~ office workers glued to their computers for Beijing games ~

STAFF broke off from their work in droves today (Friday) to watch the spectacular Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on their computers.

Internet service provider Plusnet saw a huge spike in people logging on to watch the streamed content broadcast live on the BBC website.

The Sheffield-based company saw a 500% increase in streaming traffic compared to usual levels. This started almost immediately after the ceremony began at 1pm as employees logged on to see the amazing fireworks and dance display.

They stayed tuned in as all the competing teams – including the British squad led by swimmer Mark Foster – paraded around the Beijing stadium.

Streaming traffic was nearly twice as high as any other time in the last week.

Neil Armstrong, Plusnet’s products director, said: “It looks likely that a lot of traffic was coming from business customers watching from work rather than people at home.

“The same thing happened with the British Open Golf tournament two weeks ago.

“We expect to this trend to continue throughout the Olympic Games, especially on weekdays when people are away from their TVs at home.”

The company uses a unique intelligent management system to prioritise web traffic – allowing time sensitive services like streaming priority over other protocols.

More information about the increase is available on Plusnet’s Community site - http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/08/08/breaking-news-olympics-streaming-via-iplayer/