iOS 8 Downloads Cause Busiest Ever Day On Virgin Media’s Network

Virgin Media has given some insight into the popularity of iOS 8, reporting that yesterday was the busiest ever day on its superfast broadband network.

iOS 8 was rolled out to compatible devices at around 6pm yesterday evening and resulted in a ten percent week-on-week jump in traffic – equivalent to the 920MB update being downloaded 600,000 times. The total amount of download data between 6pm and midnight was 5900 terabytes.

iOS 8 download

“From what we’ve seen so far, the release of iOS 8 has driven more internet traffic than previous updates, with increased demand likely to last until the weekend,” says Martin Groundsell, head of broadband access at Virgin Media. “Even though the iOS 8 release has generated the biggest download day so far, our fastest customers have been downloading iOS 8 in as little as 61 seconds at peak times with no major problems reported.”

The Liberty Global-owned firm claims users on its 50Mbps service were able to get iOS 8 within 2 minutes 44 seconds, with those on 100Mbps getting it within 1 minute 22 seconds and customers on 152Mbps completed the download within 1 minute 1 second.

But some are even using Virgin Media’s London Underground Wi-Fi to download the update, claiming it is faster than their home broadband. The Tube’s wireless network has also given an indication of just how quickly iPhone users adopt new versions of iOS, with 13 percent of all Apple mobile devices connected to the network now running iOS 8 less than 24 hours after its release.

iOS 8 is available for the iPhone 4S or later, the iPad 2 or later, the iPad Mini and the fifth generation iPod Touch, but the launch has been overshadowed slightly by the fact that the Health app has had to be pulled due to an unspecified flaw. iOS 8 will also ship with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus which launch in the UK tomorrow.

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