Last month it was announced that worldwide we’re watching more than 1 billion hours of YouTube videos every day. That’s a lot of cats doing tricks. There’s no doubt that connection via home broadband has changed both what we’re doing, and how we’re doing it.

In the past four years the average TV and video viewing time on fixed screens has dropped about 2.5 hours per week while the average viewing time on mobile devices is up by 4 hours. And one screen isn’t enough anymore. Ericsson found that globally, 64 percent of us use a smartphone or tablet every week while watching TV for tasks like looking up an actor or historical fact on Wikipedia, posting comments on social media, or watching video content on multiple screens.

Connectivity these days is a lot more than what we’re watching though. According to tech research firm Gartner, there were 6.3 billion connected things globally at the end of 2016 – that’s fridges, lightbulbs, security, televisions and smart home systems all talking to us, and each other, online. A whopping 30 percent more than 2015. Gartner predicts that number will grow to 8.4 billion by the end of this year, and that we’ll reach 20.8 billion by 2020.

But what does all this mean for the future?

With our homes increasingly relying on connectivity, a quality broadband connection partnered with the right plan for your family’s needs not just now, but in 12 months’ time, will become a central consideration. Homes and small businesses on the Chorus network consumed an average of 133GB of data per month at the end of February, as more of us watch Netflix, use Smart technology, monitor our latest run and stay in touch with relatives all over the world. That’s ten times more than we were using just over five years ago. We’re predicting that monthly usage will grow to 166GB by June this year and 680GB by 2020.

With all this data flying around, it’s little surprise New Zealanders are increasingly shifting from capped broadband plans to unlimited. In June 2016 Statistics New Zealand reported that nearly half of residential broadband plans are now unlimited, up from 33% a year earlier. An uncapped plan allows you to future-proof your connection to make sure you don’t run out of data halfway through your favourite Netflix show or, worse, still midway through a Skype conversation with your best mate.

We know that working out how much data you need can be tricky so have created a new tool to help out. Give it a go here and then take a look at what broadband options are available at your place to ensure you’re on the best possible connection.

It’s likely in five years’ time we’ll be connected in ways we couldn’t now imagine. Now’s the time to make sure your home is in the best shape to be future ready.