3G networks under strain - and it's all Facebook's fault

Across the world, 3G networks are staggering under the strain of what has been identified as primarily smart-phone data traffic - and what are all of those smart-phone users doing? Using Facebook, it turns out.

Europe's largest Wi-Fi provider The Cloud is claiming that 3G networks are not far from cracking under the strain of increased smart-phone usage and unlimited data plans which encourage social networking and multimedia streaming on handsets. The Cloud, which admittedly could have its own reasons for painting a negative picture when it comes to 3G, points to O2's battle to keep performance levels up in parts of London, owing to the density of iPhone users in that part of the country. And O2, by its own admission, has struggled in places.

Meanwhile, mobile industry body the GSMA has been doing some research into what UK smart-phone users do, exactly, when they're online - and the answer is: Facebook. The data, collected from three out of five UK mobile networks, showed that social networks such as Facebook account for nearly half of the time that users spend online via handsets. An impressive 16 million people went online via their mobile phones in December, spending a total of 60 million hours online in total that month. Of that 4.8 billion minutes, Facebook topped the time-spent list with 2.2 billion minutes, and Google sites came second with 395 million minutes.

So next time you can't get a stable 3G connection, you know who to blame.