Broadband connection overtakes dial-up

The number of broadband subscribers in the six months to September 2007 overtook the number of dial-upsubscribers for the first time ever, Statistics New Zealand said today.

Broadband subscribers continued to increase – up 14.4 percent in the six months to September 2007, toreach 829,300.

However, this growth rate has slowed from an increase of 28.6 percent in September 2006and 18.5 percent in March 2007.

Subscribers with dial-up connection fell 8.6 percent from March 2007,down to 675,800.

The number of broadband subscribers grew from 9 per 100 inhabitants to 19.6 per 100 inhabitants in thetwo years ended September 2007, while the number of dial-up subscribers per 100 inhabitants fell from21.2 to 15.9.

Of the additional 10.6 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, half switched from dial-upand the remaining half were new subscribers.

There was a 47 percent increase in the number of Internet service providers reporting that the cost ofinternational bandwidth had been a barrier to growth in the past two years.

The Internet Service Provider Survey is a census of all Internet service providers in New Zealand and isconducted every six months.