Taylor Swift, The Eras Tour, and the Challenges of Stadium Connectivity
The amount of mobile data generated by eager audiences as The Eras Tour hit the UK gives a fascinating insight into network connectivity at large events.
The Taylor Swift phenomenon continues to push the boundaries even further. She has just completed the first stage of her London Wembley occupancy having played three consecutive nights at the stadium before she returns back to the capital in August for another five dates.
All the numbers associated with her current The Eras Tour are large ones. It is the highest-grossing tour of all time and the first to pass the $1bn mark. It kicked off in Arizona last year and, by the time it finishes, will have encompassed 152 shows spanning five continents.
The UK leg, as elsewhere, has focused on stadiums and all dates —Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff — have sold out. The boost to the local economies from everyone attending has been well documented, the uptick reaching way beyond simple ticket sales and onto hotels, spending on food and beverages, merchandise, transport, and everything else.
I was there on the Sunday night. As well as admiring her long and illustrious career, songwriting and creativity, the stamina to perform for three hours is astounding to witness. The huge stage, the swarm of dancers, and superb audio and lightning only fuel the excitement. This is much more than a concert; it is a genuine event and a significant cultural moment.
Beyond the sheer cultural impact, the tour also represents a huge step for connectivity and showcases the robustness of modern mobile networks. I reached out to the UK telecom operators and collated some of the network data they shared from her UK dates so far.
Edinburgh (Murrayfield)
Vodafone average total traffic: 1.26 TB
Three UK total traffic: 3.22 TB
EE data
Swifties used more than 3.8 TB of mobile data
During the opening night at Murrayfield, the peak of fans uploading content to social media via EE was just after 9pm as Taylor sang TikTok favourite August
In attendance were 20,000 international fans, with Murrayfield seeing more visitors roaming on EE’s network from the US than any other nation, closely followed by France, Canada, Spain, Norway, Ireland, and the Netherlands
When looking at the demographic of the Swifties in attendance, two-thirds of those were female, with the majority of them aged between 25-34 (who made up around a third of the 67,000+ attendees each night)
Notable spikes in Instagram and Snapchat use
Cardiff (Principality Stadium)
Vodafone: total traffic 3.3 TB
Network data showed that compared to the two other top events at Principality Stadium for 2023 and 2024, Taylor Swift beat the data consumption at the Harry Styles and Pink concerts by 1.1 TB and 1.3 TB, respectively
Three UK total traffic: 2.45 TB
VMO2: On Tuesday, 18th June had a 12.42% increase in data volume compared to the average daily total on Tuesday, 28th May and Tuesday, 4th June
Liverpool (Anfield)
Vodafone total traffic: 1.1 TB
Three UK total traffic: 3.11 TB
London (Wembley Stadium)
Vodafone average total traffic: 3.3 TB
Three UK total traffic: 19.55 TB
EE data
More mobile data was generated on two of the nights than at this year’s UEFA Champions League Final (5.29 TB)
Friday 21st June: 5.16 TB
Saturday 22nd June: 5.57 TB
Sunday 23rd June: 5.48 TB
The Eras Tour is now the third biggest event in terms of mobile traffic at Wembley behind the Capital FM Summertime Ball 2023 and 2024 – both of which are all-day events and comprised multiple artists
Some other notable stats:
Almost 4 TB of 5G mobile data was generated in total during all three concerts
Roughly 11,000 fans (or 12%) of Wembley’s 90,000 capacity were international visitors, with the USA, Canada, France, and Spain having the highest numbers of roamers using EE
It is worth noting here that Vodafone is a digital transformation partner of Cardiff’s Principality Stadium and that Wembley is connected by EE.
On first observation it seems that the Three UK total traffic generated at Wembley exceeds the combined total for EE. While it reinforces Three UK’s position focussed on data, it seems extremely high when it does not have an equal market share with rivals. Therefore, there might be other variables at play, as it probably includes some general traffic from the surrounding area.
In fact, I’ve done some digging around on this and it is worth noting that both EE and Vodafone use a bespoke coverage system (a standard Distributed Antennae System) that measures data inside Wembley Stadium. In contrast, Three has provided network usage from macro sites around the stadium that serve the broader surrounding area, which has clearly helped record higher levels of traffic.
However, Three UK confirms that the percentage increase compared to non-concert days is notable, suggesting overwhelming traffic inside Wembley Stadium.
Connectivity a Differentiator
We are well into a key period of summer events of sports, festivals and other events. Therefore, expect to see UK telcos (and, of course, local providers in other countries) jostle for position and supremacy when it comes to highlighting the power of their network coverage.
Connectivity is proving to be a key differentiator. While all of these network stats are good with telcos promoting usage, it does not tell a complete picture. As personally experienced, there will be users who will struggle to get a signal, let alone think about posting an Insta story. In most, if not all cases, it will be because their network is not sponsoring an event or is an affiliate with the venue. For roamers, they will most likely connect automatically to the network with the strongest signal, which again is most likely to be the telecom provider sponsoring the event or associated with the venue.
In order to satisfy users’ insatiable appetite to be connected at events (there were also 80,000 people across London at the London Stadium watching The Foo Fighters on the 20th and 22nd, while 210,000 are currently congregating at Glastonbury), we should expect to see more temporary solutions emerge. This is also going to be needed to ease user frustration, given that they’ve paid for a service and expect a reasonable QoS and QoE as a result at all times.
It also raises some concerns around how well networks would manage in the event of a genuine emergency where it’s not possible to plan for surges in demand in advance. The temporary solutions deployed to date only partially address the wider issue of providing ubiquitous connectivity and the industry should be collaborating more closely to find a better outcome.
Overall, the direction of travel is clear and the latest trends clearly underline the need for more data and bandwidth. While faster speeds might not be as highly sought after as having a robust signal, the desire to share experiences is paramount and is leading to growing demand for faster uploads. People want to share their experiences in real-time and be the first to post on social media ahead of others! Unfortunately, most networks to date have been engineered for download, which is something that will need to be addressed. This is definitely a consideration for next generation infrastructure, including 6G and beyond, as technologies further converge towards one seamless network.