Zen Internet Sees UK Network Traffic Dip Over Christmas and New Year

UK ISP Zen Internet has today kindly shared with us some data from their network, which reveals that Internet traffic across their platform for Christmas Day was down 20% compared to the usual Sunday average and their peak bandwidth was down over 23%.

We should point out that Zen Internet have tended to be a bit more focused on the business side of the market than residential, which may mean that they’re not as reflective of domestic broadband usage as some of the largest ISPs. Traditionally business and residential usage follow opposite patterns, with business use tending to be higher during daytime working hours and lower in the evenings when most people are back at home.

Christmas Day Traffic

The following graph shows total network traffic for the average Sunday (dotted red line) vs 25-Dec (green line).

New Year’s Eve – New Year’s Day Traffic

The below graph runs from 9PM on New Year’s Eve to midday New Year’s Day (green) vs normal (dotted black line) for the same period.

The NYE/NYD graph shows lower than normal traffic on NYE, followed by a period of relatively high traffic after midnight (i.e. people getting home from a night out), and then a very slow pick up of traffic back to normal levels the following morning.