The NZ World Internet Project Survey of over 1200 New Zealanders hasrevealed that 83% are now using the Internet, up from 79% in 2007.More significantly, the proportion of internet users using broadband has risen to 82% by September 2009, up from 67%
The NZ World Internet Project Survey of over 1200 New Zealanders has
revealed that 83% are now using the Internet, up from 79% in 2007.
More significantly, the proportion of internet users using broadband has risen to 82% by September 2009, up from 67% in 2007, with dial-up use declining.
The finding indicates there must be a lot of sharing going on.
The most recent data released by the Commerce Commission, after polling telcos and ISPs, found that New Zealand had 981,000 broadband connections, as of June 2009 - a 7% increase over the past half year.
That works out to 23 broadband connections for every 100 people, putting New Zealand in the middle of the OECD's rankings.
More getting the net via mobile
The biggest change is that the people accessing the internet via mobile phones more than doubled from 7% in 2007 to 18% in late 2009.
Both Telecom and Vodafone have reported a surge in mobile internet use as they have upgraded their networks to the internet-friendly 3G standard (both completed their upgrades around May last year), and more and more web and email phones come on the market.
There are now also many websites that also come in versions optimised for mobile phones (such as m.nbr.co.nz).
It has sometimes been a rocky transition, however, with congestion and other problems on both networks sometimes caused by an unexpectedly high number of people using data services from their phones (Vodafone noted the surge in data use when some of its customers could not access the internet yesterday.)
Other key findings:
• Two thirds of users said the internet was so important to their everyday lives that losing access to it would be a problem.
• Nearly half of all users are members of social networking sites and three quarters of these report that Facebook is the site they use most often.
• Asian New Zealanders had the highest level of internet use at 97%, while Maori, Pasifika and Pakeha hovered around the 80% mark.
• Males and females used the Internet equally – more than 80%.
• About half of users post online messages, images or videos, while one in ten earns income in this way.
• Nearly half of users report that the Internet has increased their contact with other New Zealanders, and more say it has increased their overall contact with family and friends.
• Of people with under-18s in their household, around 80% have rules governing online activities.
The local leg of the World Internet Project survey is conducted bi-annually by AUT University's Institute of Culture, Discourse & Communication and is
strongly supported by InternetNZ, a contributor to its funding.
The global survey does not include little old New Zealand in its publically released comparative charts, but you can view selected results from other country's here.
