FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

Our friends over at AT&T sent us some interesting wireless network stats from last week’s first two games of this year’s World Series, which were played in the San Francisco Giants’ well-wired home, AT&T Park. With the stadium’s state-of-the-art wireless infrastructure, it’s perhaps no surprise that fans consumed multiple gigabits of data, both sending and receiving.

We’ll include all the raw stats below — including some fun ones like the 53,000 SMS text messsages sent in the 6 p.m. hour of Game 1, the time span during which eventual Series MVP Pablo Sandoval hit his second and third home runs of the game — but what jumped out at us was the fact that voice calls peaked before the games started and data traffic peaked within the first hour. To us, that meant what happened was what we’ve believed all along: That fans do like to send a picture or a photo of themselves at big games, or call friends who aren’t there, but then once the games start they’re watching what’s happening on the field.

So even in Tweet-happy and iPhone-crazy San Francisco, the great fears of fans only looking at their phones and forgetting to cheer isn’t something that’s going to happen anytime soon. If nothing else, the players on the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals can tell you that fans at AT&T Park were certainly paying attention and directing all their attention to the field, quite loudly at times. It might be some time before others believe cell phones and sporting events can co-exist, but we’re here to tell you it’s already happening now.

(Stats and figures below courtesy of AT&T, describing the stats their network folks compiled based on fans’ usage of our network during Games 1 and 2 of the World Series at AT&T Park in San Francisco.)

2012 World Series – games 1 & 2

· Fans still love the long ball – More than 15 percent more data was uploaded and nearly 20,000 more texts were shared on our network inside the park (between the hours of 4-9pm PST) during game one than game two of the 2012 World Series at AT&T Park.

· A text speaks 1,000 words – AT&T mobile users sent and received more than 350,000 texts across our network during the first two games of the World Series (between the hours of 4-9pm PST).

· Hush up, the game’s about to start – For both of the first two games of the 2012 World Series at AT&T Park (between the hours of 4-9pm PST) the most calls made on AT&T’s Network occurred during the hour directly preceding the game’s first pitch (4-5 pm PST).

· Fastest fingers – The hourly data upload and hourly total data peaks occurred in the first hour (5-6 pm PST) of both game one and two (between the hours of 4-9pm PST). Data uploaded as well as total data volumes decreased during each hour the game went on (between the hours of 4-9pm PST).

Additional Data

Game 1

· The hourly data upload peak of 16.2 GB (between the hours of 4-9pm PST) occurred in the hour in which Pablo Sandoval hit his first home run

· The peak point in hourly total data consumption (between the hours of 4-9pm PST) happened in the first hour of the game with a total volume of 35.3 GB passing through AT&T’s Network.

· AT&T subscribers downloaded the most data – 18.3 GB – during the 6 pm hour (between the hours of 4-9pm PST)

· AT&T mobile users sent and received the most texts (between the hours of 4-9pm PST) during the 6pm hour, the hour in which Pablo Sandoval hit his second and then his historic third home run, with more than 53,000 SMS texts sent and delivered across AT&T’s Network. That’s more than one text for every fan in the stadium. (Total attendance – 42,855)

· For the opening game of the 2012 World Series at AT&T Park (between the hours of 4-9pm PST) the most calls made on AT&T’s Network occurred during the hour directly preceding the game’s first pitch.

Game 2

· The hourly data upload peak of 13.8 GB (between the hours of 4-9pm PST) occurred in the hour in which the first pitch was thrown

· The peak point in hourly total data consumption (between the hours of 4-9pm PST) happened in the first hour of the game with a total volume of 33.1 GB passing through AT&T’s Network.

· AT&T subscribers downloaded the most data – 20.6 GB – during the 6 pm hour (between the hours of 4-9pm PST)

· AT&T mobile users sent and received the most texts (between the hours of 4-9pm PST) during the 7pm hour with more than 42,000 SMS texts sent and delivered across AT&T’s Network. That’s nearly one text for every fan in the stadium. (Total attendance – 42,982)

· For the second game of the 2012 World Series at AT&T Park (between the hours of 4-9pm PST) the most calls made on AT&T’s Network occurred during the hour directly preceding the game’s first pitch.