Taryn Hamilton, ^[1] from internet service provider Orcon, writes that in a bid to boost productivity the NZ government has committed $1.5 billion towards providing fibre optic cable to three quarters of Kiwi homes and businesses. The expected improvements in productivity, competitiveness and standard of living will come about by how businesses actually use the new technology to their advantage. In the UK and Europe higher broadband speeds have seen the uptake of watching video over the Internet skyrocket.  It is predicted that 90 percent of traffic growth on the Internet in the coming years will comprise video transmissions for both work use and for leisure viewing. Driven by video, Internet traffic is predicted to grow some 400 percent by the end of 2013 – which is not too far away!  In the UK, the BBC’s iPlayer radio and TV service recently accounted for between 20 and 25 percent of Internet traffic. A similar percentage of internet traffic was experienced by US, Netflix’ online TV and movie streaming services.  Cloud computing coupled with ultra fast broadband services have created an opportunity for businesses to minimise costs and improve productivity.