Business Internet services provider, CI-Net, saw Internet bandwidth demand almost triple at 3pm yesterday, as workers around the country logged on from their PCs to watch England beat Slovenia (1-0) in its make-or-break final World Cup group match.

 

Oxford based CI-Net which provides over 3000 business Internet connections to firms around the country had ‘marked out’ the game for a big expected upsurge as soon as the World cup fixtures were announced.

 

“We knew bandwidth demand would be high, but not as high as that,” said MD, Graham McLean. “The possibility of England going out if we lost, and the fact that we led by such a slim margin throughout the game, must have increased the interest, and meant many people stayed watching right to the end.”

 

The company had been planning for the upsurge for a number of weeks in the run up to the match.  Preparations included moving a large number of its customers onto BT’s new, faster 21st Century Network, and doubling the available Internet bandwidth it allocates to this service.  Business subscribers who were using other connections, such as the BT Max ADSL service, were also given a greater allocation of bandwidth to cope with the expected spike in usage.

 

“As a business Internet provider, it’s our job to predict this type of event and take precautions so our customers aren’t affected.  Despite the huge interest in the game, there were still people who needed fast reliable Internet connections to carry on working.  Thankfully we were able make sure they could,” concluded McLean.

 

Click here for more details of our Internet services