Fibre adoption is growing strongly in New Zealand
Nearly 600,000 homes and businesses have high-speed fibre-optic internet connections, a 54 per cent increase from 2017, Stats New Zealand has revealed.
Kiwis are soaking up the data too, the numbers showed. Broadband connections with unlimited data caps made up over 70 per cent of all broadband connections in 2018.
Nearly one in three broadband connections were fibre in 2018, compared with one in eight connections in 2016, Stats NZ's annual Internet Service Provider Survey reported.
The total number of fibre connections more than doubled in the past two years, to 598,000 at June 2018.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's latest Broadband deployment update shows 1.4 million homes and businesses can now access fibre.
“This figure was around 1.2 million last year,” Stats NZ business performance manager Laura O'Leary said. "This shows the uptake of New Zealanders connecting to fibre is matching the increase in the availability to connect."
Credit: Stats NZ There were more than 1.3 million unlimited broadband connections at June 2018, a 16 per cent increase from one year ago.
"The increase in unlimited data plans shows New Zealanders’ increasing data needs,” O'Leary said. “Unlimited plans have become cheaper and more available nationwide and more people are switching to having unlimited data in their homes and businesses.”
The Internet Service Provider Survey is an annual survey sent to all internet service providers in New Zealand.
