Taylor Swift isn’t the only one breaking records in Toronto, as her fandom now holds the title of highest amount of mobile data used at a single event in Rogers Centre’s history.
Rogers Communications said fans who attended Taylor Swift’s sold-out Nov. 21 Eras Tour concert in Toronto shattered the new traffic record by streaming and sharing content on Rogers 5G network, using 7.4 terabytes (TB) of mobile data in just a few hours — a total of 5G data usage equivalent to streaming Swift’s entire discography 6,300 times, or to uploading 182,000 photos and 1,600 hours worth of streaming videos.
Rogers said a smashing sum of 42 TB of wireless data was used by Swifties at all six shows on the Rogers 5G network at Rogers Centre.
Bell and Telus, meanwhile, reported that their customers who attended each of the first three Toronto Eras Tour shows used five times more mobile data than the average wireless data usage at other similar concerts and sporting events, and data upload volumes were up by seven to 10 times above the average at other large-scale events.
The record comes after Rogers completed an $8-million project in October to improve cell service at the stadium for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which not only was a six-show sold-out stint that the city expected to bring more than $282 million into the economy and up to 500,000 visitors, but also showcased Swift’s unparalleled success, becoming the first act to perform six shows at the downtown stadium on one tour stop.
Before finishing the 5G network updates, the previous record of 5.4 TB of data usage was held by fans at singer Diljit Dosanjh’s July concert at the stadium. Rogers said the upgrades have let Swifties experience download speeds 2.7 times faster and upload speeds 3.8 times faster than fans at Dosanjh’s show.
“Our network at Rogers Centre saw more traffic every night of the tour than any other event,” said Mark Kennedy, chief technology officer at Rogers.
The media and communications company said it incorporated 27 teams across its networking and IT crew to monitor the 5G performance and to identify and resolve any possible issues at the venue as well as surrounding areas within a one-kilometre radius.
Taylor Swift wrapped up her massive Rogers Centre residency on Saturday with an emotional speech to her Toronto fans as she shed and wiped away tears noting that fans gave her and her team a “moment that we’ll never forget.”
The global popstar’s final stop on her The Eras Tour will take her to Vancouver for three shows in December.
Enhancing service, Rogers said, took 6,000 hours of labour to plan the cell network upgrades and an additional 10,000 hours to install equipment including new antennas around the 500 level and on the roof, pointing downwards at the concert floor, as well as gear in the concourse to accommodate data usage needs throughout the stadium.
With files from Mark Colley
