Operation Blue Santa brings Christmas cheer

chocolate mousse with a gingerbread man, stewed fruit, or jelly and ice cream and supper will be cheese and crackers, or berry yoghurt.

Depending on patient numbers, around 100 meals are likely to be served each mealtime at Whanganui and around 200 in Palmerston North.

Meals on Wheels will serve around the same Christmas meal to 120 in Palmerston North, 30 in Whanganui and around 50 in the rural community. 211 GB in November 2018 compared to 158GB in 2017.

211GB is the equivalent of watching over 70 hours of content on Netflix each month. Chorus released the figures and said most homes across the country now have several connected devices going at any one time.

The company said with voice activated smart devices such as Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa now becoming commonplace, New Zealanders were using far more data and requiring faster, more dependable broadband speeds. “People’s viewing habits have shifted online and it’s no longer just down to Netflix. TVNZ now have online only, OnDemand content, while Freeview has just launched an industry-first device that brings free-to-air content onto a streaming platform. “Freeview’s new streaming device integrates the offline and online worlds into one user interface. It’s a simple, small and tidy device that attaches magnetically to the back of your TV and removes the need for ugly aerials, coax cables and satellites dishes.

“And of course 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.”

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