‘Blown away’: Record high data usage on Christmas, Boxing Day

Most of the country may be on holiday, but many Kiwis haven’t switched to offline mode just yet.

A record amount of data was used by Vodafone customers over Christmas and Boxing Day – up more than 50 per cent on the previous Christmas.

New Zealanders burned through a mammoth 1,777 terabytes (TB) of data across the two days, compared with 1,178 TB of data used during the same time last year, resulting in a 51 per cent increase.

The busiest online period was between 8-9pm on both Christmas and Boxing Day, with 58 TB and 61 TB of data used during the peak periods.

People used some downtime in the evenings to stream content, video-call or check out online deals.

Many New Zealanders are spending another festive season away from friends and family as border restrictions remain – forcing people to connect with loved ones online only.

The Government’s plan to start reopening the international border next month has been foiled by the Omicron variant of Covid-19, with Kiwis in Australia now having to wait until the end of February before they can travel home quarantine-free.

Vodafone New Zealand Head of Network Services, Sharina Nisha, said the company has been “blown away” by the sheer volume of internet usage this Christmas.

“With international travel still on hold, we expected a large amount of internet traffic around the holiday season but once again we’ve been blown away by the sheer volume.”

Meanwhile, data usage increased by 14 per cent among Spark mobile customers compared with Christmas in 2020.

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They used around 910 TB of data on Christmas Day, and 62 terabytes were used during the peak hour between 9-10pm.

Usage was even higher on Boxing Day, with 997 TB being used across 3G and 4G over the day and 66 TB being used on the Spark 4G network between 9-10pm.

More than four million voice calls were made on Christmas Day, mostly between 10-11am.

But there was a 23 per cent drop in text messages being sent during the peak hour, 9-10am, compared to last Christmas.

“To ensure there’s enough capacity to go around, we’ve upgraded many of our existing cell towers and deployed temporary sites across numerous holiday destinations,” Spark said in a statement to the Herald.

Temporary cell sites on wheels have been installed by Vodafone at popular holiday spots as well, so people can continue their online habits uninterrupted.

Coastal towns with increased capacity over the holiday period include Paihia, Omaha and Whangamata.