NZ Govt Broadband Schools Initiative - How Will Network Cope?

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Jos1969

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#269805 8-Apr-2020 19:03

I see the govt will be sending out thousands of modems and internet devices to children in the coming weeks.

The Government has announced a $88 million package to help students adjust to the new normal of learning from home

Thousands of modems and internet-ready devices are being sent to households around the country, in a bid to bridge the digital divide before children resume their studies at home next week.

About 2000 internet modems would be sent out this week, with thousands more being distributed in coming weeks as the Government worked out commercial deals with ISPs.

About 17,000 internet-ready devices had been ordered and would be shipped to students throughout April, with efforts under way to secure thousands more from offshore.

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/04/08/1121050/digital-devices-rolled-out-as-virtual-school-term-set-to-start

My question - can our country's bandwidth handle this? It is already under strain from just about everybody having to work from home.
I hate to think of what my already limited speed will be like in a few weeks. 😳

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#2457681 8-Apr-2020 19:08

Let's face it. Kids are already at home with YouTube, Netflix etc going and people are working from home. When at home school starts the kids stop watching netflix etc and do class work. If your internet has been fine so far it will be fine in the coming weeks.

l43a2

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#2457683 8-Apr-2020 19:09

The great thing about bandwidth, you can just add more.

xpd

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#2457686 8-Apr-2020 19:14

l43a2:

The great thing about bandwidth, you can just add more.

Yes, but can see costs going up to cover it if needed.

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LinkTree

snnet

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#2457688 8-Apr-2020 19:18

Jos1969:

I see the govt will be sending out thousands of modems and internet devices to children in the coming weeks.

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/04/08/1121050/digital-devices-rolled-out-as-virtual-school-term-set-to-start

My question - can our country's bandwidth handle this? It is already under strain from just about everybody having to work from home.
I hate to think of what my already limited speed will be like in a few weeks. 😳

What provider are you using? I haven't noticed a slowdown in any way whatsoever during lockdown... Maybe you need to change or look at your local network?

Jos1969

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#2457691 8-Apr-2020 19:21

l43a2:

The great thing about bandwidth, you can just add more.

Enough for 17,000+ connections? Many of them wireless?

I hope so, but it does make me wonder if they have thought of this. Much of it will undoubtedly include video streaming, too.

hio77

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#2457694 8-Apr-2020 19:25

this will be spread across LFC's, Copper and Skinny Jump. Would not surprise me to see a few wisps in there (or atleast i'd hope if they can offer a better service they are involved!)

i think it's going to be a really interesting world as we move into this.

I do fear the likes of Little Jimmy getting a service, torrenting the crap out of it and going my classroom video is lagging!

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

openmedia

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#2457747 8-Apr-2020 19:53

tripp: Let's face it. Kids are already at home with YouTube, Netflix etc going and people are working from home. When at home school starts the kids stop watching netflix etc and do class work. If your internet has been fine so far it will be fine in the coming weeks.

This is aimed. mostly, at families who don't have internet access. This is still a big issue here in NZ and something Internet NZ has been working on for several years. For some homes the cost of even a basic internet plan is outside of their budget.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

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RunningMan

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#2457754 8-Apr-2020 20:03

Jos1969: [snip]My question - can our country's bandwidth handle this? 😳

Yes according to Chorus Of course that clearly isn't the entire NZ network, but it does give you a fair idea.

kiwirock

685 posts

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#2457863 8-Apr-2020 23:39

RunningMan:

Jos1969: [snip]My question - can our country's bandwidth handle this? 😳

Yes according to Chorus Of course that clearly isn't the entire NZ network, but it does give you a fair idea.

It's still pretty similar this week too.:

Wheelbarrow01

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#2457866 9-Apr-2020 00:10

Taking my Chorus hat off for a minute, I am not too concerned at this point. As the graph in the above post shows, peak usage at 9pm is still well above current midday throughput.

Midday traffic would have to increase by 250% of normal pre-lockdown traffic to reach absolute capacity. That seems unlikely given it's currently only up by 75% since lockdown began, with many thousands of workers at home - and a lot of them probably watching Netflix as they half-listen in on that boring 2 hour audio call....

Yes school kids will need to access online content to learn, but I am sure tens of thousands have already been bingeing on online entertainment all day every day for the past 2 weeks. Even if the current midday lockdown surge doubles, the network will still only reach 2.5Tbps - the equivalent of the pre-lockdown evening peak.

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

riahon

946 posts

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#2457872 9-Apr-2020 04:00

Interesting question. I don’t know the answer but to me the question read like: The government is giving free internet to those people. How is that going to affect me?
The thinking should be. CV lockdow has highlighted the digital divide in NZ. How can we share the resources we have so everyone can benefit.
Answers so far sound like we have more than enough,

Jos1969

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#2458067 9-Apr-2020 11:22

tripp: Let's face it. Kids are already at home with YouTube, Netflix etc going and people are working from home. When at home school starts the kids stop watching netflix etc and do class work. If your internet has been fine so far it will be fine in the coming weeks.

I don't see this, particularly.
We're talking about 17,000 new modems - eg, new connections. Not kids already using it, doing one thing, and switching to another.
But who knows.

Jos1969

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#2458068 9-Apr-2020 11:25

What is more interesting is that the government wouldn't roll all this out if schools were coming out of lockdown in two weeks. This speaks of a far longer period of isolation. Whether it is limited to only schools or the population as a whole we have yet to see.

cyril7

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#2458071 9-Apr-2020 11:29

Hi, I think you should note @Wheelbarrow01 comments, clearly those in the know in Chorus know what this will add, and as he has bascially said, SFA.

I think you are worring about something that is simply no an issue, these are all kids that would have been connected at school, but now at home, their school networks currently are essentially idle.

The fact that its 17k new connections is irrelivent, this is nothing to Chorus's network, the modems/routers them selves create no traffic load, the users do, and as pointed out in my last paragraph, those users were already there, but now moved from the class to home. I guess you could argue those users will now go off task and get on to netflix etc, well again, on small devices, probably not a biggie.

Cyril

Wheelbarrow01

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#2458094 9-Apr-2020 11:51

Jos1969:

tripp: Let's face it. Kids are already at home with YouTube, Netflix etc going and people are working from home. When at home school starts the kids stop watching netflix etc and do class work. If your internet has been fine so far it will be fine in the coming weeks.

I don't see this, particularly.
We're talking about 17,000 new modems - eg, new connections. Not kids already using it, doing one thing, and switching to another.
But who knows.

Yes that is probably true - but the numbers have to be looked at in context. Pre-lockdown, Chorus was adding fibre customers at the rate of several thousand a week from memory, so 17,000 new connections really only represents a month or so of BAU install work for us. But don't forget many of the new educational connections will be over RSP wireless 4G or even WISP connections.

And like @cyril7 has said, the majority of these kids will have previously been using connections at school already. These children will simply be continuing to access the same or similar content from a different location while the school connections remain idle.

Bear in mind also that, as the Chorus CEO has eluded to in this interview, network capacity can and will continue to grow as required. In my opinion, I don't think there is any real prospect of "oh cr*p, NZ has run out of internets!"

I'm not speaking officially for Chorus here - this is just my opinion based on what I see. Nobody I work with is panicking - if there was an impending capacity issue they would be.

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

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