There is a lot of phone calls on New Year's Eve, this year a further increase is expected due to the lockdown.
A transmission mast.
New Year's Eve makes the cellular networks glow every year. This year the lockdown creates an additional network load. At the turn of the year, mobile phone calls will be used in Austria for almost 300 years, according to the Forum Mobilkommunikation (FMK) on Wednesday.
The number of mobile call minutes will increase to around 150 million, that is to say about three times that of a “normal” day. This means that calls are made in Austria for 289 years and 4 months.
In the hours around New Year's Eve, video chats and video messages alone should ensure a mobile data volume of over 35 million gigabytes, the FMK calculated on the basis of developments in the past lockdown months. This amount of data corresponds to an HD video lasting 2,200 years.
Emergency calls are prioritized
Emergency calls would be recognized and automatically prioritized even if a radio cell were to reach its capacity limit on New Year's Eve, according to the FMK. “This means that with basically good mobile phone coverage, a secure connection to the fire department (122 without area code), police (133 without area code) and ambulance (144 without area code) can be established.”
If the home network is not available, the nearest police control center can be reached with the Euro emergency number 112 (without area code), provided any network is within range.
