on Christmas Day

TalkTalk broadband subscribers finally looked up from their screens and switched off Netflix—temporarily. The budget ISP is reporting that traffic on its networks was down on Christmas Day compared to the average Wednesday.

Traffic on TalkTalk's network peaks at 5.876Tbps (terabits per second) on the first Wednesday of December, according to figures released to ISPreview. But on Christmas, traffic fell to 4.107Tbps, as internet users swapped out social media and video games for a bit of holiday human interaction.

Broadband traffic was up compared to last Christmas, however, when TalkTalk users gobbled up just 3.35Tbps. The increase reflects an overall 30% to 40% inflation of traffic across the year, as users stream more and more high definition video content.

However, by Boxing Day we’d all retreated behind our screens again, lured away from family and festivities by television box sets and football matches. Traffic peaked at 5.553Tbps, above the 5.217Tbps logged on the first normal Thursday of this month, and the average from Boxing Day last year (3.795Tbps).

Lauren Smith

Lauren Smith has worked as a journalist and copywriter for most of the last decade, covering technology, energy, and consumer rights, in the US and UK.

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