How Swifties sucked up 15,000 hours of video data

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has not only broken records for being the highest-grossing music tour of all time, but the pop superstar is challenging telco records too, after Swifties used around 35 terabytes of data during her Melbourne shows last weekend.

Speaking to journalists to preview Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Telstra’s executive in charge of technology development and innovation, Channa Seneviratne, revealed that Swift’s stadium shows had posed a unique challenge for the telco.

Taylor Swift fans consumed the data equivalent of 15,500 hours of video across the three nights she played in Melbourne. Credit: Getty

Telstra’s data showed that Taylor Swift fans used about 200 per cent more data than other major concerts at the MCG, consuming the equivalent of 15,500 hours of video across the three nights in Melbourne. With that same amount of data, fans could stream Swift’s Eras Tour concert film on repeat for 1.7 years.

“You have to say it’s a challenge. When you have 96,000 people in a stadium, it’s problematic,” Seneviratne said.

“One of the other key things to understand is that we design coverage for people sitting in the stands, it’s not catered for people in the field. There’s not normally football players walking around the field on their phones. So that’s a challenge.”

Telstra said for Swift’s Sydney shows at Accor Stadium, the telco would provide COWs (Cell-On-Wheels) to boost bandwidth. The insights formed part of Telstra’s briefing ahead of Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest trade show for all things mobile, which kicks off in Barcelona on Monday.

The influx of Taylor Swift fans posed a challenge for telcos.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady will be in Barcelona for the show, as will Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and Louise Hyland, chief executive of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA).

“I’m very pleased to lead the Australian delegation to the 2024 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,” Rowland said.

“The congress is an important opportunity to meet with telecommunications vendors and regulators to learn all we can about the development and deployment of temporary disaster roaming and how best to modernise the universal service obligation”.

Telstra is expected to announce a number of new network features, including a world-first high-speed capacity link to King Island in Victoria, which the telco says will provide a tenfold capacity boost to the island’s community.

The upgrade, in partnership with networking giant Ericsson, will make King Island home to Australia’s longest over-water microwave telecommunications link. The project was funded through a $9.8 million joint investment by the Australian government, Telstra, the Tasmanian government, and King Island Council.

A new collaboration between Telstra, Nokia and Amazon Web Services will also lead to further network resilience and reliability in the event of unplanned outages, according to the companies involved.

“I expect network resilience will be a key theme of Mobile World Congress,” AWS executive Jayanth Nagarajan told this masthead. “The trial [with Telstra] will provide continuity of voice services during certain unplanned network interruptions, vital for both industry customers and also everyday consumers.

“From a telco industry perspective, I’m also expecting to see many examples of major global telcos (including from Asia, and certainly Australia) showcase how they are evolving with a focus on automation and agility to serve customers better.”

AMTA chief Louise Hyland said the Mobile World Congress was an opportunity for the Australian mobile industry to show off its work on an international stage.

“The congress will cover important topics including the evolution of 5G and the pivotal role that 5G technology plays in Industry 4.0, the spectrum needed for 6G networks, and whether 2024 is the year of the AI-centric telco,” she said.

Here’s what else to expect from Barcelona:

Australian start-ups on show

Australian start-up Cortical Labs, creator of the “DishBrain”, will be on the ground pitching its futuristic technology to conferencegoers.

Last April, Cortical Labs raised $US10 million to help develop “DishBrain”, which combines living brain cells with computing devices to create machines with biological intelligence.

Dr Hon Weng Chong, founder of Cortical Labs, is set to bring biological computers to pharmaceutical companies.Credit: Elke Meitzel

In 2022, the Melbourne-based team showed that 800,000 brain cells living in a dish could play the computer game Pong.

Samsung’s Galaxy ring

Korean tech giant Samsung has kept tight-lipped about what features its Galaxy Ring will offer, so details have been hard to come by. What we can expect is for the futuristic device to feature health metrics, fitness tracking and sleep tracking along with contactless payments. Think of the Galaxy Ring as a smartwatch ... just far smaller and for your finger instead of your wrist. The Galaxy Ring has been tipped for a July launch and will come in three colours: silver, dark grey and gold.

Lenovo’s transparent laptop

Multinational tech giant Lenovo is widely rumoured to turn heads in Barcelona with a new transparent laptop concept, around a month after manufacturers including LG and Samsung wowed the tech press with transparent TVs in Las Vegas.

A leak last week revealed the device, which apparently boasts dual screens with a touch-sensitive keyless keyboard, along with support for a stylus.

A new foldable phone from Motorola

Almost every major phone manufacturer except for Apple has been experimenting with foldable phones recently, including Motorola, whose Razr flip phone dates back to 2004. Its latest device, codenamed Glory, is expected to be released in the first half of 2024 and will likely offer AI capabilities and extended battery life.

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