By: MarkJ - 13 October, 2011 (6:13 AM) - Score: 2432

Apple's release last night of its new iOS5 software (firmware) update for their popular iPhone and iPad devices has triggered a surge in internet traffic as users from across the UK and around the world logged on to download the latest update.

ISP Vispa Internet last night reported that "almost 17% of [our] network is being consumed by customers downloading apple ios5". Meanwhile the London Access Point (LONAP), a neutral not-for-profit Internet Exchange Point based in London, noted a "massive amount of extra traffic" in its graph for Wednesday (below).


As you might expect the impact was at its strongest amongst UK home broadband providers because the release coincided with most people being home from work. Sadly the heavy demand was also enough to cause serious problems for Apple's servers, with the related Error 3200 message initially preventing many attempts to upgrade. Sometimes it pays to be patient.