Record broadband data use by New Zealand homes and businesses

New figures from Chorus' network reporting show that New Zealand's reliance on high-speed broadband connectivity shows no sign of letting up as digital lifestyles increasingly become the norm. Throughout New Zealand, lockdown propelled data usage to new levels, and in Auckland, with its prolonged lockdown, data usage skyrocketed.

The average New Zealand home and business used 515 gigabytes (GB) of broadband data in October this year compared to 329 GB in 2019, an increase of 57 per cent.

However, the average Auckland home and small business increased their data usage by 63 per cent, from 379 GB in October 2019 to 619 GB in October this year, a month that Aucklanders spent entirely in lockdown.

Despite lockdown restrictions easing for many regions, Kiwis' data consumption continues to speed up, not slow down.

Kurt Rodgers, network strategy manager at Chorus, believes our burgeoning data consumption has put connectivity at the forefront of what's essential in our home and working lives.

"In the first six weeks of the recent lockdown, Chorus' fixed networks carried more than an exabyte of data. That's one billion gigabytes; it's more than all the data carried in 2015, the year Netflix launched in New Zealand.

"Lockdown forced us to change our online behaviours and adopt more digital tools and services in many aspects of our life. Video calling, in particular, has become the new norm, and it's not just for working-from-home and learning; it's also for keeping in touch with friends and family. All this video drives more demand for data and more demand for faster and reliable fibre broadband," said Rodgers.

The demand for data shows no signs of slowing, prompting Chorus to announce its largest-ever performance upgrade for fibre customers.

The 'Big Fibre Boost' initiative will see Chorus work closely with broadband retailers to upgrade customers on its wholesale 100 megabits per second (Mbps) fibre service this year. Where broadband retailers flow through the upgrade to their residential customers, the change will triple the download speed to 300 Mbps while increasing the upload speed five-fold from 20 Mbps to 100 Mbps. Two business fibre plans are also set to benefit.

In October, the average download speed across Chorus' network was 226 Mbps, an increase of 85 per cent from the average speed in October 2019. Fibre customers saw a 48 per cent increase across that same two-year period, from 194 Mbps to 288 Mbps. Increasingly Kiwis are finding a need for a faster internet connection to meet their online activities, and Chorus' 'Big Fibre Boost' will help them get it.

Chorus expects the move to catapult New Zealand up the world's broadband rankings, with its projections showing the country may move well into the top ten for the fastest broadband in the world by early 2022.

"In 2011, at the start of the Ultra-Fast Broadband build, 30 Mbps was considered a great broadband speed. In 2015, as Kiwis took streaming to heart, great broadband increased to 100 Mbps. We recognise that it is now time to shift up a gear again to ensure New Zealanders can take real advantage of the connectivity available to them," Rodgers says.

Comparison of Chorus network regional data usage: October 2019 and October 2021

Council Data use Oct 19 Data use Oct 21 % increase

Auckland 379GB 619GB 63%

Tasman 241GB 344GB 43%

Hamilton 260GB 373GB 43%

Wellington 340GB 481GB 42%

Bay of Plenty 289GB 411GB 42%

West Coast 242GB 339GB 40%

Gisborne 348GB 485GB 39%

Northland 247GB 334GB 35%

Southland 278GB 372GB 34%

Canterbury 223GB 299GB 34%

Manawatu 298GB 397GB 33%

Hawke's Bay 304GB 397GB 31%

Otago 307GB 398GB 30%

Taranaki 224GB 281GB 26%

For further information contact:

Steve Pettigrew
e. [email protected], m. 027 258 6257

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