New Zealanders twice as likely to use fibre as rest of world

NZers four times more likely to use fibre than Australians

New Zealanders are twice as likely to use fibre as the rest of the world and more than four times as likely as Australians.

Figures from the latest IDC ConsumerScape 360 survey says 44 percent of New Zealanders now get their internet through a fibre connection. Only Japan is higher on 45 percent.

In Australia the rate is 10 percent. The UK is at 21 percent and the US is on 14 percent. The worldwide rate is 22 percent.

Adoption accelerated

Local fibre adoption accelerated in the last year, helped by factors such as Spark Sport choosing to stream the Rugby World Cup. In 2018 the comparable New Zealand adoption rate was 33 percent.

IDC says New Zealand's fibre adoption rate reflects the success of the UFB build.

New Zealand has also seen a recent increase in the uptake of paid digital services. Video and audio streaming as well as cloud storage have all surged here.

Richard Xu, IDC associate market analyst says: "The increased value that consumers are placing on quality internet connections is driven by the growing availability of premium digital services.

“New Zealand’s leading rates of fibre and paid digital service adoption highlights our nation’s high level of digital fluency. It reinforces the notion that New Zealand consumers are increasingly valuing rich content in their digital lifestyles, preferring fast internet connections to run said content.”

Fibre companies pay more in 2019 Telecommunications Development Levy

Spark, Vodafone, Chorus and 2degrees will pay more than 90 percent of this year’s draft Telecommunications Development Levy. Fibre companies Enable, Northpower and Ultrafast Fibre all see their contributions increase, thanks to increased fibre uptake.

Enable’s contribution more than doubles from $316,375 last year to $663,904 this year. The TDL is a $50 million a year fund administered by the Commerce Commission and used to pay for rural telecommunications, relay service for the deaf and hearing-impaired and improvements to the 111 emergency network.

Early black ink at Enable

Enable, the Christchurch fibre company, reported an $11 million net profit. It's the first profit for the company since it started building its UFB network in 2011.

Steve Fuller, Enable chief executive says: “Large scale infrastructure programmes like ours require several years of investment prior to realising sustained profits and we had forecast becoming profitable in 2021. I am very pleased to announce that we generated a profit two years ahead of this forecast”.

Sky Sport extends Netball reach

Sky TV says it has extended its Netball New Zealand agreement. It will now cover all Silver Ferns and major domestic netball matches until 2024. As part of the deal some games will be shown free-to-air on Prime.

New ICC deal boosts Spark Sport cricket coverage

Spark Sport signed a deal with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to offer viewers clips from some of the biggest fixtures in international cricket from 2019-2023. The rights include on demand near-live, in-match content and post-match highlights all global ICC events.

Vodafone scores Australasian eSports deal

Vodafone signed a two year partnership with Let’sPlay.Live, an Australasia esports business. The deal kicks off at the Auckland Armageddon expo this weekend. It will give Vodafone customers discounted subscriptions to LPL’s gaming platform.