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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
There are a wide variety of factors that directly influence your overall user experience.
This includes:
We discuss each of these areas in our next series of articles.
Next Article: What influences your Home Internet and Wifi Experience - Modem/Router