A new report released by the Commerce Commission looks at how New Zealand compares with the rest of the world for how much we pay for broadband and mobile phone data. And, how much prices for broadband have changed since 2019.
The Commerce Commission's Annual Telecommunications Monitoring Report 2020 revealed big changes in the way we live and work. Both internet and mobile phone use jumped during lockdown periods and beyond as we all adjusted to new ways of working-from-home.
Our average monthly mobile data use jumped up 22% and broadband data use jumped 37% compare with 2019. But how about how much we’re paying for broadband and mobile data?
When we compare the price of fixed line broadband to 2019 the report shows some interesting trends:
The report looked at how much New Zealanders pay for the most common type of broadband plan - unlimited data on a 100Mbps speed connection.
And New Zealanders pay more than the OECD average, but significantly less than Australia which pays the most out of the countries compared.
We compare a bit better when we look at the price Kiwis pay for mobile data use. The average cost for a mobile phone plan with at least 2 gigabits of data is cheaper than the OECD average, but above Australia.
Given that high speed broadband plans have become more affordable from 2019 to 2020, this is a good time to compare plans and make sure you aren’t paying more than you should for broadband.
