State Fair visitors eat up lots of wireless data

On top of corn dogs and fried cheese curds, visitors to the Minnesota State Fair are also eating up a lot of wireless data.

• More: Full MPR News coverage of the State Fair

Minnesota's four biggest cell-phone carriers say data usage by fair attendees is much higher this year than it was last year. Verizon Wireless reported an increase of 156 percent during the first four days of the fair, when compared with the same period last year. T-Mobile saw a 184 percent increase in data usage during those first four days.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports the increase is largely due to a huge jump in photo sharing apps such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Use of the official State Fair app eats up data, too. The fair's app has been downloaded tens of thousands of times.

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