Consumers need 5GB of data to follow their team to Euro 2016 final
It has been estimated that a football fan following a team to the final of this year’s Euro 2016 competition will be using around 5GB of data. This is if the fan is using his or her mobile phone or tablet to stream matches.
This estimate has been worked out by the Carphone Warehouse Geek Squad, the in-store repair experts. They state that for every minute of a match that the user streams through catch-up services such as BBC iPlayer or ITV Player, around 5.83MB of data is used.
The Euro 2016 tournament has already started, and teams from all over Europe are taking part. Each team will play three games in the initial group stages, and this could take up around 2.2GB of data. The winning teams from the groups will go on to play up to four games in the knockout rounds.
The Geek Squad estimates that streaming just one game through 4G services will cost up to 720MB. Many people are on a basic contract of 2GB usage per month, so watching two or more matches could see them low on available data. Additional data can be purchased, but this can be expensive, with some providers charging around £10 for 1GB.
The Geek Squad is recommending that users talk to their provider to check how much data they can access before they are charged an additional fee and to set a usage alert so that they can be warned when data is running low. Users should also remember that by accessing free Wi-Fi services, they can avoid charges for additional data.