The Melbourne Cup. It's the race that stops a nation, and in years gone by, was likely the race that stopped a mobile network.

Fast forward to 2017, and with many years of network strain experienced at events such as New Year's Eve celebrations, or any major event, mobile networks and carriers are vastly more prepared than ever before.

We also live in the age of social media, posting photos and short videos, right through to live streams via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other platforms.

Indeed, it is enough to make a mobile network engineer weep, but again, the kind of activities that people get up to with their smart devices is long past being a surprise, so it's great to see Telstra's mobile network reporting record-breaking traffic.

This came forth via a Telstra spokesperson, who issued the following statement: "With the huge crowds at Flemington enjoying the day, posting images and videos, and putting their best bet forward, we saw our mobile network at the Flemington track itself carry around 200Gb data in the 30 minute period before, during and after the main race.

"For the day thus far, data on the network serving the track was up around 55% more than last year. This is a record for the Cup.”

So, without any data from Vodafone or Optus to compare, and knowing in any case that Telstra is Australia's 800-pound telcorilla, we hereby declare Telstra the winner of the Emirates Melbourne Cup data derby – and expect them to smash the record next year!