A typical connected household now uses somewhere between 500 GB and 900 GB per month, and heavier homes push past 1 TB. SpeedTestHQ's 2026 report puts the average household at 711 GB per month, with the more typical household closer to 532 GB and about one in four homes counting as "power users" who chew through a full terabyte or more. SpeedTestHQ data is for US households, but New Zealand households watch the same streaming services and run the same video calls, so the patterns hold here.
Usage keeps climbing. The same report notes household data use has grown roughly 20-25% year on year, driven mainly by 4K video and working from home, and projects the average to reach or pass 1 TB by 2028. If your plan felt comfortable two years ago and now feels tight, that is why.
For most New Zealand homes on fibre, none of this changes what you pay, because Home Fibre Broadband plans are unlimited. The number matters when you're choosing a capped wireless or rural plan, where the difference between 200 GB and 400 GB is the difference between a bill you can predict and an overage or slowback you didn't see coming.
Streaming is where the data goes, and the quality setting decides how fast. Standard definition sips data, 4K Ultra HD gulps it. Here are the per-hour figures from SpeedTestHQ's 2026 streaming data report, plus video calling for comparison:
Activity | Data per hour |
|---|---|
Netflix (standard definition) | ~0.7 GB |
Netflix (HD) | ~3 GB |
Netflix (4K Ultra HD) | ~7 GB |
Music streaming (Spotify, etc.) | 50-150 MB |
HD video call (Zoom, Teams) | 1-2.5 GB |
Two things stand out. A 4K movie uses about ten times the data of the same film in standard definition, so a household that leaves everything on 4K will blow past a capped plan far faster than the hours watched would suggest. And music barely registers: an hour of Spotify uses less data than four minutes of 4K video.
If you're on a capped plan and want to stretch it, the quickest win is dropping streaming apps from 4K to HD in their settings. On a phone or small tablet you won't see the difference, and you'll cut streaming data by more than half.
One person working from home on video calls most of the day uses roughly 150-300 GB per month, per SpeedTestHQ's research, once you add up calls, cloud file access, email and browsing. The calls do most of it. An HD video call runs at about 1 to 2.5 GB per hour and needs around 3 to 4 Mbps of steady speed to stay smooth, so four to six hours of daily calls is the bulk of a remote worker's data footprint.
For work, speed and stability usually matter more than the raw data total. A dropped call on a fibre connection is rare; on a congested wireless connection at peak time it's common. If two people in the house are both on calls at once, you want an upload speed that can handle both, which is another reason fibre suits most work-from-home households better than a capped mobile plan.
Where a data cap does bite for remote work is on rural connections. If you're running a home office from a lifestyle block on fixed wireless, two people on daily video calls could use 400-600 GB a month between them before any evening streaming. That's the scenario where Fixed Rural Wireless Unlimited at NZD 135/month earns its keep over a 200 GB or 400 GB capped plan, because a single big cloud backup or a week of heavy calls won't tip you over.
Most New Zealand providers have a portal that you can login to and this often has your current usage details available for you to view, if you don't have access to this you can work out an approximation yourself.
Add up the hours per week for each activity, multiply by the per-hour figure, then multiply by roughly 4.3 to get a month. Here's a worked example for a family of four with one parent working from home:
That's about 219 GB a week, or roughly 940 GB a month. This household is a power user and should be on an unlimited plan, full stop. A 400 GB cap would run out in less than a fortnight.
Now compare a retired couple who stream two hours of HD television a night and don't work from home: about 42 GB a week from streaming, plus 10 GB for everything else, so around 225 GB a month. For them a Freedom Wireless 600 plan at $75/month has comfortable headroom, and even a 300 GB plan might do in a quiet month.
The gap between those two households is the whole point. "How much data do I need" has no single answer, because a home with 4K screens and two remote workers uses four times what a light household does.
Match your estimate to the cap, then leave headroom for the months you use more than usual. Here's how Latitude's connection types line up with the household types above:
Your household | Rough monthly use | Plan to look at |
|---|---|---|
Fibre available, any usage | Doesn't matter (unlimited) | Home Fibre Broadband from $69/month |
Rural, light streaming, no work-from-home | 150-250 GB | Fixed Rural Wireless 200 ($95/month) |
Rural, regular streaming or one remote worker | 300-450 GB | Fixed Rural Wireless 400 ($110/month) |
Rural, heavy streaming and/or two remote workers | 600 GB+ | Fixed Rural Wireless Unlimited ($135/month) |
If fibre is available at your address, take it. It's unlimited, it's faster, and it removes the data question entirely. The capped plans exist for the parts of New Zealand where fibre doesn't reach yet, and there the honest advice is to buy one tier above your estimate. Overshooting your cap by a few gigabytes usually costs more than the gap between two plans would have.
Not sure what's available where you live or what you actually use? The Latitude support team can check your address and connection options, usually with a response within 12 hours. Ring 0800 528488 or use the contact page on our website to get a straight answer before you commit.
For a moderate family it often is, but a family that streams in 4K or has someone working from home usually needs more. SpeedTestHQ's 2026 figures put a household that streams 3-4 hours of HD daily plus works from home at 600-900 GB a month, which is above 500 GB. If your family fits that pattern and you can get fibre, an unlimited plan removes the worry entirely.
One remote worker on video calls for most of the day uses roughly 150-300 GB a month once you add calls, cloud files, email and browsing, according to SpeedTestHQ. Two remote workers in the same house can push that past 400-500 GB before any evening streaming. Households with two or more people working from home are best on an unlimited plan.
Yes. Netflix in 4K Ultra HD uses about 7 GB per hour compared with roughly 3 GB per hour in HD and about 0.7 GB in standard definition, per SpeedTestHQ's 2026 streaming report. Watching everything in 4K roughly doubles your streaming data versus HD. Dropping the quality setting to HD on smaller screens is the fastest way to make a capped plan last.
No. Latitude's Home Fibre and Business Fibre plans are all unlimited, so on fibre the data total doesn't affect your bill. Caps only apply to Fixed Rural Wireless and the Freedom Wireless plans, which serve areas fibre hasn't reached. If you're choosing between a capped rural plan and a cap-free fibre connection at the same address, take the fibre unless you need a more mobile connection to take away from home to your bach or for a caravan or motorhome..
Very little. Music streaming uses about 50-150 MB per hour depending on the quality setting, per SpeedTestHQ, which is a fraction of what video uses. An hour of Spotify uses less data than a couple of minutes of 4K video, so music streaming almost never affects which plan you need.
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Author : David Gabites