Howzat? Another New Zealand broadband record reached on Friday

Broadband usage in New Zealand has reached another all-time high of 3.20 terabits per second.

Network operator Chorus says it recorded the new benchmark on Friday – an action-packed day when the morning tsunami threat turned into a crucial blocking decision in the afternoon and New Zealand faced Australia in cricket T20 at night, which could only be seen. via streaming on Spark Sport.

The previous record of 3.15 terabits per second was reached during the close of August last year.

That was nearly shattered last week when Chorus posted its second highest peak of 3.10 tbps amid the triple hit of Auckland’s fourth lockdown, a patch update for the popular game Call of Duty, and a smashing cricket match on Spark Sport.

Chorus, fending off new competition from wireless broadband, says its network can handle 3.5 tbps and has plans to turn on the taps. In the company’s recent interim result, CEO JB Rousselot said that today’s full-speed broadband plan, the 4-gigabit-per-second iteration of Hyperfibre, should be available in an 8-gigabit-per-second version for purposes of of this year. Chorus was testing a 25 gigabits per second plan, he said.

Before the pandemic, Chorus’ all-time record was 2.6 tbps during the 2019 Rugby World Cup. That event saw some setbacks for Spark Sport. On Friday night, when the new record was reached, no major issues were reported.

A Spark spokesperson said the Black Caps v Australia series had been a success, “with simulcasts of matches three, four and five being the highest on Spark Sport since the Rugby World Cup.” However, the company does not disclose exact figures.

The average household now uses about 500 gigabytes of data per month, Chorus says, or about five times more than in 2016, as streaming goes mainstream. About 80 percent of households now have unlimited plans.

Chorus shares were recently trading at $ 8.04c.

The stock is up 6.47 percent for the year.