Vocus top users downloading 460GB a month

Vocus says its high-end broadband customers download an average of almost 460GB of data a month.

Taryn Hamilton, Vocus Group’s general manager of consumer for Orcon and Slingshot says customers on the company’s 200/200Mbps plans now use an average 456GB of data each month. Those on the relatively new 1000/500Mbps have yet to catch up, they are averaging 420GB a month. 

Hamilton says the overwhelming majority of Vocus customers across all the company’s brands and speed options are on unlimited data plans. Almost every customer on the company’s 1000/500Mbps and 200/200Mbps products has an unlimited plan. Around 85 percent of those on the 100/50Mbps service have an unlimited plan. The number drops to 77 percent for Vocus customers on VDSL services. 

Faster plans all the rage

There’s a clear move to faster plans. Hamilton says most Orcon customers are already on fibre. Half of all new sign-ups choose the 1000Mbps plan. In part this reflects Orcon’s market positioning as the high-end brand for the most demanding internet enthusiasts.

 He says in general data usage is doubling every 12 to 18 months, although it took a great leap forward when Netflix began operating in New Zealand. 

Netflix remains the driving force behind demand for more data and faster plans. Hamilton says it is the fastest growing traffic type on the network and it doubled in the last year. Around a quarter of all Vocus broadband traffic is now Netflix. It is most popular with customers in Auckland, followed by Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. 

2degrees profitable as sales climb

After seven years in business 2degrees is in the black. The company reports a profit of $13.4 million for the 2016 financial year which ended in December. That compares with a loss of $33.1 million a year earlier. Revenue was a shade over $700 million.  

The result comes on the back of fast growth in mobile and in broadband. Chief executive Steward Sherriff says the number of post-pay mobile customers is up 19 percent. These tend to be higher spending than the pre-pay customers; the company’s focus in its early history. 

Broadband performed even better. Customer numbers doubled in 2016. It was the company’s first full year of offering a full broadband service after acquiring Snap in 2015. That move turned the mobile carrier into a full-service telco. This allowed 2degrees to sell services to government departments. It also made its mobile offering more attractive to business users wanting a one-stop service provider.

Commerce Commission: Broadband, mobile consumers getting better value

Consumers now get better value for money from telecommunications services. That's the headline message in the latest Commerce Commission annual telecommunications monitoring report. 

Telecommunications Commissioner Stephen Gale says internet prices have dropped in the last year. Customers now get four times as much data as before for the same price.

He says consumers can buy a 100GB fixed-line voice and broadband plan for $65. That's $10 less than last year's price. A 100Mbps fibre plan with unlimited data now costs $90 a month. That's 19 percent cheaper than in Australia.  

Gale also notes average broadband speeds have been rising thanks to a boost in fibre uptake. Fibre connections grew from 197,000 to 368,000 in a single year. Meanwhile congestion is reducing on the copper network. 

 He says almost every phone sold now is a smartphone able to connect to the internet. Mobile services are accessible. For $13 a month a customer can get 50 minutes of calling and 100MB of data.

There's praise for the industry. Gale says broadband and mobile prices compare well with those overseas. He says the local companies respond well to customer needs with getting the right plans on to the market. 

 Yet, there's a barb. Gales notes the high level of problems. He says there is plenty of room for improvements in customer service. 

 InternetNZ chief executive Jordan Carter says he is pleased to see internet use increasing and the cost of it getting cheaper. He says the highlights areas for improvement: “In particular, telecommunications consumers reporting a high level of problems.

This shows that the challenge of customer service remains. People want to know that dealing with their Internet provider will be simple, quick and right the first time. There's more work for the industry to do on that front".

Vodafone tests flying cell site

Vodafone has tested a prototype flying cell site for search and rescue helicopters. The company worked with Police Search and Rescue to build a mobile site that fits in a helicopter. 

The device helps find people lost in remote areas by picking up their phone signals. Phones issue a ping as they attempt to contact local cell sites. The helicopter device detects this and narrow the search area.  

When the helicopter is near enough, the people on the ground can use the cell site to make an emergency call. This can go direct to the search team on the helicopter. In some cases rescuers can contact the missing people by calling their phones.  

Vodafone says it needs to do more testing before it gets used for real life rescue missions. 

Sky to appeal Vodafone merger decision

Newspapers report Sky TV will lodge an appeal against the Commerce Commission decision on its merger with Vodafone. In the NBR, Tim Hunter says Sky chief financial officer Jason Hollingworth confirmed his company will file an appeal. 

 At Business Day, Tom Pullar-Strecker heard similar from Susan McGregor Bevan at Vodafone. He reports the companies have already sunk large amounts of money in the merger. So the extra cost of an appeal would “not be material”. 

The Commerce Commission rejected the merger proposal in January. It said it fears the new business would have ownership of all premium sports programming. This would make it possible to bundle the content into a single landline, mobile, broadband and pay TV package which would reduce competition.

Global enterprise network traffic surges

Software defined network provider Aryaka reports global enterprise WAN traffic is growing about 200 percent year-on-year. The company's 2016 state of the WAN report identifies Asia-Pacific as the fastest growing region. WAN traffic in the region was up 248 percent in 2016. 

Aryaka says rapid adoption of cloud technology and business transformation projects are driving the growth. Manufacturing is the most dynamic traditional industry. It shows a 440 percent increase in WAN traffic during the year. The software and internet sector saw network traffic climb 526 percent. 

Other fast growing industries are real estate, energy and utilities, and travel industries. Almost half of enterprise traffic is HTTP or HTTPS. This is down to the increased use of cloud and corporate use of software as a service. 

NEC pushes 50Tbps through undersea fibre

NEC demonstrated 50 terabits per second transmission on a single optical fibre over more than 11,000km. The speed is close to the theoretical maximum that can travel through fibre and the distance is enough to cross the Pacific Ocean.