ISPs are reporting an increase in broadband traffic as users tune in to watch Election coverage online. Eclipse Internet saw a surge of nearly 200% last night according to ISPreview
"In what's been one the most controversial elections the UK has seen, it's clear that UK voters are desperate to see what the outcome is and are turning online at work to do so. Clearly, the outcome of the election is of real interest for businesses across the UK, so people at work are keen to watch closely what unfolds and the live streaming online allows this."
Clodagh Murphy, (Director) Eclipse Internet
A similar story is reported by business ISP Timico who have seen a 33% increase in traffic this afternoon.
"Noon-time traffic on Timico's ADSL network is up approx 25% on the same time yesterday. This percentage seems to be reasonably constant for all major online events. Similar burst have been seen in the past for the Olympics, the Ashes Cricket, US President Obama's inauguration and the last budget speech. Video streaming almost exclusively acocunts for the increase today..
2 hours later – traffic growth is now up by 33%. In my experience this is a record for an event."
Trefor Davies, (CTO) Timico
Similar high usage is being reported by other ISPs such as AAISP recording an unprecedented peak in load. The BBC are also reporting a high level of usage with more than 5 million users accessing the BBC news website between midnight and 11:20am.
New-media, such as Facebook and Twitter have also been running wild, but mainly with political enthusiasts debating between each other. This is largely amongst the younger generation however, and a YouGov survey reported that a quarter of 18-24 year olds had commented on politics on social networks. Rory Cellan-Jones discusses this in more detail in his blog.
youngsters I have spoken to lately have said they have voted, whereas at the last election they didn't, I think social media is stimulating awareness of politics amongst younger folk. Also the increase in webphones, people log in when waiting for a bus, train or on a journey. All this has come to pass in the last five years. I wonder if the next five will bring us ubiquitous connectivity?