The country's largest telecommunications and information technology provider announced in December it activated 118 Wi-Fi access points, built into infrastructure such as payphones and surf clubs, in 39 popular summer holiday destinations, including the Queenstown Lakes district.
The pilot attracted more than 50,000 registered users between December 18, 2012 and March 15, 2013.
There were nine hotspots in Queenstown, one in Frankton, one in Arrowtown, one at Lake Hawea and three in Wanaka. All were originally intended to remain active until the end of February this year.
From the Lakes access points, 1857GB was consumed, about 1.8 terabytes of more than 5TB consumed across the whole of New Zealand.
Two of the top 10 access points in terms of data consumption were in Queenstown. There were 300 user sessions per day, on average.
Wi-Fi trial project leader Kerry Trevett, of Auckland, said Telecom was ''thrilled by the response to our free public Wi-Fi trial this summer and are excited that the information gathered will assist us in honing and perfecting a more permanent service for customers, which we will be announcing details of in time.
''Queenstown residents and visitors have made up an enthusiastic, significant portion of the national active daily users of the service during the trial and we're excited to be able to continue that service as we develop our permanent solution.''
