Dunedin City Council information released to The Star reveals the 15 public Wi-Fi hot spots in Dunedin cost nearly $450,000 to install and more than $13,000 a month, excluding GST, to run.
The average monthly data usage rates of the hot spots were given to The Star for the first quarter of this year.
On average, the most gigabytes were used at the hot spot in Dunedin City Library (1564Gb a month) and the least was used in Macandrew Bay (50Gb a month).
A request from The Star for hot spot usage statistics for a year was declined due to the time it would take to collate the information.
However, the council did provide The Star with usage stats for a year for the hot spot in the Octagon - the second most used hot spot site in Dunedin for the first quarter of this year.
In the Octagon in the past year to end of July, the most data was used in February (1175Gb) and the least data was used in July (242Gb).
An average New Zealand residential home used 277 gigabytes of data a month, a Chorus spokesman told The Star on Tuesday.
Macandrew Bay librarian Anne Pentecost, of Macandrew Bay, said she was not surprised the hot spot in her suburb used the least of the 15 sites across the city.
"I don't use it.''
People could access the hot spot in the privately-owned library but nobody did, she said.
The spot might have been used more when freedom campers were allowed to stay overnight in the area, she said.
English tourists Joanna Hill and Matt Shadwick said they were visiting Dunedin for two days from Monday.
After The Star showed them the list of available hot spots in Dunedin, Mr Shadwick said they had visited many of the places but were unaware free Wi-Fi was available.
The council should install signs in hot spot areas to let people know, he said.
He had been using his own data from his British mobile operator, which did not bother him because it was cheap to use.
"I have a worldwide deal so you can use your data anywhere.''
Council city services general manager Sandy Graham, when asked if she was happy with the usage rates of the hot spots across Dunedin, replied: "Absolutely''.
"It's about giving people options - it's not about how much is used - it's about providing a service.''
She was "surprised'' at the high level of usage at most spots, she said.
The number of sessions at hot spots was a better indicator than the number of gigabytes used.
For example, the Octagon hot spot was used for more than 17,300 sessions in December last year.
Hot spot users were not streaming as much content as a user in their own home, she said.
The council would not be installing signage to let people know Wi-Fi was available.
"When you pull out your phone and search for Wi-Fi in the Octagon - it says 'free Wi-Fi'.''
Macandrew Bay was selected as a site "because we couldn't ignore the peninsula''.
As it was getting cheaper for people to buy data from mobile operators, the hot spot service would be reviewed and could dictate "the cost, relocation or level of service we need to provide''.
