Consumers unsatisfied despite world-class networks

In this edition:

• Customer sentiment deteriorates
• ComCom reports on Satellite impact
• 2300 MHz and 2600 MHz band redistribution
• Jason Paris steps down at One NZ

Consumers unsatisfied despite world-class networks

Writing in the 2025 Telecommunications Monitoring Report, the Commerce Commission says New Zealand has world-class fibre and mobile infrastructure. Network quality has continued to improve in recent years. Yet customer satisfaction remains stubbornly low.

The finding is striking because customer sentiment has deteriorated even as fibre coverage, mobile coverage and broadband speeds have continued to improve.

Overall satisfaction was 69 percent in June 2025, according to the Commerce Commission’s monthly consumer survey. The satisfaction figure is the proportion of consumers who rated their provider positively.

Two years earlier, satisfaction was 79 percent. It slipped to 76 percent in June 2024 before reaching a low of 68 percent in December 2024.

The Commerce Commission considers 80 percent the benchmark for good performance. Satisfaction has remained well below that level.

NPS trending down

The Commission also monitors Net Promoter Scores (NPS). This measures how likely a customer is to recommend a service provider. Like the more general satisfaction measure, the NPS has been trending down over the past two years. In June 2023 it had a net positive score of 13. This fell to a low of -16 in December 2024 and back to -12 in June 2025.

The Commission says other industries also recorded falling NPS scores over the period, suggesting economy-wide factors such as cost-of-living pressures may have played a role.

Even so, the telecommunications sector performed considerably worse than other sectors and is at a point where detractors outnumber promotors by a significant margin.

The surveys show consumers are more satisfied with small service providers than the large telcos. As the Commission notes in the report:

‘This suggests that size does not automatically translate into better customer experience’.

Dissatisfaction but customers stay put

High levels of dissatisfaction have not resulted in customers shopping around for alternatives. The report says ‘switching activity remains relatively limited’.

Around 11 percent of broadband customers switched service providers during the year to June 2025. Even fewer, just seven percent, switched between mobile service providers. The Commission notes that the electricity sector sees a switching rate of around 19 percent. It concludes this suggests there may be scope to increase competitive pressure by making it easier for customers to change provider.

Why are people not satisfied?

Telecommunications Commissioner Tristan Gilbertson told The Download Weekly that while satisfaction reflects consumer expectations and experience across a wide set of factors, it doesn't always move directly in line with improvements in technical performance measures alone.

‘Ongoing concerns around pricing, value for money and customer service continue to act as a drag on satisfaction scores among residential customers.
‘Switching barriers are also deterring consumers from acting on their concerns by moving to a better provider. Addressing these barriers is key to unlocking progress in this whole area and is a priority focus for us this year.’

The rise and rise of satellite comms

Telecommunications Commissioner Tristan Gilbertson focused on the rise of satellite communications in his foreword to the Commerce Commission's 2025 Telecommunications Monitoring Report.

He notes that just as fibre transformed urban connectivity over the past decade, low-Earth-orbit satellites are now doing the same for rural New Zealand. And, he says, direct-to-cell (D2C) satellite services are starting to extend mobile coverage too.

The report calls satellite-enabled connectivity 'one of the most important drivers of further change in the next phase of market development'.

Satellites have overtaken the mainstream incumbents. Starlink's rural broadband share rose to 27 percent at June 2025 (from 18 percent the year earlier). Customer numbers jumped 46 percent, from 58,000 to 85,000 (72,000 rural, 13,000 urban).

New Zealand ranks first in the OECD for satellite broadband on a per capita basis. As of December 2024, NZ recorded 1.3 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.

Starlink bigger than Spark

Starlink now has a bigger share of New Zealand’s rural telecoms market than any other service provider. It ousted Spark from the top spot as the telco’s share fell to 23 percent from 27 percent.

One of the drivers for Starlink’s rapid growth is customers moving off the copper network, which is in the process of being decommissioned. The Commission's data highlights that over half (54 percent) of all rural consumers who migrated to satellite came straight off legacy copper. However, satellite broadband is also eating into existing mobile operator territories, with 34 percent of its new users migrating away from 4G fixed wireless broadband.

There is also the performance gap between Starlink and rural fixed wireless broadband from the mobile network operators.

The Commerce Commission regularly measures the performance of competing telecommunications service providers and their technologies. In testing the Commission found Starlink delivers an average download speed of 226 Mbps. This is four times the speed of the next-best alternative, 4G fixed wireless broadband which typically manages 56 Mbps.

