TCF report highlights industry value, cybercrime challenge

Fibre dominates, but FWB and satellite uptake also high

Fibre’s success story is a key theme in the 2025 TCF annual report. The industry body also used its report to highlight the value consumers get from telecommunications and to outline measures put in place to combat scams and frauds.

As with most developed countries, fibre dominates the New Zealand market. It makes up 74% of total connections here. While that’s well behind Iceland (91%), Korea (90%), Spain (88%) and Lithuania (80%), it puts us a long way ahead of nearby Australia (40%). For wider context, the OECD average sits at 36%.

New Zealand leads in fibre uptake, but alternatives grow fast

Yet, despite sitting at the high end of the global table for fibre uptake, New Zealand ranks among the most enthusiastic consumers of fixed wireless broadband (FWB) and low-earth orbit satellite broadband.

One in five New Zealand broadband connections (20%) is over fixed wireless. Across all OECD nations fixed wireless broadband (FWB) is used by only 5.8%.

It’s a similar story with LEO satellite broadband which now accounts for 3% of all connections and 19% of rural connections.

All three measures, fibre uptake, FWB and satellite are strikingly high by international standards.

Government lead market reset pays dividends

In part this is down to the government intervention 16 years ago which saw public money used to finance a fibre network to cities and towns while a second project subsidised the roll-out of FWB in rural areas.

Since then the fibre network has been extended to reach 87% of the population. This compares with many European and Asian nations which have close to 100% coverage. In many nations overseas FWB is either seen as a stop gap or only used for the most remote premises.

Chorus plans to extend the fibre network, but unlike other nations, our government has been slow to provide further support.

As the TCF numbers show, there’s a clear demand for fibre. Where it is available the uptake rate is now 85%, that puts us in the top tier internationally. Where fibre is not available, New Zealanders have taken up alternatives.

Affordable broadband and strong competition drive value

The TCF report shows one area where we have excelled against international competition is in affordability.

New Zealand’s telecommunications prices have risen just 7.4% since 2018. Given 28% general consumer price inflation over the same period, this amounts to a price drop.

As TCF CEO Paul Brislen points out in his message at the start of the report, our telecommunications consumers pay less for more connectivity.

Fierce competition, strong regulatory oversight

In part this can be attributed to fierce competition between the service providers. Strong regulatory oversight from the Commerce Commission and the Telecommunications Commissioner has created the right conditions for competition. This needs to be kept in mind as the Minister for Regulation investigates the regulatory settings.

One NZ CEO Jason Paris once said New Zealand telcos compete away all their margins. While that may not be ideal for investors, it’s been great for consumers.

And consumers make the most of what they have. New Zealand broadband accounts are on target to download a terabyte of data each month by 2028. Currently the average is 648GB a month. This is way ahead of Australia; at last count the figure was 443GB a month.

Cybercrime costs New Zealand more than most OECD nations

Our online activity is supersized. So is online crime. Reported cybercrime here is close to 0.4% of GDP. That’s much higher than in most OECD nations although it could be due to the way crime is reported and measured.

AWS New Zealand launch sparks PR backlash

Amazon Web Services formally launched its New Zealand cloud region on Tuesday.

At the event AWS said the company is committed to spending $7.5 billion in data centre construction, connection, operation and maintenance. It also claimed the investment would add $10.8b and 1000 new jobs to the economy.

This may sound positive, but we’ve been here before. This story from 2021 Unpicking AWS' New Zealand numbers covers an almost identical announcement.

Questionable jobs and GDP claims

It’s hard to see where 1000 new jobs may come from. Data centres are typically administered by a handful of employees and security staff.

And it’s likely the promised $10.8b added to GDP would have been delivered anyway by rival cloud vendors if AWS had chosen not to invest in New Zealand.

Claims aside, the main changes between 2021 and 2025 are an abandoned data centre site in West Auckland and some dubious environmental claims, along with the opening of what AWS describes as the “AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region.”

AWS cloud runs on third-party data centres

While the company says it will service this region from “data centres located in New Zealand”, that doesn’t appear to mean AWS data centres. Presumably the AWS kit talked about at the launch is located in other companies’ data centres.

There’s nothing wrong with that in principle, cloud computing can function fine that way. But it doesn’t square with the marketing message.

Adding to AWS’s own PR disaster, prime minister Christopher Luxon sparked a political row after speaking at the launch.

Ministers seek input on telecoms regulation

Minister for Regulation David Seymour and Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith are asking for submissions on the government’s review of regulations in the telecommunications sector.

One area singled out is administering and collecting the Telecommunications Development Levy. This has been criticised for being “expensive, inefficient and overly burdensome”.

The review will also consider telecommunications service obligations (TSO) and retail service quality regulations.

In other news...

• What do NZ farmers want from technology? — Farmers Weekly.
• The multi-billion dollar grab for old phones and other e-waste. — RNZ
• Behind the scenes at the next Rocket Lab — NZHerald
• When protecting us from the evils of the internet backfires — Newsroom

IDC expects small rise in worldwide phone handset shipments

IDC forecasts phone shipments will grow 1% in 2025 to 1.24 billion units. This is slightly higher than the research company’s earlier forecast of a 0.6% rise. The difference is down to improved iPhone shipments which IDC sees rising 3.9% during the year.

While unit shipments are expected to rise by 1%, IDC says it expects a 5% growth in the average sale price of a phone. It says AI equipped phones will make up 30% of the total in 2025. Foldable phone shipments are rising faster than the overall market at 6% year on year, and yet they will only be 3% of the total market by 2029.

HMD returns to NZ phone market without Nokia brand

HMD will be an unfamiliar phone brand for most people, but it was previously active in New Zealand selling Nokia branded handsets under licence.

Now the company is selling phones under its own name. Prices for the HMD Key handset start at $89. That buys an 8MP Auto Focus Dual back camera with flash and 5MP front camera. At $49, the HMD 105 4G is a low cost option for less well off users concerned about the 3G network shutdown.

Two new Galaxy A phones from Samsung

Samsung’s new Galaxy A17 5G, Galaxy A17 LTE and Galaxy A07 LTE include features that would normally be associated with more expensive phones.

All three models include AI features including a button to use Google’s Gemini. At $400, the Galaxy A17 5G has a triple lens camera and a 6.7-inch large Super Amoled display. There’s a LTE version, essentially that means a 4G phone, costs $300. The Galaxy A07 LTE is $229.

Five years ago: Auckland gets fibre to the bus stop

Chorus contracted Universal Communications Group to build fibre to 123 public transport locations in Auckland. The company says the smart city network will be used to give commuters more bandwidth and, in time, deliver improved internet services.

One year ago: ComCom presses for better mobile maps

The Commerce Commission’s programme to improve customer experience gave carriers a year to produce better mobile coverage maps. The regulator also leant on mobile companies to make it easier for customers to leave if they found services were not up to scratch.

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