Chorus network connections hit 100Mbps average

Chorus says the average connection speed across its network has now passed 100 Mbps. This is ten times the average connection speed eight years ago.

Last month also saw the busiest day yet on the company's network: total usage hit 1.815 Tbps. The previous record was 1.792 Tbps.

Chorus network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers says 71 percent of the company's fibre customers are now on 100 Mbps. A further 44,000, around three percent of the 1.5 million connections on the Chorus network, are now on 1 Gbps plans. This is up 22 percent on the previous quarter.

High speed fibre plans popular

Most of the rise in average connection speed comes down to the popularity of high speed plans from retail service providers. But it isn't all at the top end. Rodgers says awareness of VDSL (Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line) technology, which boosts speeds on copper connections, is also on the rise.

He says, “Dunedin has the highest average connection speed at 361 Mbps, largely due to the high volume of gig connections". This will be, in part, because of the earlier Gigatown promotion which saw the city connected to faster fibre ahead of the rest of the country.

"Coming in second is Wellington, at an average of 116 Mbps, followed closely by Auckland at 111 Mbps,” he says.

“With more and more consumers choosing gigabit plans and our recent announcement that we will start trialling 10 Gbps in mid-March, we can only expect average speeds to continue to grow,” Rodgers says.

Chorus says fibre users now average 315 GB per month. Most of this is down to the rise in streaming video. This is reflected in time-of-day statistics, which show average throughput on the network now peaks at around 8.30pm in the evening.

Broadband prices on hold at 2degrees

The New Zealand Herald reports that 2degrees says unlike Spark, Vodafone and Vocus it is not raising broadband prices this year. In the same story, Chris Keall writes: "According to a market filing by 2degrees' parent company, the Toronto-listed Trilogy, it now has 78,000 broadband customers." Of these 54 percent are on UFB fibre.

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards reappointed

Justice Minister Andrew Little says John Edwards has been reappointed as the Privacy Commissioner. He says: “Mr Edwards has a global reputation in privacy and is a fearless advocate for his Commission." Edwards was appointed in December 2013 and began in the role in February 2014. The reappointment will take his term through to 2023.

Rural broadband lag means 40,000 can't stream Rugby World Cup

Writing for BusinessDesk, Nikki Mandow reports Crown Infrastructure Partners chair Simon Allen and chief executive Graham Mitchell told Parliament's Transport and Infrastructure select committee an estimated 40,000 households will not be able to stream online Rugby World Cup coverage. CIP also told the committee while the rural network is able cope with the traffic surge, there's a question mark over the retail internet service providers.

Huawei sues US government over hardware sales

Chinese network equipment giant Huawei is taking the US government to court claiming the ban on its hardware sales there is a violation of the US Constitution.

Rotating chairman Guo Ping says Huawei is compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort. He says the US government is “sparing no effort to smear the company and mislead the public about Huawei.” He says the US government's attempts to block the company from selling 5G hardware in other countries is even worse.

Cellular handset sales fall

Gartner says mobile handset sales declined 3.4 percent in the mature Asia-Pacific markets (which includes Australia and New Zealand). The latest worldwide sales data shows Huawei has won market share from Samsung and Apple. In the fourth quarter of 2018 Huawei sold a shade over 60 million phones. This compares with Apple’s 64 million and Samsung’s 71 million units.

Mobile payments growing

A report from research company Venture Insights says there's a growing interest in mobile payments from New Zealand consumers. It says 23 percent use mobile payments at least once a week. Yet 50 percent still never use mobile payments.