Chorus says 100GB a month is the new normal

A post at the Chorus blog says the average amount of data consumed by a household continue’s to rise and now sits at 100GB a month.

“Since the beginning of 2016 we’ve reported new highs of data consumption, and now it seems that 100GB is the new normal. The national monthly household data consumption average has grown by almost 100 per cent since the beginning of 2015 and it shows no signs of slowing.”

The company predicts that by the middle of next year the average will reach 170GB per household per month.

Chorus goes on to say that five years ago the average amount of monthly data for New Zealand households was just 10GB.

The difference between then and now is streaming video.

Streaming video

Five years ago traffic would have been mainly web browsing along with media downloads and a little YouTube. Many of those media downloads would have been illegal or, at best, dubious.

Since then legal paid-for video streaming services have arrived. Many people have found these services to be preferable to broadcast or existing pay TV services.

It’s not just Netflix. Spark has Lightbox and there have been others like the now closed Premier League Pass which showed English Premier League football. If it goes ahead, the merged Vodafone-Sky operation will push streaming further.

The message to consumers and investors is clear: Chorus has a solid business serving data to New Zealand homes through its fibre and copper networks. There’s also an element of letting us know we get value for money from the networks.

There’s a less obvious competitive message here too. Vodafone, Spark and Skinny all sell fixed wireless broadband services that bypass the Chorus network. Most of their products come with data caps lower than 100GB.

Letting consumers know that the average data used in a month is now higher than they can get from fixed wireless is Chorus’ subtle way of saying a fibre or VDSL connection might be a better option.