Internet use set to double during World Cup tournament

(Sergei Butorin)

The amount of information distributed over the web is going to double among participating nations in the upcoming World Cup tournament, estimate IT consultants at the North American firm Ipswitch.

Having surveyed IT managers via an online Network Traffic Calculator, the company predicts that South African networks will be hit the hardest by World Cup fever.

Businesses there typically use 60 percent of their bandwidth allocation during a working day, but that figure is expected to leap to 100 percent usage over the course of the competition.

The US is getting in on the action as well, with predictions indicating that bandwith usage will peak at 80 percent during "key matches."

The USA, who are 14th in FIFA's most recent World Rankings, have group matches scheduled against England at 2:30pm EDT on Saturday, June 12, Slovenia at 10:30am EDT on Friday, June 18, and Algeria at 10:30am EDT on Wednesday, June 23.

Should they progress - and based on those rankings they have the advantage over Slovenia and Algeria - their first knock-out match would be on June 26 or 27. Quarter finals are on July 2 and 3, semis on July 6 and 7, and the final itself on July 11.

In European countries, bandwidth usage is expected to rise from a 40 percent standard to nearly 80 percent during matches, while in the UK some businesses are expected to close during England matches (Algeria at 7:30pm BST on Friday 18, Slovenia at 3pm BST on Wednesday 28).

Those that remain open are looking at an estimated 70 percent of bandwidth used, up from 30 percent during normal working hours, thanks to a wide range of live coverage and replays from broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV.