Whether at street carnival, in festival tents, or in pubs – this year, millions of people shared an especially large number of carnival moments via smartphone. The Telekom mobile network recorded a new high: between Weiberfastnacht and Rose Monday, a total of 2 million gigabytes flowed through the network in the carnival strongholds of Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Mainz, and Aachen. This corresponds to around 1.3 billion costume selfies at 1.5 megabytes each – an increase of more than 30 percent compared to the previous year. Of the total data traffic, 54 percent ran over the 5G network. Thanks to 5G, the network remained stable and reliable even with the high density of smartphones and the simultaneous usage by tens of thousands of carnival-goers in small areas. The higher capacity of 5G offers a clear advantage for large events like Carnival.
City ranking: Cologne remains the leader
Cologne is also the undisputed Carnival capital in terms of network usage: with 884,000 gigabytes, the cathedral city again tops the ranking of mobile data consumption this Carnival season. Düsseldorf follows with 484,000 gigabytes and Bonn with 276,000 gigabytes. Mainz takes fourth place with 169,000 gigabytes, and Aachen follows in fifth with 152,000 gigabytes. Across all cities, most data was consumed on Carnival Friday – not on Weiberfastnacht or Rose Monday.
Visitor flows: Carnival-goers travel to Cologne from all across NRW
The data shows clear visitor flows into Cologne: more than half of the carnival-goers in the Old Town of Cologne travelled in from the surrounding regions of North Rhine-Westphalia. Despite the traditional rivalry between Cologne and Düsseldorf, the desire to celebrate clearly took priority. The mobile network data shows that almost 50% more carnival-goers from Düsseldorf preferred to join the street carnival in Cologne than the other way around. The proportion of visitors from the Rhein-Erft district and Bonn was also particularly high in Cologne.
International guests also mingled with the crowds in all carnival strongholds: almost one-third of total data traffic was generated by “roamers” – users from foreign networks. Most carnival tourists came from Austria, the Netherlands, France and Belgium.
Hotspots and data peaks in Cologne’s Carnival
A look at the carnival hotspots in Cologne reveals clear demographic differences among the revelers: on Zülpicher Straße, the crowd was dominated by young people, especially those aged 20 to 29. In contrast, the area around Heumarkt and Alter Markt attracted an older audience, with the highest share between 50 and 59 years old. Overall, the crowd was evenly split between approximately 50% women and 50% men.
A special moment of the street carnival traditionally takes place at 11:11 a.m. on Weiberfastnacht – the official kickoff of the festivities. However, the Telekom network recorded the peak of data usage only at 1:00 p.m.
AI-supported “RAN Guardian Agent” optimizes the mobile network
The Telekom’s RAN Guardian Agent was also in use during the carnival. This AI-based multi-agent system helps monitor the network and ensures an even better customer experience. It analyzes network behavior, detects performance issues, and autonomously initiates corrective actions. During the carnival days, the RAN Guardian Agent identified around 130 carnival events and parades, each expected to attract more than 10,000 participants. These events were supported by a total of 611 different mobile network sites. In advance, RAN Guardian checked all 611 sites for potential issues. Most of them were also monitored live during the events. Only at five sites did load peaks occur despite event-specific configurations. At these locations, RAN Guardian was able to make further network optimizations by adjusting the event configuration.
Most popular apps: Instagram ahead of YouTube and TikTok
During the celebrations, Instagram was by far the most-used app, followed by YouTube, TikTok and Facebook.
Safe planning with data: Motion Data provides insights into visitor flows and demographics
Additional anonymized and aggregated data on visitor flows, origin, age groups and gender is provided by Motion Data – based on Telekom mobile network data. Compliant with data protection requirements and without any personal identifiers, this information supports the planning of traffic flows, public transport, safe crowd management at large events, and the work of emergency services.
Read the official press release here.
