Record-breaking data usage over school holidays

Rather than pulling their hair out thinking of potential activities, it would appear Kiwi parents are turning to the internet to entertain their little ones.

According to Chorus, the Easter school holidays saw record-breaking broadband use, with the clear driver being families relying on their broadband connections for entertainment.

Monthly average data usage soared to 261 GB in April, while total data usage on Easter Monday alone saw the largest amount of all time with the Chorus network carrying almost 12 million GV of data. Chorus network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers says that is equivalent to every single New Zealander streaming their own individual Netflix TV show in HD.

The peak traffic on the company's network was on Wednesday April 17th at 9.20pm which saw usage hit 1.929Tbps. This surpasses the most recent record of 1.815Tbps experienced on the 7th of February.

On the other end of the scale, the 20th of April was the quietest day after reaching 1.627Tbps – still nothing to sneeze at. Chorus has put the likely cause of this down to consumers being on the road or spending 'actual' time with family and friends.

"We were expecting April to be a big month because of Easter and school holidays but it has surpassed our expectations as there seems to be no end to how much data people are consuming," says Rodgers.

"We celebrated the average household on our network using over 100GB of data a month back in July 2016. It seems like only yesterday, yet in under three years, that number has more than doubled," Rodgers says.

According to Rodgers, evenings continue to be the time when most Kiwis are using their broadband.

'We know around 9pm is when we're online shopping, streaming movies, gaming etc, and it's vital to have a robust fibre network that accommodates this peak recreation time,' Rodgers says.