Broadband data use on Chorus’ network continues to break records, with household consumption doubling in just two years, as more New Zealanders use streaming services such as Netflix.
Data released by Chorus recently shows average broadband use in New Zealand households has surged from 101GB in April 2016 to 204GB in April this year.
Crorus said it is forecasting average monthly data usage of 680GB per household by 2020 based on historical growth rates.
Figures for April show that for the first time, the average use in households was more than 200GB of data, as households took advantage of TVNZ’s decision to stream its Commonwealth Games coverage online, combined with the usual increase in demand during school holidays.
The surge in data use comes as Chorus progresses a proof of concept trial using its fibre network to provide a direct broadcasting service to consumers’ homes.
A strength of the proposed Chorus service is that it can provide guaranteed capacity, which would ensure major cultural events such as sports could be broadcast to all viewers, live and concurrently, in 4K or even 8K, said the Operator.
Kurt Ridgers, Network Strategy Manager, Chorus
If you go back even further to 2011, the average use in households was just 13GB of broadband a month, so in the space of a few years, the demand has gone through the roof. And there is no sign of the demand slowing. Our view is that ever-increasing data demands and the evolution of new data-hungry devices and applications, such as 4K televisions and virtual reality, will only continue to fuel the demand for bandwidth.
