Ahead of the April 8th eclipse, Canadian telecom companies detailed how they were preparing for expected mobile traffic increases during the event. Now, Bell and Rogers say they saw five to six times more traffic in parts of Canada with the best views of the eclipse.
“Our network saw 5x the volume in high-traffic areas including Niagara, Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Brockville, Kingston, Québec City,” Bell told MobileSyrup in a statement.
The Montreal-based national carrier also confirmed that measures it put in place ahead of time allowed its network to continue running “optimally.”
“We had a dedicated team monitoring usage levels throughout the day and even had a portable cell on wheels, known as a COW, in Niagara Falls to ensure uninterrupted service and mitigate any potential impact on our customers,” Bell said.
Similarly, Rogers said its network team worked “around the clock” to handle surging traffic.
“In Niagara Falls, our network handled more than six times the amount of traffic it normally does,” Rogers said in a statement to MobileSyrup.
Rogers also said it deployed COW mobile towers and mobile trucks dubbed ‘Cell on Light Trucks’ to increase capacity. It also implemented special event configurations that adjusted coverage and traffic management at certain cell sites.
Notably, Rogers also said that it paused maintenance work that could affect network capacity, likely a good thing given just a couple of years ago, an update to Rogers’ network caused a massive, nationwide outage.
Update 04/09/2024 2:19pm ET: Rogers provided additional data on the “record-breaking” traffic its network saw from communities that were in the path of totality. The company used Monday, March 25th as a benchmark to compare to.
According to Rogers, it processed five times more 5G data on April 8th and network usage increased by six times in Niagara Falls, eight times in Montreal and two times in Kingston.
Rogers also said its customers sent three times more texts with photos or videos compared to typical volumes, while call completion volumes in key areas were within a normal range.
Additionally, the telecom said its network team “spent 7,500 total hours preparing for the eclipse.”
Telus also shared some information with MobileSyrup about how its network held up during the eclipse. It saw “five times the regular volume of data traffic and nine times the voice calls in key areas including Niagara, Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Brockville, Kingston and Quebec City.”
Moreover, Telus said its team “worked around the clock” and paused routine maintenance work while monitoring network performance throughout the event. The Vancouver-based telecom reiterated that its “massive investments” over the last few years helped ensure network infrastructure was up to the task.
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