Apparently, there was a little kickabout between Italy and Spains football teams last week. Something called the Euro 2012 final? Maybe you missed it. Mobile messaging firm Acision, however, most certainly did not, and kept a keen eye on the text messaging behaviour of consumers in both countries during the match.
As the game kicked off, SMS traffic levels in both Italy and Spain dropped 30-40 per cent – presumably as the nation collectively sat down and concentrated on the match. In Spain, SMS traffic peaked with each goal (up by as much as 200 per cent), while in Italy it remained flat throughout the match.
During half time, Spanish SMS traffic was 25 per cent above the average, while in Italy, traffic was at the average level, and promptly dropped once the match started up again.
And once the final whistle had been blown, the Spanish sent almost twice as many messages than they would on an average day, for roughly the next half an hour. Italys traffic levels saw an increase of 10 per cent after the match, but this only continued for 15 minutes after the match was over.