Understanding Your Home Internet And Wifi In New Zealand

How many times have you heard friends complaining about their internet at home, or even your kids at home saying the internet is ‘rubbish’?

How can this be the case as NZ has rolled out fibre which is so much faster than ADSL?

To explain why someone has Ultra Fast Fibre (UFB) at home but everyone is complaining about poor internet, we need to look at the components of delivering internet.

In fact, with UFB, the issue is unlikely to be the UFB internet service, but what is happening between the modem/router and the devices connected.

First some background

Since 1999, when ADSL broadband was first introduced in NZ, we have seen an explosion in internet access in NZ.

Affordable devices made this growth easy by being able to provide everyone from pre-school kids to retirees the tools to connect.  The Smart Phone (2012), iPad, tablets, and cheap laptops have meant homes now have multiple devices ‘online’.

On demand streaming services delivering exciting content has further fuelled our desire for internet access.  This includes applications like Facebook and You Tube and more recently Netflix, Rugby World Cup and other TV and Movie streaming services have made online streaming mainstream in NZ homes.

Data Consumption

Our growth is best measured by the amount of data we are using and the speeds we are getting.

Just 5 years ago, the average ADSL connection in NZ was using less than 50GB per month.  Today the average fibre connection is consuming more than 250GB, a 5-fold increase.

Data Speed

ADSL connections were averaging 8.0–9.0 mbps, but now the most popular fibre speed today is 100 mbps, over 10 times faster.

In NZ most NZ residential dwellings have:

• Had an increase in speed of the internet to their home
• Increased the use of streaming and use of on-line applications
• Significantly increased the number of devices accessing the internet in the house
• Seen a vast increase in data consumption

So why is it that so many families are struggling with their internet environment, not meeting their requirements?

The large majority of the issues centre on the service from when the internet hits the house, through to the device that connects to the internet.

What influences the user experience?

There are a wide variety of factors that directly influence your overall user experience.

This includes:

• Quality of the modem/router in your home, which provides the WI-FI service
• Wiring connectivity in your home
• Quality & speed of the internet service from the street to the house
• Types of devices connecting to the internet & consequential internet load
• Copper vs Fibre internet connections
• The impacts on copper-based internet services–ADSL & VDSL
• The positioning of the modem/router

We discuss each of these areas in our next series of articles.

Next Article:  What influences your Home Internet and Wifi Experience - Modem/Router