Use of 4G in resort doubles in six months

Queenstown residents and visitors to the resort are using nearly 430,000 megabytes of data a month - 20 times the amount of 4G data downloaded at Beyonce's concert in Auckland last year.

Public use of the next-generation mobile communication technology, known as 4G, in Queenstown has more than doubled in the past six months, which Vodafone said was at much the same rate as its 37 other 4G locations around New Zealand.4G provides much faster mobile downloads plus better streaming and video on smartphones and tablets.

Vodafone launched 4G in Queenstown last June. Queenstown was the first South Island provincial town and only the third centre in New Zealand to get 4G.

A 4G report released by Vodafone last month examining the impact of the country's first 4G network on social trends and behaviour shows New Zealanders stream four times more content on 4G than 3G.

Ms Pickering said it had been great to see how rapidly Queenstown had adopted the technology.

''A large share of activity on our 3G network is web browsing, but on 4G customers enjoy traditionally fixed line activities - like shopping and streaming music and video - and Queenstown is no exception.''

Ms Pickering said Vodafone expected 4G use in Queenstown and nationwide to continue to grow at ''exponential'' levels.

''This year, our network priority is to deliver the benefits of superfast mobile to more of New Zealand,'' she said.

Telecom, which intends to change its name to Spark later this year, said the company was looking at expanding its 4G coverage to Queenstown, beyond Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

However, it did not have a timetable for the Wakatipu due in part to the prolonged 700MHz spectrum auction by the Government.

Mobile network 2degrees is expected to launch 4G commercially in Auckland in July, followed by the wider Auckland region and Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch by the end of the year.

The deployment will continue into the provinces in 2015, but the company could not confirm when it would launch the service in the Wakatipu.

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