One New Zealand launched the world’s first direct-to-cell service in December 2024. At first it was sporadic and SMS only. This has now expanded to data and WhatsApp calling. Spark followed with its own Starlink-powered D2C service in 2026. The Commerce Commission says D2C has the potential to disrupt mobile network operators in the same way satellite broadband has disrupted rural broadband.

Government reveals thinking on spectrum redistribution

The government has indicated how it intends to redistribute radio spectrum in the 2300 MHz and 2600 MHz bands when existing rights expire in 2028 and 2030. This could see a return to a competitive spectrum auction.

Instead of maintaining the status quo and renewing the licences currently held by Spark and One NZ, it will:

• renew about 70 percent of the two companies’ current holdings;
• give 30 MHz of 2600 MHz spectrum to 2degrees;
• reserve up to 20 MHz in the 2300 MHz band for defence;
• retain spectrum for Māori and regional users; and
• auction whatever remains.

The goal is to maintain balance in the market and increase competition. Officials argue that if Spark and One NZ kept everything they currently hold, 2degrees would remain at a long-term disadvantage because it owns significantly less mobile spectrum overall.

Spark published a statement saying this approach creates uncertainty. Under the proposal, the company would lose some spectrum it was expecting to keep. It says this makes it harder to plan long-term network investment and that investors rely on predictable spectrum policy.

2degrees issued its own statement saying the approach corrects an imbalance that favours the two larger mobile network operators.

Final decision on third regulatory period

The Commerce Commission has issued a final decision that the third regulatory period for fibre price-quality determination will run for five years from January 1, 2029 to December 31, 2033. The current price-quality path is the second four-year cycle. Moving to a five-year cycle will bring fibre regulation into line with the Commerce Commission’s regulatory periods for electricity distribution, gas pipelines and Transpower.

In other news

• The barriers to Datagrid’s South Island data centre — NZ Herald (paywall)
  The ducks are not yet in a row.
• Rocket Lab takes aim at Starlink — RNZ
  Company buys the Iridium satellite network.
• Connectivity looking up for rural users — Farmers Weekly
  Agricultural newspaper has a positive take on 2025 Telecommunications Monitoring Report.

Paris calls it a day at One NZ

One New Zealand chief executive Jason Paris told staff at an internal event he will soon leave the role. The company’s chief financial officer Nick Judd will replace him.

Paris joined Vodafone in the UK from Spark in early 2018. He was based in London and worked as director for convergence acceleration in the Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific region. In November 2018 he replaced Russell Stanners as the CEO of the company’s New Zealand subsidiary.

At Spark, Paris headed the telco’s home and mobile business unit. He played a highly visible leadership role when the company changed its brand from Telecom.

At Vodafone he was in charge when the parent company sold the subsidiary and the business rebranded as One New Zealand.

Incoming CEO Nick Judd has previously worked as CFO for Tourism Holdings and spent more than 15 years at Air New Zealand.

Rocket Lab to buy Iridium satellite business

Rocket Lab says it will buy Iridium, the satellite communications company, in a deal valued at about US$8 billion (NZ$14.2b). The deal potentially transforms the New Zealand-founded company into a major satellite services provider that will compete with SpaceX and Amazon Leo.

Rocket Lab will pay US$54 a share through a mix of cash and shares. The deal is expected to close in mid-2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

Iridium operates a low-Earth-orbit satellite network, has L-band spectrum rights and more than 2.5 million subscribers.

Crown company replaces emergency communications unit

Government has established SafetyNet Critical Communications, a new independent Crown company that will develop and maintain a shared emergency communications infrastructure. SafetyNet takes over from the former Next Generation Critical Communications (NGCC) and has a broader remit.

Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell says SafetyNet will supply commercial cellular services to public safety and emergency response agencies. The government intends the shared-infrastructure model to reduce duplication of investment across multiple organisations.

Steve Ferguson, previously the lead entity director at NGCC, has been appointed chief executive.

This time last year the Commerce Commission published the 2024 monitoring report

The Commerce Commission’s 2024 Telecommunications Monitoring Report noted the mobile industry’s high level of concentration with three companies controlling 97.5 percent of the retail mobile market. The regulator said decreasing that concentration would be a key priority. In the 2025 report published this week (see main story above) this figure is down to 96.8 percent.

Five years ago fixed wireless broadband providers moved to unlimited plans
We looked at fixed wireless broadband plans and low-end fibre options in the July 5, 2021 edition of The Download Weekly. The entry of the then Vocus-owned Flip brand injected fresh competition into the market.

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.

Have your say. Sign up as a subscriber, it is free, to comment on any of the stories on this site. We don’t collect any personal data other than an email address.