Internet Service Provider Survey: March 2008

Internet Service Provider Survey

The Internet Service Provider Survey provides information on the total number and nature of subscribers who use New Zealand-based Internet service providers (ISPs) to connect either permanently or regularly to the Internet. This information allows a measurement of the global connectivity of New Zealanders, which is regarded as an important determinant in accelerating economic growth. A core set of official statistics on Internet service provision results from this survey. This will help individuals, communities, businesses and government to understand how information and communication technology is changing the economy and society.

Updated respondent data has led the revision of estimates from previous ISP surveys to maintain consistency with the March 2008 ISP survey and future surveys in the time series.

Internet service provision in New Zealand

For the six months ended 31 March 2008, there were 60 ISPs operating in New Zealand, with 1,504,000 subscribers. The number of subscribers increased 1.6 percent from 30 September 2007, (the lowest growth rate in the two years to March 2008).

Residential subscribers totalled 1,282,800 at the end of March 2008. They accounted for 85.3 percent of all subscribers and provided 78.5 percent of total revenue. Business and government subscribers totalled 221,200, accounting for 14.7 percent of all subscribers and providing 21.5 percent of total revenue.

Size of Internet service providers

Percentiles are a useful method for comparing ISP size over time. Percentiles are determined by sorting ISPs (by number of subscribers) from smallest to largest. The average number of subscribers within a percentile range is then calculated. At 31 March 2008, the smallest ISPs (0–20th percentile) had 55 subscribers on average, while the largest ISPs (81st–100th) had 122,400 subscribers. The average number of subscribers in ISPs above the 80th percentile has increased 20 percent since March 2006.

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*Percentile is calculated by sorting ISPs (by number of subscribers) from smallest to largest, then the average number of subscribers within a percentile range is calculated.
Note: All cells in this table have been randomly graduated rounded.
Symbol : R revised

ISP revenue from business and government subscribers

At 31 March 2008, 20 percent of ISPs received up to 20 percent of their revenue from business and government subscribers. Twenty-five percent received between 81 and 100 percent. There was a 42.9 percent increase from September 2007 in the number of ISPs that received between 21 and 40 percent of their revenue from business and government subscribers.

Other business activities of Internet service providers

In the six months to March 2008, 20 percent of ISPs provided wholesale of bandwidth to other ISPs, while 25 percent of ISPs sold Internet packages to other ISPs for resale. Seventy percent undertook none of the activities above, an increase from 58 percent at the end of March 2006.

Internet subscriber connection type

At 31 March 2008, the number of subscribers using analog (dial-up) connection technology was 613,000, down 9.3 percent since September 2007.

The number of non-analog (broadband) subscribers has increased by 10.7 percent from 30 September 2007, to reach 891,000 subscribers. Non-analog subscribers comprise 59.2 percent of the total number of subscribers. However, this growth rate has slowed from the previous year's growth of 27.2 percent. Of the non-analog connections, digital subscriber line (DSL) continued to be the most common connection technology, with 711,900 subscribers. The next most common non-analog connection technologies (in descending order) were: cellular, cable, wireless, satellite, and other.

There were 35.3 Internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants in New Zealand at the end of March 2008, compared with 34.9 per 100 six months earlier. The number of non-analog (broadband) subscribers increased from 19.0 to 20.9 per 100 inhabitants over the same period. Of the 20.9 non-analog subscribers per 100 inhabitants, 16.7 were using a DSL connection type and 4.2 were using other connection technologies.

 

Internet subscription data allowances

Of the 891,000 non-analog subscribers at 31 March 2008, 7.6 percent (67,400) had no data allowance cap (or data cap) on their subscription plan. Of subscribers who had a data cap, 59.3 percent (528,600) used plans with a data cap of less than 5GB, 28.4 percent (253,200) had a data cap between 5GB and less than 20GB, and 4.7 percent (42,000) had a data cap of 20GB or more.

 

Internet subscriber speeds

At 31 March 2008, 41.3 percent of all subscribers (620,400) had subscription-plan download speeds of less than 256kbps, and 58.7 percent (883,600) had download speeds of more than 256kbps and speed unknown.

While 83.7 percent of subscribers had upload speeds of less than 256kbps, 16.3 percent had upload speeds greater than 256kbps.

 

The number of subscribers with download speeds between 128kbps to less than 256kbps has increased between 21 and 30 percent.

During the same period, upload speeds of 128kbps and 256kbps was the highest ranking category. The next most common upload speeds (in descending order) were: less than 64 kbps, 512kbps to 2Mbps, 2Mbps to 10Mbps, 256kbps to 512kbps, 10Mbps or greater, unknown upload speed, and 64kbps to 128kbps.

Filtering services supplied by ISPs

The Internet Service Provider Survey: March 2008 measures only the uptake of filtering services which are supplied by the ISPs. There are many other alternatives available to subscribers, including purchasing and downloading software, which are outside the scope of this survey.

Email filtering

At 31 March 2008, 97.9 percent of Internet subscribers (1,472,700) had adopted an email filtering product offered by their ISPs. Eighty percent of ISPs provided a free email filtering service to their subscribers, 25 percent provided a charged service and 20 percent of ISPs provided both a free and charged service.

Web filtering

At 31 March 2008, 15 percent of ISPs offered their subscribers a free web filtering service, 15 percent provided a charged service and 5 percent provided both a free and charged service. Seventy-five percent of ISPs did not offer web filtering services.

 

 

Internet service provider barriers to growth

For the six months ended 31 March 2008, 55 percent of ISPs identified strength of competition as the greatest barrier to the growth of their operations. Other common barriers recognised were the cost of international bandwidth (50 percent), the delays in obtaining facilities from backbone suppliers (30 percent), the regulatory environment relating to telecommunications (40 percent), and access to financing (40 percent). Five percent of ISPs reported they did not experience barriers to their growth.

 

For technical information contact:
Carolina Cladellas Escola
Wellington 04 931 4572
Email: info@stats.govt.nz