Dutch internet traffic peaks on Sunday

In the Netherlands it is Easter Sunday. Having chased the bunnies and searched the Easter eggs, everyone is back behind the computer. At least, that is the trend since the beginning of 2006, according to a press release of the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX).

In 2005 the Monday was the day with the most internet traffic of the week days, while during the Sundays 50 to 60 Gbps were processed. But since the beginning the peak of the traffic has shifted to the Sunday with a peak of 140 Gbps.

Also the pattern of the traffic has changed. Was there a sharp peak on Monday morning, on Sunday the traffic is spread over the whole day. On Sunday there is a steady growth of internet users from 8:00h till 14.00h and from 21:00h the number of interactive internet users start to decrease. Job Witteman, CEO of AMS-IX speculates that this change in internet traffic has come about due to the broadband penetration.

On Sundays the Dutch were used to go to church, have their Sunday dinner in the early afternoon and go walking or visit a soccer game, now they game online, download, chat and phone via internet. Times change.

If you want to see whether Easter Sunday is going to be different, have a look at http://www.ams-ix.net/technical/stats/.

This was the graph on Easter monday morning. Click on the illustration to enlarge it and look at the right hump. It is clear that more people stayed on internet last night in the Netherlands, as Easter monday is a free day.

Tags: Internet traffic