ISPs calls for Starlink market study
In this edition;
Intervention to address resilience challenge
An open letter to the Telecommunications Commissioner from the Internet Service Providers Association of New Zealand (Ispanz) argues that Starlink is making other rural connectivity options uneconomic.
Ispanz warns that, without intervention, local engineering expertise, field workforces and operational knowledge could all disappear. While this could be viewed as a simple commercial issue, the trade body says it presents a national resilience challenge.
The letter is addressed to Tristan Gilbertson and is a response to the commissioner’s earlier writing in Rural connectivity: a market reset in motion covered in the July 3 edition of this newsletter. It is signed by Ispanz chief executive David Haynes.
In it, Ispanz asks the Commerce Commission to initiate a formal market study under Part 3A of the Commerce Act. It says the study should assess the rapidly changing rural connectivity market and and inform any further legislative or regulatory changes.
The association points to the Commission’s latest telecommunications monitoring report, which identifies Starlink as the largest rural internet service provider. It also notes the Commissioner’s view that more satellite entrants are coming and that LEO services are challenging long-standing assumptions about where connectivity can be delivered.
In the letter, Ispanz acknowledges that Starlink is a valuable service and that low earth orbit services in general will be an important part of future communications networks.
However, it argues that the current regulatory approach risks allowing satellite connectivity to become dominant while terrestrial infrastructure and local service capabilities wither.
One proposal is to require Starlink and other LEO providers to offer wholesale services. Ispanz says this would allow local companies to compete by adding value through installation, managed networking, WiFi, cybersecurity, farm connectivity, resilience planning and field support.
It argues that a wholesale model could give customers the benefits of Starlink’s satellite infrastructure while retaining local expertise, accountability and investment.
The letter says the issue is no longer simply about rural broadband. It is about how New Zealand should structure its telecommunications market as a vertically integrated overseas provider expands across multiple access technologies.
Ispanz says the government needs to consider whether current policy settings will produce meaningful competition over the next five or ten years, rather than simply assessing whether the market appears competitive today.
Background:
Bill Bennett
ComCom proposes mobile co-location deregulation
In February, the Commerce Commission decided there were ‘reasonable grounds’ to launch an investigation into deregulating mobile co-location.
This week the regulator released its draft report on the investigation with the recommendation to proceed to full deregulation. Officially the recommendation is to omit mobile tower co-location from Schedule 1 of the Telecommunications Act 2001.
If finalised, this will officially remove regulatory oversight from mobile tower co-location after 25 years (it has been regulated since 2001).
Between 2022 and 2023, Spark, One NZ and 2degrees moved their passive tower assets into specialist tower companies, principally Connexa and FortySouth.
Because these tower companies do not operate mobile networks, the statutory definition of an ‘access provider’ under Schedule 1 does not apply.
Tower companies' incentives
The commission says it has not intervened or handled a tower dispute in over three years. Moreover, tower companies have a business model where revenue depends on maximising tenancy ratios per tower.
This means their commercial incentives naturally align with co-location without requiring government mandates. In some ways, the mobile sector has evolved a model that resembles open-access fibre where infrastructure ownership is separate from retail network services.
The two tower networks have broadly overlapping footprints. Combined with active Radio Access Network (RAN) sharing via the Rural Connectivity Group (RCG), this has radically changed how mobile coverage is delivered in New Zealand, reducing the need for old-style tower co-location.
Direct-to-device satellite services and the continued densification of urban 5G networks are pushing the model further away from the assumptions that underpinned the original co-location rules.
Interested parties have until 20 August to submit feedback on this draft report. The Commission is set to deliver its final recommendation to the minister by 15 February 2027.
In other news...
- Farm data could become NZ’s next competitive edge — FarmersWeekly
There’s value embedded in agricultural bits and bytes. - Samsung’s expensive passport-sized handsets — NZ Herald (paywall)
Prices for the Galaxy Z Fold8 models start at NZ$3100, but you can pay $4300. - Mercury invests in Datagrid — RNZ
Crown owned power company buys minority stake in huge Southland data centre project.
Briefs
The New Zealand Telecommunications Forum has asked Parliament to expand proposed safe harbour protections in the Fair Trading Amendment Bill. The group wants telcos and third-party security providers protected from legal liability when taking action or blocking scams based on government or expert intelligence. It also wants lawmakers to protect businesses from severe penalties when billing mistakes stem from system errors rather than deliberate deception.
Tuanz has released its Access and Inclusion policy paper. The Tech Users Association calls on the government to treat connectivity like electricity or water. Despite 87 percent fibre coverage, 10 percent of NZ households remain disconnected. This mostly affects low-income, rural, disabled, Māori and Pasifika communities. To fix this, Tuanz wants four key actions: formal core-infrastructure status, a national connectivity resilience register for emergencies, co-designed subsidies for low-income families and mandatory non-digital access for public services.
A new forecast from Gartner says Australian and New Zealand LEO satellite direct-to-device connections are on target to reach 1.5 million in 2027. This compares with 673,000 in 2026. The report does not break out the numbers for each country, which would be useful given New Zealand has the highest per-capita uptake of satellite broadband in the OECD. It suggests the D2D split may not simply reflect the two countries’ different population sizes.
This time last year there were digital equity concerns about the 3G shutdown
In July 2025, research from the Digital Equity Coalition Aotearoa (Deca) found a low level of awareness about the 3G network shutdowns that took place later that year and earlier this year. One in five survey respondents was unaware of the shutdown while around a third was only ‘somewhat aware’.
Meanwhile, the research showed most people were concerned about the looming shutdown.
Five years ago, Spark expanded uncapped fixed wireless broadband. At the time, both Spark and Vodafone (now One NZ) were pushing fixed wireless broadband into the market as an alternative to fibre. Unlike fibre plans, wireless plans came with data caps as the operators managed their network traffic. Removing those caps was an important step towards becoming competitive with fibre.
Ten years ago we looked at the dying market for traditional copper landline telephones. In July 2016, there were still a few plausible reasons for hanging on to the old technology.
The Download Weekly is a New Zealand telecommunications industry newsletter written by Bill Bennett. You are welcome to pass it on to your friends and colleagues. While the newsletter is free, reader support helps enormously. If you are reading this for work, donations are tax-free. A banner at the top of the page will take you to the support site.
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Bill Bennett has covered New Zealand telecommunications for nearly 40 years and was named Tuanz Journalist of the Year 2025.
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