Net traffic spikes as Fortnite update lands

A software update to Fortnite, a popular computer fighting game, saw traffic on the Chorus network jump 20 percent overnight. The traffic spiked last Thursday.

While Chorus has become used to seeing a constant rise in the amount of data traffic on its network and regular spikes, Fortnite took things to a new level. The normal pattern is for traffic to peak at around 9pm when the number of people streaming TV content usually hits its daily maximum.

Last week the 9pm peak was 20 percent higher than normal for a Thursday. The Fortnite version five patch first became available at 8pm that night. Chorus says the amount of extra traffic at that time means as many as 30,000 New Zealander gamers were downloading the patch at the same time.

Network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers says Chorus has never seen a spike like that before. He says
Fortnite is a great example of how fibre internet can support gamers.

One easy to overlook aspect of this story is how resilient the Chorus internet network has become. There needs to be considerable headroom for it to be able to take a 20 percent spike without blinking.

Connections up 10 percent: Chorus reports a 9.9 percent increase in fibre connections in the three months to June 30. This means the number of fibre lines overtook the number of ADSL copper connections on the company's network during that period. Chorus also added a net 3,000 broadband connections. The total is now 1.19 million. Some 45 percent of the total is fibre.

Hawaiki Submarine Cable goes live today

Hawaiki Submarine Cable's 15,000km trans-Pacific fibre link begins formal operation today. The network cost around US$300 million to build and links New Zealand to Australia and the United States.

There are, or soon will be, spurs to New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and American Samoa.

The new cable boosts New Zealand's international capacity by 43 terabytes. Hawaiki also provides greater security. It adds a fourth fibre connection to the three already in place.

Hawaiki anchor customers include Vodafone and Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand (Reannz). Amazon Web Services is among the international customers.

While the project is international, most of the leadership and funding originated in New Zealand. Investments from Malcolm Dick and Sir Eion Edgar helped get the project underway.

Vodafone follows Spark to Agile

Writing at the Dominion Post, Tom Pullar-Strecker reports Vodafone is set to embark on its own Agile programme. Spark announced its Agile project in March.

He says: "...unlike Spark, it says it won't be asking staff members to sign new contracts or timing the change to coincide with a restructure." Also unlike Spark, Vodafone does not expect to trim its staff numbers as a result of the move.

European regulator fines Google €4.3 billion

Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner to impose a record €4.34 billion (NZ$7.5 billion) fine on Google for its “serious illegal behaviour”. The search company used its market dominance to force its apps onto Android phones.

The EU says it found Google required phone makers to pre-install the company's search and browser apps on Android hardware. Android makes up more than 80 percent of all phones sold. The EU found that companies refusing to take Google's software were not allowed to its Google Play online store and streaming service — an essential service.

Vestager says Google used Android “to cement its dominance as a search engine”. In doing so it prevents rivals from innovating and competing. She says this is illegal under EU antitrust rules”.

The decision comes at a politically delicate time with the US government increasing tariffs on a range of European goods and services. However, the investigation started years ago.

Google said it will appeal against the ruling.

Netflix speed wobbles

Shares in streaming giant Netflix dropped 14 percent earlier this week on news that the company signed fewer new customers than expected during the second quarter.

On Monday Netflix announced second quarter results. It said it had added 670,000 US streaming customers during the period. That's a little over half the 1.2 million additional subscribers it forecasted. The number of new international subscribers fell short of expectations by a further 500,000.

That was enough for investors to bail from the company fearing the days of explosive growth might be over. In truth, Netflix subscriber numbers climbed almost five percent during the quarter and around 26 percent in the last 12 months. That's a stellar performance by any normal measure.

Netflix faces more competition. Amazon already has a fast growing rival service and Apple is expected to enter the market later this year.

While the share price recovered later in the week, at the time of writing it is still about 5 percent below its level before the news broke,