Spark and Skinny's wireless broadband network traffic increased by 40 per cent during lockdown, with more than 17,000 terabytes of data. Photo / 123RF
Spark and Skinny's wireless broadband network traffic increased by 40 per cent during lockdown, with more than 17,000 terabytes of data. Photo / 123RF
New Zealanders used enough data to download around 3.4 billion songs over the 33 days the country was under alert level 4.
Spark and Skinny's wireless broadband network traffic increased by 40 per cent, with more than 17,000 terabytes of data used in total during lockdown.
To put that in perspective, with just one terabyte you could download around 200,000 songs, 500 hours of high definition video or watch 1000 hours of standard definition Netflix.
"The critical importance of connectivity has never been more evident than during the Covid-19 lockdown," Spark chief executive Jolie Hodson said.
Calling volumes on mobile also spiked, increasing by 60 per cent, as those working from home navigated a new world.
Spark announced it would remove data caps at the outset of alert level 4. As a result, Spark provided 100 terabytes of free data on average to customers each day.
In total, Kiwis benefited from over 3300 terabytes of free data across data-capped wireless and fixed broadband plans.
"Making sure our customers stay connected has been our absolute focus and we were really pleased to see that even with volumes increasing to levels we haven't seen before in New Zealand, our network has performed very well," Hodson said.
To keep up with the demand, Spark added extra capacity to 14 cell sites around the country and deployed 6 "Cell sites on wheels" (Cows) to further expand capacity in locations that were experiencing high loading.
The efforts resulted in speed increases of between 70 per cent and 160 per cent for those locations.
Hodson said during lockdown over 1000 retail, call centre and Business Hub team members were set up to help Spark's consumer and small business customers from home.
"While we had a few days adjusting to this new normal, on average our customers were waiting under five minutes for help, with over half getting the information they needed from our chat bot and not having to wait to be transferred to an agent."
Spark has also accelerated the rollout of Skinny Jump, its subsidised and not-for-profit wireless broadband product.
Through an agreement with the Ministry of Education, 5000 Skinny Jump wireless broadband modems are being sent to households with school-aged children who don't have an internet connection at home, allowing them to participate in distance learning. An additional 10,000 households can be connected through a fixed broadband solution.
"One of the silver linings to come out of the pandemic has been the additional resources that are being mobilised across industry and government to connect families without broadband at home," Hodson said.
"Improving digital equity is something close to our heart at Spark and we have been doing our bit to help bridge the divide since 2016, when we first launched our Jump product. We won't solve this challenge in just 33 days, but we will make as big a dent in it as we can".
