Sevens help set new records at cbdfree

Media Release

9th Feb 2015

Sevens help set new records at cbdfree

The Rugby Sevens and the January sporting calendar of 2015 has generated record Wi-Fi traffic in Wellington, according to wholesale Wi-Fi provider CityLink.

CityLink runs a number of Wi-Fi networks in Wellington including New Zealand’s most used public Wi-Fi, cbdfree. Supported by the Wellington City Council and set up in 2011 during the Rugby World Cup, cbdfree is a prominent feature of the Wellington landscape covering the Golden Mile and beyond.

Nick Willis, Chief Executive of CityLink Ltd says, “Sporting events like Rugby Sevens, Cricket ODIs and the fine summer of 2015 have been great facilitators to the up-surge of Wi-Fi traffic. CityLink has also launched a new WiFi platform on cbdfree. The new platform offers unlimited data sessions without interruptions from login or splash pages. Users can now continuously update emails, music, photos and applications like Facebook and Twitter without taking their phone out of their pocket.”

From 6 months ago, the Wi-Fi usage has increased 100% to 350,000 hours per month (almost 40 years per month) while users have increased 25% to 125,000 and uploaded traffic has tripled over the same period.

“The new platform has a very user friendly advertising format too which users do not find intrusive and advertisers have shown significant interest in. 95% of users surveyed expressed their satisfaction with the platform. The inline advertising platform is a banner ad which generates multiple impressions during each Wi-Fi session, which is what advertisers prefer.”

The cbdfree Wi-Fi stats show significant spikes during the cricket ODIs and the Rugby Sevens at the Westpac stadium.

“cbdfree could be a gold mine for advertisers, who can run special promotions to stadium audiences to generate higher offtake. We are in touch with advertisers and media companies for the ICC Cricket World Cup and other upcoming events in 2015,” says Dr Willis.

About CityLink

Established in 1995, CityLink is New Zealand’s foremost supplier of open access wholesale telecommunications services and a wholly owned subsidiary of the NZX publicly listed TeamTalk group of companies. The company operates an extensive fibre network and feature rich Ethernet service in the Wellington and Auckland. It manages the New Zealand Internet Exchange (NZIX), operates colocation facilities in Auckland and Wellington, as well as custom high capacity Wi-Fi networks.

About CityLink Wi-Fi

CityLink, has been in the Wi-Fi space for over a decade, with custom high capacity Wi-Fi networks for cities, mobile networks, education, malls, stadiums, accommodation, events, conference centres, transport hubs and enterprises.

cbdfree from CityLink is New Zealand’s most used public Wi-Fi with over 100,000 unique users (125,000 in Jan 2015). The cbdfree zone includes: The Wellington Golden Mile and beyond extending from Courtenay Place, Manners Street, Willis Street, Lambton Quay, Waterloo Quay, Customhouse Quay, Jervois Quay, Cable Street and important landmarks like Westpac Stadium, Wellington Railway Station, Wellington Cable Car Terminals, Wellington Zoo, ASB Sports Centre, TSB Arena.

CityLink Wi-Fi has a range of products for businesses and individuals as well as a Wi-Fi advertising network with value-adds such as location based services.

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