The latest Telstra #freedataday, as the hashtag was called on Twitter, has been both a resounding success and a disappointing failure, depending on who you talk to.
Telstra itself announced that the last free data day record of 1841 terabytes was exceeded by 4PM AEST on 3 April 2016 - which co-incidentally (or not) was the 43rd anniversary of the very first ‘real’ cellular phone call by Martin Cooper.
While there were reports of multi-megabit download speeds earlier in the day, a section of tweets below shows speeds, at least for some, going slower and slower to where ADSL connections were faster than 4G.
Indeed, some were claiming that the 4G network had slowed to an absolute crawl.
However, Telstra issued a statement to News.com.au, where a spokesperson told the media organisation that:
“The suggestion the free data day has backfired is simply ridiculous. We will be confirming figures tomorrow but it is likely that today’s usage is the biggest ever experienced in a day, which shows that the overwhelming majority of our customers have enjoyed it and made the most of it.
“The network has performed well so far today and the overwhelming majority of our customers have enjoyed what we expect will be the biggest day of data usage we have ever experienced.
“We will continue to monitor services throughout the evening to ensure we keep giving our customers the best possible experience.”
It seems many users were downloading right up until the switchover, with the day actually offering 25 hours worth of downloading for some users, rather than 24, due to the fact daylight saving ended yesterday and gave those in daylight savings areas an extra hour of sleep - and an extra hour of downloading!
One of the last tweets of the day (embedded below as the last in the list) was from user 'steviecal' who said: "Lol at everyone complaining about Telstra network being slow today. What did you all expect?! #freedataday"
Here are some tweets that captured the day for all - and despite the popularity at least with some for these free data download days, let’s hope there’s no more need for Telstra to offer them in the future!
Previous Free Data Day record of 1,841 terabytes was exceeded by 4pm AEST.
— Telstra News (@Telstra_news) April 3, 2016
Reasonable haul from #freedataday, 3 tunes, 3 Grand Finals and a cheesy flick. 4 Gig saved from my bill!
— Mick Jeffrey (@MHJeffrey027) April 3, 2016
@Telstra today’s not #freedataday, but rather #swapqualitywithquantity day. Thousands have slow line but its ok, dat 1 guy downloaded 130gb.
— Brendan Fung (@brendanfsc) April 3, 2016
#Telstra #network crashes. Telstra offers #freedataday. Which makes Telstra network crash which means... #groundhogday
— Nigel Richardson (@NigelRichardson) April 3, 2016
This *low bandwidth* gif bought to you by @Telstra on this #freedataday #telstrafail #auspol #nbn pic.twitter.com/cGfjlfjp8N
— Mitchell Ward (@rocklilydesign) April 3, 2016
Ripping through the #freedataday @Telstra with your lightning 4G mobile network. #sarcasm pic.twitter.com/fj0cqbVdtJ
— BFW (@wilso71) April 3, 2016
@Telstra your #freedataday is a massive fail. My barely-working dsl that syncs at a whopping 2mbps is faster than your 4G netwrk right now.
— Jeremy Kouloubis (@jkdefsys) April 3, 2016
Wow. @Telstra’s #FreeDataDay is a disaster. Either the network is severely congested or they’re throttling us. Either is bad.
— Ryan Christensen (@ryanjchr) April 3, 2016
@Telstra #FreeDataDay Nice speeds on free data day! https://t.co/YvYcy1kDMU<;/a>
— Tim Vandergriend (@TimVandergriend) April 2, 2016
Downloading up until the last minute #thankstelstra #freedataday pic.twitter.com/6tXYLZUvUZ
— Megan Nicole (@megancrad) April 3, 2016
Lol at everyone complaining about Telstra network being slow today. What did you all expect?! #freedataday
— steviecal (@steviecal) April 3, 2016