With hundreds of thousands of people descending on London during the Olympic Games, mobile phone networks have had to go to work alongside event organisers to ensure networks can support the expected surge in data usage.

Following the news over the weekend that networks were failing, most highlighted during the Men’s Road Race when the BBC reported that unreliable 3G signals were effectively their broadcasts, 08Direct has now complied the top 10 stats relating to how much data will be used during the Olympics:

1. The network capacity across the Olympic Park is four times larger than in Beijing four years ago.

2. Network usage from the olympic stadium during opening ceremony was the equivalent of sending 400,000 smartphone pictures

3. Organisers have installed 30 mobile phone masts around the Olympic Park in London. This includes 14 which are positioned inside venues.

4. BT have created the biggest single wi-fi network in the UK, which covers the whole of the Olympic Park in Stratford, which includes the Olympic Village.

5. Included within the wif-fi network is 1000 wi-fi hotspots

6. The network can support data usage of 1.7 gigabits per second

7. Organisers have account for visitors using the same amount of data as loading 13,200 web pages per minute

8. The amount of data used will be the equivalent to that used if 4 FA Cups finals took place every day for 17 days.

9. O2 have announced they will supply free wi-fi access to the most popular parts of the capital, including Leicester Square.

10. Twitter tracked 9.66 million Olympic related tweets on the first full day of competition

(Photo Courtesy of amandabhslater on Flickr)