Spark - Price Increase

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark - Price Increase

alisam

829 posts

Ultimate Geek

#306007 20-Jun-2023 10:57

19 June 2023 Email from Spark...

...

While we try to keep price increases to a minimum, from time to time we need to review our plans and pricing. Due to rising costs we’re increasing the price of your Spark connection listed below by $7.00 a month from 1 August 2023.

...

Scroll down (Copper and fibre broadband price increase | Spark NZ) to 'Why are you putting your prices up?'

For me it is a 7% increase.

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#3092457 20-Jun-2023 11:53

I think they got inspiration from Telstra’s “CPI” price increase.

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josephhinvest

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#3092458 20-Jun-2023 11:57

Whelp it might be time to move. I’ve stayed with Spark for convenience mostly, and the included Netflix. Now with password crackdown and my parents unable use my login….
Netflix standard and 1 additional user is $26.50 per month.
So any ISP with unlimited gigabit fibre for less than $78.50 will be saving me money. And that’s before any Spark increase. Hmm.

allio

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3092481 20-Jun-2023 13:00

josephhinvest: So any ISP with unlimited gigabit fibre for less than $78.50 will be saving me money.

Please let me know when you find one of those.

wsnz

649 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3092485 20-Jun-2023 13:10

Around this time each year the LFC's increase their charges by the CPI. If that's one of the key drivers of this particular increase, then it's likely the other ISP's will follow.

wellygary

8312 posts

Uber Geek

#3092491 20-Jun-2023 13:27

wsnz:

Around this time each year the LFC's increase their charges by the CPI. If that's one of the key drivers of this particular increase, then it's likely the other ISP's will follow.

Chorus were looking at 6.6% from October 2023, so 7% is certainly in the likely landing zone on what other ISPs will likely also charge

https://sp.chorus.co.nz/inflight-projects//UFB-price-change-2023

Gordy7

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#3092492 20-Jun-2023 13:28

allio:

josephhinvest: So any ISP with unlimited gigabit fibre for less than $78.50 will be saving me money.

Please let me know when you find one of those.

Checkout:

https://www.broadbandcompare.co.nz/

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

EviLClouD

266 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3092509 20-Jun-2023 14:21

Has anyone had any luck getting a ‘loyalty’ credit from Spark?

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NPCtom

430 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3092823 21-Jun-2023 01:27

EviLClouD: Has anyone had any luck getting a ‘loyalty’ credit from Spark?

I think Spark stopped doing those a few years ago?

quickymart

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#3092844 21-Jun-2023 08:15

I haven't heard anything about this price increase directly from Spark (yet), but I imagine it's only a matter of time.

DjShadow

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#3092848 21-Jun-2023 08:39

Is this likely going to include Skinny as well?

wsnz

649 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3092865 21-Jun-2023 09:38

Yes, I think it's likely. Last year Skinny followed through with the same increase as Spark but around a month later.

Last year some ISP's had a marginally lower increase than others (e.g. $3 v $5/month), but they were mostly ones using CG-NAT so it's not an option for us.

Based on our requirements and the current deals available, if we switch now we'll probably end up paying around the same price on-average, prior to the increase.

antoniosk

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#3092883 21-Jun-2023 10:16

Makes me wonder if the annual fibre price increase from chorus et al has been announed yet?

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Antoniosk

wsnz

649 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3092929 21-Jun-2023 10:19

@wellygary posted a link to the Chorus announcement above. I haven't personally seen any announcements from the other LFC's but they will come.

josephhinvest

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#3092965 21-Jun-2023 11:38

allio:
josephhinvest: So any ISP with unlimited gigabit fibre for less than $78.50 will be saving me money.

Please let me know when you find one of those.

I've received the email today, my plan will be increasing $7 to $112.
This is unlimited fibre max plus Netflix.

I've shopped around a little, If I change to Skinny broadband, because I have my mobile with them on a $40/28 days plan, their fibre plan is $80/month, same spec.

Netflix standard is $18.49 and an additional member slot for my parents is $7.99.

Stay with Spark - $112/month.

Change to Skinny and Netflix $80 + $26.48 = $106.48/month (and this gets my parents back on Netflix).

Seems like a no-brainer, unless there's a better fibre offering around. (Skinny would not offer me a better deal than $10 off, despite having FOUR phones on the $40/28days plans... teenagers!)

Cheers,
Joseph

In addition - If I commit to a 12 month term with Skinny, there's not fees and I get one month free. So it works out to $73.34 per month, or a total of $99.82 per month over the 12 months for Skinny fibre and Netflix.

Second edit - I'm currently using my Unifi USG-Pro-4 router connected to my ONT with my Spark connection - will this continue to work if I change to Skinny? Just update the username/password from user@spark.co.nz etc?

Third edit (sorry) it looks like Skinny settings are VLAN tagging off as opposed to On for Spark. Does this make any practical difference to me? (I have externally accessible security cameras, a Plex server, Remote Desktop etc) Thanks.

quickymart

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#3092971 21-Jun-2023 12:08

Got the notification this morning. Most likely I would change plans by dropping the Netfix part, as I hardly ever watch it.

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