Hon Amy Adams

Minister for Communications

      Media statement

NZ tops OECD for fibre growth connections

Fibre growth connections in New Zealand have tripled in the last year, putting us first of all 34 countries in the OECD, says Communications Minister Amy Adams.

The latest OECD Broadband Portal penetration statistics show New Zealand is now number one among developed countries for annual growth of fibre connections from June 2013 to June 2014, with an annual growth of 272 per cent.

The average annual growth of fibre connections in the OECD was 12.4 per cent.

“In the year to December 2014, fibre connections in New Zealand grew from 19,000 to 69,301. This is an impressive jump and demonstrates the impact that the Government’s $2 billion investment in the Ultra-fast Broadband and Rural Broadband Initiative programme is having on the telecommunications services available to New Zealanders,” says Ms Adams.

“People are increasingly choosing fibre for its superior speeds, capacity and reliability as the build continues across New Zealand.”

The international broadband comparisons published by the OECD also show New Zealand’s overall broadband performance is continuing to improve relative to other OECD countries.

“Over the past ten years, we have moved up from 22^nd place out of 30 OECD countries in June 2004 to being 15^th out of 34 OECD countries for fixed broadband subscriptions as at June 2014,” says Ms Adams.

“We are now ahead of Australia, the US and Japan for fixed broadband, with more than 31 broadband subscriptions for every 100 New Zealanders signed up for this service.

“At the same time, the quality of people’s broadband packages is improving, with greater numbers of customers using VDSL or fibre, rather than the older ADSL technology.”

New Zealand is now also in the top ten in the OECD for wireless broadband, up from 16^th just four years ago.

OECD Broadband Portal penetration statistics can be found at www.oecd.org/sti/broadband/oecdbroadbandportal.htm

Media contact: Kristy Martin 022 015 8039