Far from being frustrated, one Auckland family has found broadband has not just helped them keep working and having fun during the city's continuing level 4 lockdown – it has also brought out the entrepreneurial spirit in their 16-year-old son.
He has come up with an idea for an online business - creating designs for t-shirts which he plans to post online at Instagram - and is taking his first tentative steps down that path.
"He has always wanted to have an online business," says his mum Joyce Johnson (not her real name). "He's already ordered a batch of shirts, so it's a start. We'll see how it goes, but he thought it was a good way of using his time in lockdown."
The Johnsons, who are Vodafone customers, live in the Auckland suburb of Waterview and Joyce says they have been busy Googling, Zooming, quizzing and working while confined to their bubble.
"It's actually been a lovely positive experience because we have been able to stay connected," she says. "The boys (she also has a 13-year-old son) have been busy doing school work online and I don't know how we would have survived without the internet."
Vodafone says online use has gone through the roof with millions of Kiwis stuck at home. To help people stay connected the company has been lifting data caps and giving customers more data for free.
It has seen daily mobile voice calls leap by as much as 60 per cent, video streaming climb by 25 per cent and massive spikes in phone data use in the days since the level 4 lockdown was imposed last month. Vodafone's head of Network Services, Sharina Nisha, says staying connected remotely is again the name of the game as the country continues its fight against Covid's Delta variant.
"The great thing is we've been able to keep Kiwis well connected and keep them talking, working and playing while in their bubbles," she says.
For the Johnsons this has been a lifesaver. As well as son Jason's business venture Ben, the younger of the two brothers, is keeping up with drum lessons online and is taking part in an online science project in which he is constructing a paper bridge that has to be able to support a can of beans. If he wins his school will receive an electronics starter kit.
Joyce and her partner Melanie are both employed in highly professional roles and have barely missed a beat in their jobs thanks to the wonders of Zoom.
"For Melanie it's never-ending," says Joyce. "She's running Zoom meetings virtually all day from 7.30 in the morning. I hardly see her during the week, only when she comes out for coffee or to have a bite to eat at lunch."
Joyce herself uses Zoom to keep up with work colleagues and requirements and says while it's not ideal, "it's not that bad either."
Her sons are using connectivity to its maximum. "During the day they are working on school assignments and Ben has two Zoom meetings each week with his teacher. It's great because I can do my work without interruption."
The family have been watching plenty of movies – Jason reckons he's got to about 40 so far – and a couple of times a week they sit down together to do a quiz which they access from YouTube. Joyce and Melanie also took part in a Zoom quiz with five other couples –"it was a lot of fun," Joyce says.
Her sentiments are no doubt shared by many. A Colmar Brunton survey conducted for Vodafone in January showed Kiwis rate internet/wifi connectivity as the third most important aspect of their daily life behind only family and having a bath or shower. Smart phone use was ranked as the sixth most important item by the 1000 people surveyed.
Nisha says Vodafone's network usage since the lockdown began has been staggering. Mobile calling exploded by 400 per cent in the hours following the level 4 announcement and texts were up 50 per cent.
Since then voice calls have settled down but are still about 60 per cent up on normal while Vodafone TV, Netflix, Google, Facebook and the gaming site Akamai are all up by between 20 and 25 per cent. Mobile data usage is up about 15 per cent and fixed data 27 per cent.
Nisha says Vodafone is offering rural broadband customers free off-peak data between the hours of midnight and 5pm (at least until the end of September). This has led to a 125 per cent increase in usage from 9am to 5pm and a 76 per cent increase overall.
She says the company has removed data caps from data-capped fixed broadband for customers and small to medium businesses at least until the end of September. Customers who receive hardship assistance from WINZ due to Covid or who have the government's wage subsidy can apply for no-cost disconnection fees or relief from late payment.
For more information go to: vodafone.co.nz