Winter sports roaming traffic has fully returned

Large numbers of Dutch people have been on winter sport holidays again in recent months according to analysis of the mobile roaming traffic that KPN processed from popular winter sport destinations such as Austria, Switzerland, France, and Italy. After a year’s absence, KPN has seen winter-sport-related roaming traffic return almost entirely in recent months. Over the December–March period, KPN recorded about 40% more data traffic compared to two years ago.

After a year away, the Dutch have enjoyed winter sports to the full again in recent months. KPN’s analysis shows that Dutch winter sport enthusiasts are making about the same number of calls from the Alps as they were two years ago. Data use increased again (+40%), roughly in line with the annual growth of data traffic. Mobile data also clearly shows when the first Covid-19 measures and restrictions were applied in March 2020, with a clear decline in traffic from winter sport locations. A similar effect can also be observed at the beginning of this year, but following the relaxing of many travel restrictions from mid-February, the entire month of February has been normal in terms of traffic.

Austria is the most popular winter sport destination. It is also noticeable that the spring vacation for the northern region was in February while holidays for the Central and Southern regions were in March. This is in contrast to two years ago when all the regions had their spring break in February. And it makes perfect sense, because in 2021 there was little or no roaming traffic observable from the Alpine countries.

Roam Like Home
Since June 2017, calling, texting, and surfing the internet costs the same everywhere in the European Union as it does in the Netherlands. Although Switzerland is not an EU country, KPN also applies roam-like-home there. In short: KPN customers can use their smartphones in all their favorite winter sport destinations in the same way as they are used to doing in the Netherlands.

State of the Network
In “State of the Network”, KPN publishes information on trends and topical issues that are reflected in the volume of internet traffic on the network of the Netherlands. See also previous publications, on topics such as the turn of the year, the impact of Covid-19 and working from home on the network.