New Year’s Eve figures released by Airwave, provider of critical voice and data communications in Great Britain, show that a total of 276 organizations were connected to the network on 31 December 2012.

Of these, 83 different organizations in London used the network on New Year’s Eve, reducing to 69 organizations the following day.

According to Martin Benke, director of network operations at Airwave: “Millions of people around the world celebrated the New Year and in London alone an estimated 250 000 people lined the streets. However, as with other events of this magnitude, we anticipated the increased usage on the network and worked with our customers to formulate a readiness plan.”

Metropolitan Police officers made around 1.2 million calls over a 12-hour period, which peaked at over 31 000 calls between 1.45 am and 2.00 am. 

Around 10 pm on the evening, the maximum number of radio users recorded on the entire network over a 15-minute slot was 58 118, with 12 301
in London. This compares with the annual Notting Hill Carnival which has just under 5 000 users, or during the Queen’s Jubilee Thames River Pageant in June last year, which recorded a total of 25 477 radio terminals connected to the network during the full 24-hour period.