PC World > Feature

Internet use increasing but one in six Kiwis still offline

The results of the NZ World Internet Project Survey have been released.

By James Heffield / Wednesday, March 17 2010

• 10 Technologies That Should Be Extinct (But Aren't)
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
• 10 tell-tale signs your PC is infected
• Who is the average Kiwi gamer?
• Microsoft simplifies Visual Studio
• Is Google itching for a face-off with Facebook?

LATEST Feature

• Apple releases redesigned iPod nano, shuffle
• Trend Micro brings encryption to the cloud
• Chrome jumps into hardware speed-up game
• 10 Technologies That Should Be Extinct (But Aren't)
• Toshiba working on Android tablet
• Canon signals end of the road for SED TV dreams
• Google Chrome tablet due for November release?
• How to spot Facebook scams like 'dislike'
• Beware the Facebook "Dislike" button scam
• Droid 2 on sale in US on Thursday

The number of online New Zealanders is increasing but one in six of us is still not using the technology, an Auckland University of Technology survey has found.

The results of the university’s second bi-annual NZ World Internet Project Survey were released yesterday, showing that 83% of the survey’s 1,250 respondents used the net at the end of 2009, up from 79% at the end of 2007.

Survey co-ordinator Nigel Smith said the four percentage point increase was a good result and overseas surveys were likely to show higher proportions than one in six people without the internet.

“It’s not surprising in that we know that there’s a small proportion of people that don’t have telephones at all and there’s a large proportion of them that don’t have the internet. The survey results show about two thirds of those that don’t have the internet don’t see it as useful.”

The 2009 results would not be compared internationally until later this year but as at the end of 2007, New Zealand was “right at the forefront of internet connectivity,” along with Canada, Smith said.

Yesterday’s results found that the number of respondents using broadband had increased significantly and the number on dial up had gone down. Since 2007, the proportion of respondents that said they were on broadband had jumped from 67% to 82%. Those on dial-up dropped to 16%. The survey found that males and females used the internet equally but those with higher household incomes were more likely to have a broadband connection.

Smith said the jump in broadband connections was likely to have been caused by an increase in entertainment-oriented websites that required users to have higher bandwidth to enjoy them. ISPs were offering better service than they did in 2007 and there had been a “small reduction” in the cost of New Zealand broadband connections, he said.

Two thirds of survey respondents said the internet was so important to their everyday lives that losing it would be a problem. Meanwhile, the number of people accessing the internet from mobile devices had increased from 7% in 2007 to 18% in 2009 and nearly half of all internet users now said they used social networking sites, particularly Facebook.