Chorus says the average connection speed on the company’s network hit 202Mbps at the end of June. That’s more than
double the 100Mbps average speed in 2019.
A decade ago the average speed was 10Mbps.
Higher speeds mean users chew through more data. Chorus says the average customer on its fibre network used 500GB in
June.
Chorus' network recorded a peak data throughput of 2.97 terabits per second on the evening of the Queen’s Birthday
holiday.
Comparisons
That's high, but not a record. During the August 2020 Covid lockdown traffic peaked at 3.15Tbps. In comparison the
streamed 2019 Rugby World Cup coverage saw throughput hit a high of 2.6Tbps.
The average fibre customer sees download speeds about 10 times those seen on fixed wireless networks.
Speed tests published in the recent autumn 2021 Measuring Broadband New Zealand report show fixed wireless broadband speeds average 25Mbps around the clock and fall to 21Mbps during peak hours.
The report notes that dropouts are infrequent across all technologies, but people with ADSL or fixed wireless broadband
will see them more often than fibre users. It also says average download speeds on fixed wireless dropped 25 percent
during the March Covid-19 lockdown.
Steady connection speed improvement
There are two reasons for the continual improvement in average speeds. First, a steady flow of customers switching from
copper-based internet to fibre.
This continues, although the pace of fibre uptake is now past its peak.
Chorus says it increased the number of connections on its fibre network by 29,000 in the last quarter. At the end of the
previous quarter MBIE reported there are 1.2 million connections across all fibre networks. Uptake now sits at a tick
over two-thirds of the people who can connect.
The other reason for the improvement is that fibre customers upgrade to faster plans over time. Chorus says it added a
further 14,000 gigabit or Fibre Max connections during the quarter. There are now 166,000 gigabit connections. That is
20 percent of the total.
Chorus: Connection speed doubles since 2019 was first posted at billbennett.co.nz.