Kurt Rodgers: Chorus network strategy manager on Kiwi households using more than Australian counterparts

The average New Zealand home chews twice as much data each month, as its Australian counterpart.

Chorus recorded its busiest day for ultrafast broadband fibre on November 2, driven by an update to the video game, Fortnite.

Of this year's 17 biggest spikes - 14 came from Fortnite updates.

Chorus network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers says fibre is the main difference with Australia.

"Fibre's really the key to having good quality broadband at home. The Australians have taken a different path, they've got multiple technologies, particularly a lot of copper."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The average Kiwi home uses twice as much data a
month as the average Australian home, with sport and gaming
driving our biggest traffic spikes. According to Chorus, one of
the seventeen biggest spikes this year of the seventeen, I
should say, fourteen were driven by updates to the video
game Fortnite. Other spikes came from the Mike Tyson Jake

(00:22):
Paul fight and the All Blacks game against Japan. Chorus
network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers is with me. Good evening,
Hey Ryan, how are you good? Thank you, Good to
have you in the studio. First of all, why do
we use more, so much more than the Aussies.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, a lot of it's to do with better infrastructure
here in New Zealand. So you know, we've rolled out
a lot of fiber, and fiber is really the key
to having good quality broadband at home. The Australians have
taken a different path, so they've got multiple technologies, particularly
a lot of copper and a lot of wireless technology
and it just puts a bit of a constraint. Doesn't

(00:55):
have the same capacity as we have in New Zealand.
So really a bit of that's about the infrastructure.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
So ours is easier, quicker, faster, therefore we use more of.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
It, no constraints, right, yeah, all.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Right, so what about the spikes? How do we manage those?
Does it result in cutouts, network cutouts, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well no, And that's the great thing about fiber infrastructure.
It's a bit like having a digital highway that's got
lots and lots of lanes to add. So when things
do happen like live sports streaming, game downloads and in
various things happening in busy time, the fiber network is
able to just expand and handle all of that without
really any impact on your experience.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
What's up with Wykaso, particularly Topiiti and well it was
everywhere in Wyko to accept Hamilton, from what I could see,
had the largest consumption of anywhere in New Zealm.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah's an interesting thing is, look, there's a couple of
things going on there. So there's a demographic thing that
plays out that younger generation and also Maldi and Pacific
and Asian communities much more online and a much more
engaged in entertainment and online media, and got these demographic
issues that play out in places like South Orton and Waikato.

(02:04):
But the other specific thing to Waikato is we've been
building a lot of new subdivisions and a lot of expansion.
You know, it's part of the Golden Triangle, a huge
population growth, and we suspect there's quite a few people
who work in the city but are choosing to work
for them that makes sense in these new places, and
that's what we think is particularly driving.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
How much is too much? I mean, we're using thirteen
times more data today than we were ten years ago.
We at some point going to each saturation point.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I think it's just going to keep going, right,
I mean, there's always new things around the corner that
people are wanting to do. As you know, more and
more things that we do offline are moved online, and
as new technologies come along. I mean, who knows what
virtual reality or artificial intelligence is going to bring to us.
So we're thinking it's going to keep going and keep growing.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Are the kids in Australia who aren't using as much
data as we are here in New Zealand better off mentally?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, I don't know. We'll have to talk. We'll have
to ask some parents over there, but they're probably just
a bit more frustrated that the Fortnite game takes a
lot longer to downloads.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
All right, thanks very much for coming on that is chorus.
Kurt Rogers with us for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
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