Broadband usage bigger, faster and more diverse

Broadband data volumes and upload speeds being used by subscribers improved strongly in the past year and alternative technologies such as cellular, cable and satellite were increasingly used to connect to the internet.

A Statistics New Zealand survey of internet service providers found the number of broadband subscribers lifted 15 per cent to 1.3 million in the year to June.

The number of subscribers with a data cap of less than 5 gigabytes (GB) fell 6 per cent over the year to 521,200, while those with 5GB to 20GB rose 30 per cent to 504,200, those with 20GB or more was up 55 per cent to 194,900, and the number with no data cap was up 35 per cent to nearly 90,000.

Internet subscribers with upload speeds of between 256 kilobits per second (kbps) and 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps) was up to 78 per cent of the total, from 51 per cent at June 2009.Those with less than 256kbps fell to 22 per cent from 49 per cent.

The number of broadband subscribers connecting to the internet using cellular, cable and satellite was 36 per cent higher than a year earlier at nearly 300,000, accounting for 23 per cent of the total compared to 19 per cent the year before.

The most common broadband connection - digital subscriber line - also increased, lifting 11 per cent to 967,100 connections. But as a proportion of the total it slipped to 74 per cent from 77 per cent.

Fibre optic connections increased by 400 to 2600.

- NZPA