New Zealand’s Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) and Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) programmes continue to deliver faster internet speeds, according to findings from two independent reports.
The December 2015 Akamai State of the Internet report found that in the past year, average speeds rose from 7.3 Mbps to 9.3 Mbps, representing a 27 percent increase in speeds for connected New Zealanders.
Alongside this, TrueNet’s latest update on RBI connections found the Government’s scheme is growing by about seven percent each quarter.
“In 2008, average broadband speeds were around 2.7 Megabits per second,” says Communications Minister Amy Adams.
“By the end of 2015, average speeds have more than tripled to 9.3 Mbps.”
Adams says Rural New Zealanders covered under the first phase of RBI are now able to access websites at a rate three times faster than they would otherwise have been able to.
“Faster and more reliable connectivity is vital to all New Zealanders, and the Government’s UFB and RBI rollouts are lifting speeds and access right across the country,” Adams adds.
“The strong progress of the rollout means more than 875,000 New Zealand households, businesses, schools and hospitals are now able to connect to UFB, while almost 280,000 rural New Zealanders are now able to connect to either fixed wireless broadband or improved copper broadband services.
“I look forward to more and more New Zealanders gaining connectivity to high-speed internet.”
Key statistics from the Akamai State of the Internet report found that across New Zealand, average speeds rose from 7.3 Mbps in 2014 to 9.3 Mbps, a 27 percent increase.
Meanwhile, peak connection speeds increased to 42.8 Mbps, a 25 percent increase on the previous year and the number of New Zealanders accessing over 15 Mbps almost tripled over the last year.
Consequently, New Zealand has improved by two places in the rankings since 2014 to now be 41st in the world for average fixed line connection speeds.
In addition, average mobile connection speeds in Q4 2015 were 7.4Mbps with peak mobile speeds reaching 75.4 Mbps, and 88 percent of connections were above 4 Mbps.