When it rains it really streams

A rainy Christmas Day drove Kiwis to burn through their mobile data over the festive break.

Three telcos said there was increased data use on Christmas, which MetService said coincided with less than jolly skies in more densely populated areas compared to last year.

Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees all reported significant increases in data usage on December 25 compared to the same day last year including a whopping 77 per cent data increase for 2degrees customers.

Increases were seen from Spark and Vodafone users, at 36 and 39 per cent respectively.

MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said rain fell on Christmas Day in the North and upper South Islands during the day rather than the evening, as seen last year.

The increased use of messaging apps meant phone calls and text messaging had also fallen – the number of texts sent by Spark customers fell from 13m last year, to 8m this Christmas. But the real flurry of communications is expected at new year.