Competition and regulatory authority chair, Bernard Hill said he could not predict when it would happen but said people were already using more capacity than ever before.

“The general trend is higher speeds, more capacity and it’s getting cheaper, so I fully expect that to continue,” Hill said.

“Even though we’ve had this huge decline in tourism we’ve seen quite an uptake on broadband so it’s continued to grow.”

Hill said video streaming was the driving force behind the increase in capacity being used.

New internet service provider, Kuk i Net is already offering unlimited data plans using the Kacific satellite.

Vodafone Cook Islands chief executive officer Phil Henderson said the company’s plan was to eventually move from capped data plans to uncapped.

But Henderson said once retailers began to offer unlimited plans, they were unable to revert back to capped plans and could only differentiate by service performance.

He said some retailers have regretted moving to uncapped plans as it limits revenue growth.

Hill said Vodafone’s regular recent data promotions were a reaction to Covid-19 which negatively affected the company financial situation but was also offered in preparation for the new competition on the way.

He said when tourism returned to the island, data usage would increase significantly more.

Hill said people do not view Rarotonga at the moment as a place to sit on the beach and “live stream to the planet” but that could be a selling point for tourism in the future.

“They (tourists) are going to have a couple of beers and snooze off in front of Netflix, so boy they’re going to consume a lot.”

Written by Caleb Fotheringham, CINews.