NZ second biggest web user in world

New Zealanders are the second-biggest users of the internet in the world despite poor broadband uptake, new statistics show.

A compilation of figures on Internet World Stats website shows 76.3 per cent of New Zealanders - about 3.2 million people - regularly use the internet.

That's good enough for second place, just behind Malta, at 78.1 per cent, and ahead of Iceland, Sweden and Denmark.

Colin Jackson, president of internet governance body InternetNZ, wasn't surprised with the showing.

"New Zealanders have always been up at the head of this. Back in the early days of the mass'net, in the early nineties, it was always us and the Nordics and the US who were the leaders of the pack."

The statistics were compiled from a number of sources, including the International Telecommunications Union, ratings analyst Nielsen//NetRatings and the Computer Industry Almanac.

Although definitions differ between the sources, the website qualified an internet user as someone who has available access to the internet and who has basic knowledge of how to use web technology.

The statistics reinforce similar numbers from the OECD, which ranks countries according to internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

New Zealand rates well by that measure - its 52.6 subscribers per 100 is good enough for eighth out of 30, ahead of countries such as Canada, the UK and Japan. But the numbers include dial-up subscribers, who are the overwhelming majority of New Zealand's internet customers.

Conversely, the country ranks near the bottom of the OECD - 22nd out of 30 - in high-speed internet uptake. This further highlights the broadband problem, Jackson said.

"We have lousy broadband penetration in a country where all the other figures including this one show that we would love to be ahead of the curve," he said.

"We've been choked. There is huge demand but inadequate supply."

Telecom has no real broadband competition and controls more than 90 per cent of the market, either through retail or wholesale, which allows the company to set prices and speeds as it sees fit, Jackson said.

Telecom spokesman John Goulter said the company shares the Government's goal of moving customers over to faster services.

"Our big challenge is to get as many as possible of those internet users over to broadband as fast as possible. We think we've made a good step towards that" with the new set of plans it unveiled last week.

But Jackson said the plans, which boost speeds and lower prices somewhat, were not enough to make a difference in international rankings.

"I'm not convinced that the recent improvements by Telecom, while they are welcome, are anywhere near enough to get us into the top quarter of the OECD like the Government has been asking."

The low broadband uptake is also the main reason for New Zealand's poor showing in overall number of websites, he said.

New Zealand has about 15 websites per 1000 people, less than half the OECD average of 30 and well behind leader Germany, at 85.

Slow upload speeds and data restrictions have made it impractical for many users to set up and host their own sites at home.

"You run a serious risk of blowing some relatively modest data cap and letting yourself in for an unlimited bill. Nobody is going to do that from home," Jackson said.

The result is that users need to pay somebody else, such as an internet service provider, to host their website. That's an extra step and cost that discourages all but the most serious businesses.

The other result is that some businesses host their websites offshore because it is cheaper to do so.

Some Government sites, as well as some of Radio New Zealand's streaming content, is hosted in the United States, Jackson said.