The average Virgin Media UK household had five different internet-enabled gadgets connected to their network on Christmas day.
Data released by the ultrafast broadband provider shows that between 5pm and 10pm on Christmas day there were 24 million devices being used on the Virgin Media UK network across almost 4.5 million active broadband connections. The peak number of devices connected occurred at 10pm on Christmas day with the majority of devices used being smartphones connected via Wi-Fi.
The number of internet-enabled devices has grown significantly in the past decade, as homes and businesses are increasingly connected to multiple devices simultaneously. In February 2015, 60 per cent of Virgin Media customers had at least three devices connected to their home broadband, up from 37 per cent in 2014.
Data usage on the Virgin Media network is growing at a rate of around 60 per cent every year which, if this trend continues, will be 10,000 per cent higher in 10 years.