Penza, 14 January 2015. PenzaNews. Cellular network of “MegaFon” service provider successfully withstood record-breaking load of millions of voice calls and text messages without any interruption despite a 33% increase in demand, the head of the Penza branch of MegaFon Volga Alexei Bryukhachev told PenzaNews agency.

“During the peak time – from 18.00 of December 31 to 3.00 of January 1 – the Penza region MegaFon customers used over 7.5 million minutes of voicecalls – 20% more than last year. They also sent 2 million text messages and used over 14 terabytes of traffic,” said the agency interlocutor.

According to him, this year’s cellphone network load increased all over the country: MegaFon customers sent 7 times more messages and made 2.5 more calls than usual.

“The records in mobile web access were set by the Moscow region and the Volga Federal Districts: MegaFon customers in these departments downloaded and uploaded over 500 Tb of data,” Alexei Bryukhachev noted.

According to the mobile service provider, this New Year night showed up to 33% of growth in mobile traffic demand. At the same time, its 3G use grew almost by 30%.

Moreover, the 4G traffic volume grew by almost 50%, thanks to active development of the new network type that is now available in 72 Russian regions.

According to Evgeny Chermashentsev, infrastructure director of MegaFon, the previous New Year celebration was not marked by great expand.

“This year, we thought web traffic will grow due to expanded 4G coverage and sharp increase in numbers of smartphones and tablets. We undertook a series of upgrades to ensure constant Internet access. As a result, our clients in all parts of the country could freely exchange photos or send their good wishes through social networks online,” he stressed.

According to MegaFon, text messages became especially popular this year: their numbers exceeded normal stats by 7 times.

At the same time, voice calls were no less in demand: over 310 million calls were made during 18.00 of December 31 and 6.00 of January 1, which is 2.5 times more than usual.

While there were only 75% as many calls as the previous New Year, the calls were in average 40% longer, with overall 545 million minutes of voice connection in total.

Voice call records this New Year were set by the Volga and Caucasus branches of MegaFon, Who in total used over 235 million minutes of connection time.