1 Million New Zealand Homes Subscribe to Internet

Internet Service Provider Survey: September 2005

29 March 2006

1 Million New Zealand Homes Subscribe to Internet

There were 1.01 million residential Internet subscribers in New Zealand at 30 September 2005, Statistics New Zealand said today. Results from the Internet Service Provider Survey September 2005 also showed there were 224,400 business and government subscribers. The total number of Internet subscribers in New Zealand was 1.24 million.

The predominant connection technology for subscribers was dial-up (also referred to as analog), with more than two-thirds (869,300 subscribers) using this type of Internet connection. About one-third of New Zealand subscribers use broadband (also referred to as non-analog) connection technology, a 15 percent increase compared with 31 March 2005. This raises the number of broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants from 7.8, to 9.0 at 30 September 2005.

The average number of broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants in OECD countries is 11.8. The number of business and government subscribers increased by about 17 percent (33,200 subscribers) from 31 March 2005, while residential subscribers increased by 5 percent over the same period.

Over three-quarters of Internet service providers (ISPs) in New Zealand saw the strength of competition as the greatest barrier to growth of their operations. Other common barriers to growth identified were the regulatory environment relating to telecommunications (59 percent), the cost ofinternational bandwidth (36 percent), and ISP access to financing (almost 32 percent). The Internet Service Provider Survey is a census of all Internet service providers in New Zealand and is repeated every six months.

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

ENDS

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