This New Year’s Eve saw New Zealanders turn online in massive numbers, with data used across Vodafone NZ’s mobile networks up by approximately 80% compared to last year.
Vodafone New Zealand Head of Platforms, Sharina Nisha, said the company had been preparing for the massive surge, particularly after the 52% spike over Christmas - but that this was an exceptional increase and likely due to people turning to online celebrations with whānau and friends overseas as a result of Covid-19.
Nationally Vodafone customers consumed 630 terabytes (TB) of mobile data over the New Year’s Eve period, compared to 350 TB during the same period on New Year’s 2019/20. Volume wise, that’s roughly equivalent to streaming 420,000 hours of high-definition video (based on 1080p at 1.5GB per hour).
Nisha explains: “It’s no surprise that smartphones are now the communication method of choice, and the events of 2020 have seen us all turn to technology to continue to work, live and play remotely - and it was especially evident this New Year’s Eve as Kiwis celebrated with loved ones digitally.”
Kiwis also sent a staggering number of SMS messages of New Year’s cheer, with almost 1 million texts sent around midnight. However this was a decrease of around 11% year-on-year, as people continue to turn to applications that use data such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
Highlighting the need for event-based mobile coverage boosts, data use at Rhythm & Vines increased by 150% compared to last year. Voice calls were still important however, with Vodafone customers at the three day festival spending more than 200,000 minutes talking to others.
