Shafaq News/ Mobile phone usage in Karbala reached record levels during the first ten days of Muharram, which included the Ashura commemoration, according to Ali Al-Moayyed, Chairman of Iraq's Communications and Media Commission.

In a statement released Thursday, Al-Moayyed said 24.563 million subscribers used mobile services in Karbala during this period. This included 23.256 million local subscribers and 1.306 million international subscribers.

During Ashura, visitors made 95.536 million phone calls and exchanged 46.622 million SMS messages.

Al-Moayyed also reported a significant increase in data usage over mobile networks in Karbala, with a total of 3,576 terabytes consumed.

Most of this data, amounting to 2,999 million gigabytes, was used for social media networks and applications. YouTube led with 596,543 gigabytes, followed by Facebook with 846,344 gigabytes, then TikTok with 841,080 gigabytes, Instagram with 447,253 gigabytes, and Telegram with 89,836 gigabytes.

A holy city in central Iraq, Karbala is a significant pilgrimage destination for Shia Muslims, especially during the Islamic holy month of Muharram. It's here that the Ashura ceremony takes place (Muharram 10), where millions come to the city commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.