Surge in data use by homes in district

BROADBAND data use in Clutha is growing faster than the national average.

The rapid growth of broadband data use in the district shows no sign of slowing, after the latest figures showed a massive increase in demand.

Figures released by Chorus this week show the average Clutha home used 163GB of broadband data in November 2018 compared with 107GB in 2017, an increase of more than 52%.

Nationally, the average New Zealand home used about 234GB of broadband data in November, compared with 172GB last year, showing a more than 35% increase.

The latest figure for Clutha was equivalent to watching more than 54 hours of content on streaming internet television service Netflix each month, Chorus network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers said.

‘‘Most homes across the country now have several connected devices going at any one time.

‘‘With voiceactivated smart devices such as Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa also becoming commonplace, we’re using far more data and requiring faster, more dependable broadband speeds.’’

Although Netflix was prominent among internet TV providers, it was not alone in driving the increased demand for data.

‘‘TVNZ now have online only, On-Demand content, while Freeview has just launched an industryfirst device that brings freetoair content on to a streaming platform.’’

Online gaming was another significant consumer of data, he said.

‘‘The gaming industry has recently boomed. In July we experienced the biggest ever data spike on the Chorus network due to New Zealanders downloading the latest version of Fortnite.’’

Mr Rodgers said the twin rollouts of ultrafast broadband (UFB) fibre and the rural broadband initiative in recent years had aided the upsurge in data use.

Improvements had also been made to technology underpinning Chorus’ copper network.

This allowed those without access to UFB to upgrade their standard ADSL broadband to improved VDSL, he said.

‘‘While fibre is the fastest form of broadband technology, for areas where it’s not yet available VDSL on the copper network provides a faster, more reliable service with less buffering than regular ADSL.

Broadband usage in Southland showed a 42% increase in the corresponding time period when compared with 2017 figures.

The only other regions to experience bigger increases than Southland were Gisborne (44.10%) and Northland (43%).

❛ . . . we’re using far more data and requiring faster, more dependable broadband speeds