Cellphone data use jumped during bicentennial events

If you gave your cellphone’s data plan a workout during last weekend’s Star-Spangled Spectacular events, you weren’t the only one. Leading mobile service providers AT&T and Verizon said they saw significant increases in data usage in and around Fort McHenry and the Inner Harbor over the weekend. Verizon reported a 60 percent increase in data usage in that area from Friday to Sunday compared with the same weekend in 2013. AT&T added additional capacity using special equipment in and around the festivities. AT&T said the Star-Spangled weekend indicates the way Americans are continuing to increase their data usage. Data traffic has increased 30,000 percent nationwide in the past six years as video and other data-heavy applications become more commonplace, the company said. Drawing information from just the additional equipment, AT&T said attendees to the Star-Spangled 200 celebration used more than123 gigabytes of data from Friday through Sunday. The data usage was the equivalent of more than 400 hours of streaming HD video, AT&T said. AT&T declined to provide additional data usage information, but said the regular network near the events did experience a “substantial” jump in data usage. Tuesday announcing the closing, the company said it “strives to ensure the success of all its stores.” The release said the company did not plan to announce any other closings.

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