BuddeBlog

The results of the 2001 Census offered one of the most comprehensive surveys on Internet usage by New Zealanders. It revealed that 37% of households have access to the Internet and that the higher the household income, the greater the level of online access.

Groups with higher Internet access levels:
Households in the Auckland and Wellington regions have the highest rates of Internet access at nearly 9 in 20.
Households with an income of more than $100,000 – more than 7 in 10 of these households have Internet access.
Households comprising a couple with children – over half have access to the Internet.
Households in dwellings where the usual residents make mortgage payments – half have access to the Internet.
Households living in dwellings in three or more storey complexes – almost half (9 in 20) have an Internet connection.
People of Asian ethnicity – 6 in 10 of these people live in households with access to the Internet.
People aged 45 to 54 years – over half of these people live in households with access to the Internet.

Groups with lower Internet access levels:
Households in the Gisborne and West Coast regions have the lowest rates of Internet access at fewer than 1 in 4.
Households with an income of $10,001 to $15,000 – 1 in 9 of these households have access to the Internet.
Households comprising one parent with children – 3 in 10 have access to the Internet.
One-person households – 1 in 6 have access to the Internet.
Households who rent from a local authority, city council or Housing New Zealand – 1 in 10 have access to the Internet.
People of Maori ethnicity – 1 in 4 of these people live in households with access to the Internet.
People of Pacific peoples ethnicity – 1 in 5 of these people live in households with access to the Internet.
People aged 65 years and over – 1 in 6 of these people live in households with access to the Internet.

Table 1 – Urban and rural Internet access rates – 2001
Area
Description
Internet access

Urban (main)
30,000 or more people
40%

Urban (secondary)
10,000–29,999
28%

Urban (minor)
1,000–9,999
25%

Rural centre
300–999
26%

Other rural
less than 300
37%

(Source: Statistics New Zealand — 2001 Census)

Wellington is the most connected city in New Zealand, with 44% of households connected to the Internet. Christchurch is second with 41% of households connected, followed by Auckland at 39%.

Changes to measuring Internet usage
Be it page hits, unique site visits, unique users, there remains a great deal of confusion among leading industry players as to the best way to measure ‘usage’. As a result several Internet companies — including Xtra, Stuff, Nzoom, Internet Bureau, and Vodafone — have banded together to set up a measurement system that provides advertisers consistent information about which sites are most popular. Each has been asked to draw up a list of criteria they want measured and once a final list has been agreed the group will make a decision as to the best way to go about it.

NetRatings had been measuring the home Internet audience in New Zealand for several years but closed its NZ office in October 2001. While it still operates in New Zealand, the industry needs a self-funded method it can rely on for accurate measurements.

See also: New Zealand – Internet Market Overview and Usage.

According to the latest figures from Nielsen/NetRatings China now has 56.6 million people with residential Internet connections. This has come as a surprise as the official government figures, such as the ones provided by the Ministry of Information Industry, recently mentioned only 37.5 million users.

If these figures are correct, then China has overtaken Japan as the 2nd largest Internet country and is well on its way to dethrone the USA within the next 5 years.

Japan has 51.3 million people with residential Internet connections and now rates as number 3. The US has 166 million Internet households.

China’s number of residential Internet users represents only 0.5% of the country’s 1.3 billion population, which compares with levels of more like 50% in developed markets such as the US and South Korea. The biggest barrier to Internet usage in the Middle Kingdom is limited access to fixed line telephone services, with only 36% of homes on the Mainland having a fixed line installed.

Broadband Regional Connect, introduced by Telstra in May 2002, offers a dedicated upload speed of 64 kbps, which will be most attractive to the high-volume data user. The offer combines two widely available technologies – ISDN and Satellite – to deliver dedicated 400 kbps downstream and dedicated 64 kbps upstream Internet connection. Satellite is universally available in Australia and ISDN can be accessed by 96% of the population, including 65% of farmers. Apart from the benefits of faster Internet access, the digital line into the home allows normal telephone and fax calls to be made at the same time as surfing the Internet or sending data.

A monthly cost of $110 includes:

- an ISDN/digital line;

- BigPond – dial-up service;

- one way satellite service, and

- a limit of 1GB of data per month.

While connected to the Internet, a connection charge of 30 cents an hour applies A $700 connection fee (GST inc) includes digital line conversion and hardware.

See also:

Australia – Broadband – Developments and Analysis 2002

Telstra Corporation Limited – Infrastructure & Wholesale

Telstra Corporation Limited – E-commerce and Multimedia

Cahners In-Stat predicts that the number of cable telephony subscribers worldwide will rise to more than 15 million by 2005. They predict that most cable telephony subscribers will live in North America and Western Europe, and that worldwide revenue for the industry will climb from $1 billion in 2000 to more than $6.5 billion by 2005. Cahners also forecasts that it will not be until late 2002 to early 2003 that widespread adoption of Internet Protocol (IP) cable telephony occurs, and that there will be 5 million IP cable telephony subscribers by 2005.

See also:
Global – Broadband – Cable Telephony and Cable Modems.

In early 2000 the government of Ecuador called for bids for an April auction of three concessions to operate Wireless Local Loop (WLL) bands. Each license is to include the concession to render fixed local telephone services, public telephone service and carrier services. The licenses will also include a permit to render value-added services. The deadline for submissions was extended to April 19 in the hope of creating more interest from investors. This auction will be the first step in opening the telecom market to competition and in doing so the regulator Conatel, hopes to increase teledensity from 10-20%. At the end of 2001 the total number of local lines in service stood at 1,335,800 up from just 1,265,000 lines at the close of 2000.

The government’s privatisation programme also includes the sale of the state-owned telecommunications companies, Andinatel and Pacifictel. But this effort has been delayed several times and is not expected to progress in 2002.

Ecuador is one of the best performing economies in Latin America but because of the country’s 1999 default, the country has limited access to affordable international credit and with a presidential election scheduled for October 2002 companies may be very cautious about investing until after the election.

See also:
Ecuador;
Latin America Market Overview and Analysis 2002.