Introduction
This paper contains various figures about the New Zealand Internet as at November 1995. It is a companion to the paper Statistics on Information Technology in New Zealand, and will be merged into that paper at its next version due to be published in March 1996.
New Zealand Internet Data Available
The only data currently available concerns the numbers of sites and computers connected to the Internet. Comprehensive traffic data is not available because of the multiplicity of routes into New Zealand. NZGATE, operator of one of the offshore links for the New Zealand Internet, states that traffic growth is currently "8-9% per month compounding", and is restrained largely by the bandwidth available.
The data presented in this document concern the number of hosts (computers) attached to the Internet in New Zealand, and the size of the New Zealand domain which is a measure of the number of organisations connected.
Structure of the New Zealand Internet
Until recently the Internet in New Zealand had a three tier structure: Level 1 was NZGATE who provided the transpacific link, level 2 was TUIAnet who distributed the Internet to university and other major sites, and level 3 was the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who offered the "last mile" access to Internet users. (It is acknowledged that this picture is over-simplified, but it conveys the main points clearly.)
A number of factors have changed this model. Privately owned on-line services (eg CompuServe and IBM) now offer Internet access but use their own infrastructure at all three levels. Some ISPs now provide their own level 2 network and a few provide their own offshore access. In addition recent announcements suggest that there will shortly be more competition at level 1, on the offshore link. NZGATE sees its role as moving more towards that of an "Internet Exchange" offering a way for level 1 and 2 operators to interconnect.
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