According to Sky, the Diamond Jubilee united Britons in giving broadband a break.
The ISP found that last weekend traffic fell by a fifth – even though the weather was nothing but rainy and miserable.
Sky’s research established that Sunday was the day when Brits found something else to do other than browse the internet as web usage fell by 20 per cent – based on a study of 3.9m households.
Normally, the provider suggested, wet and cold weather brings 15 per cent extra Internet surfers.
Brits also preferred joining the Jubilee festivities on Monday as families spent their evening watching the Jubilee concert on television – thus away from their trusty iPods, iPads, laptops and desktop computers.
Sky found that the nation returned online on Tuesday – no doubt thanks to the rain – as the lacking 20 per cent went back to surfing the web again.
Lyssa McGowan, Director of Communications Products at Sky, commented on the temporary dip:
“Like the surge in electricity demand as the nation put the kettle on during half-time of the Champions League Final, internet usage has become a barometer of the country’s activities.
“In spite of the weather, millions of people either tuned into their television or braved the rain to attend street parties. It will be fascinating to see what impact the summer’s sporting events will have on web and app usage.”
I think the 20% of users who stopped using their Sky broadband connection were using the T-Mobile mobile broadband network which virtually became unusable in London over the Jubilee weekend. I hope this isn’t what i can expect when the Olympics comes to town.