Telstra doubled its mobile network capacity at the Melbourne Cricket Ground ahead of Saturday's AFL Grand Final, and was repaid with record usage.
More than 193,000 calls were made from the ground between noon and 7pm on Saturday, compared with 83,000 during the 2011 Grand Final.
And around 185GB of data was transferred, up from about 53GB last year.
A 15-month network upgrade means the MCG now has the same amount of available mobile capacity as many regional centres, a Telstra spokesperson explained.
"It's like the entire population of a city the size of Albury-Wodonga all wanting to be on smart phones at the same time," said Mike Wright, Telstra's executive director, networks and access technologies.
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"We have witnessed a huge change during recent years in the ways sport fans use their phones at big matches," said Max Jennings, Telstra's director of wireless network engineering.
"These days it's not simply to make calls or text messages, but for uploading photo and video content to social media sites."
