Incredibly, the average Virgin Media UK household had five different internet-enabled gadgets connected to their network on Christmas day, with the highest number of devices connecting at 10pm.
Our data analysts tell us that between 5pm and 10pm on Christmas day there were 24 million devices being used on the Virgin Media UK network across almost 4.5 million active broadband connections – that’s over 98% of our broadband customers online*. The majority of devices used were smartphones connected via Wi-Fi.
| Active Broadband Connections** | Active Devices | |
| Christmas Day 2015 17:00 - 22:00 | 4,528,884 | 23,882,938 |
| Boxing Day 2015 10:00 - 12:00 | 4,068,491 | 20,838,918 |
But does this mean we were being less social, staring at our screen all day?
Or were we actually just having a smarter Christmas than ever before?
There’s so many ways that we could spend time online, without really realising it.
- A quick blast on the new Star Wars Battlefront game Santa brought you
- "Siri: How long does it take to roast potatoes?"
- A roaring log-fire streaming to your TV from YouTube
- The video call with your relatives in the North / South / Australia
And not forgetting those of us who used catch up services to watch Doctor Who on iPlayer, or A Very Murray Christmas on Netflix - or just talked to friends on Snapchat, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger….
In February 2015, 60% of Virgin Media customers had at least three devices connected to their home broadband, which was up from 37 per cent in 2014.
It’s no surprise that this Christmas we saw this number increase. After all, its the perfect opportunity to make the most of tech, and use it to make the day easier and even more special.
* As of 30 September 2015 Virgin Media had 4.6 million UK broadband customers.
** Active broadband connection - measured as at least one device connected and some data transferred over the monitoring period.
