Instant Replay: Mobile Data Blitzing College Stadiums

College football fans are executing a high-speed offensive attack with their smartphones at stadiums across the country. With the 2015 regular season now in the record books, we crunched the mobile stats and found fans used more data than ever this past year.

To help make the handoff from our customers’ phones to the mobile network, we have a special, in-venue mobile network. And that network is in place at more than 65 venues that hosted 388 college football games this past season.*

Upon further review, here’s a closer look at how fans used our network to share the gridiron glory.

GRAB THE POPCORN.    
166 TERABYTES (TB): TOTAL MOBILE DATA USED DURING 2015 SEASON^**

That’s like watching the instant-classic, eight-lateral-pass play more than 13.5M times^***. Which would take about 188K hours. That’s a lot of football-watching, even for the most diehard fans.

LET’S SETTLE THE SCORE.
1,564GB:  FANS IN COLLEGE STATION, TX USED THE MOST DATA IN A SINGLE GAME

The most-talked about game in college football based on mobile usage alone, took place on Oct. 17, in College Station. The crowd had its selfie game rolling when its squad took on a crimson conference rival. Data usage at the game was equal to about 4.4M stadium selfies…that’s a lot of snaps.

BANNER YEAR.   
ANNUAL DATA USAGE CLIMBS 65-PERCENT, SETS NEW RECORD

Fans set their smartphones to quick-huddle mode this year, using 65% more data than in 2014. Data usage jumped from 100TB to 166TB – a new record. Data usage in ’15 was enough to fill the smartphones of 10,384 college football fans^****. These smartphones would stretch more than 15 football fields and stack taller than 35 stadiums^*****.

CONFERENCE CLASH.    
THE SOUTH STUFFS THE DATA SCOREBOARD

In college conferences competition is fierce. But, fans also take pride in the coalition they belong to. We pitted the Power 5 conferences against each other to see which one has the most tech-savvy fans. When the dust settled, the South emerged with the title…and the bragging rights.

AND THE TITLE GOES TOO…    
IF THE PLAYOFF WERE DECIDED BY MOBILE METRICS

Based on average data use per game at the playoff teams’ home venues, the championship game will pit the club from Norman, OK against the folks from Tuscaloosa, AL. And if data usage is any indicator, the fans in the crimson and white will be celebrating yet again on Jan. 11.

• Tuscaloosa, AL – avg. 1,092GB/game
• Norman, OK – avg. 1,023GB/game
• Clemson, SC – avg. 998GB/game
• East Lansing, MI – avg. 237GB/game