Wainuiomata businessman Steve Galyer has a problem shared by many broadband users and he expects Netflix's launch in New Zealand next March will make matters worse. During the day, the performance of his copper ADSL broadband service trucks along at 5 to 6 megabits per second. However, at peak times, like after the kids come home from school until late evening, download speeds plummet to a lowly 200 kilobits.

Chorus has said the connection is not faulty and exceeds the legal requirements set out by the Commerce Commission, though it accepted the performance of its network in the area could have worsened as more people moved there and used the internet for more things.

Galyer may be better off than others battling with slow peak-time broadband. According to Chorus, services in his street should get an upgrade some time between July next year and June 2016 as a result of the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI).