Kiwis embrace broadband

The total number of internet subscribers continued to increase, reaching 1,504,000 users in March 2008, Statistics NZ said recently.

The number of broadband subscribers has increased 10.7 per cent in the six months to March 2008, to reach 891,000.

Subscribers with analog connection fell 9.3 per cent from September 2007, down to 613,000. This is the largest decline since March 2006.

In terms of internet service subscriber speed, upload speeds of 128Kbps and 256Kbps and download speeds of 2Mbps to less than 10Mbps were the highest ranking categories.

There were 60 internet service providers (ISPs) operating in NZ at 31st March, 2008, compared with 57 ISPs operating six months earlier.

The Internet Service Provider Survey is a census of all internet service providers in NZ.