Why are NZ Telcos so stingy with mobile data allowances?

Forums › New Zealand Mobile and Wireless › Why are NZ Telcos so stingy with mobile data allowances?

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#2690632 10-Apr-2021 16:01

RunningMan:

I'd like to see plans similar to fixed line connections, where you get unlimited data, but pay for the speed you need. So an entry level plan might be 1 Mb/s, mid tier 8Mb/s, top tier unlimited. Of course, all those would have to be "up to" speeds.

Well you can get unlimited 1Mbps now on 2talk for $15 SIM only

RunningMan

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#2690637 10-Apr-2021 16:12

sbiddle:

Well you can get unlimited 1Mbps now on 2talk for $15 SIM only

Or $25 with voice. But having more options for higher speeds could be good.

loceff13

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#2690641 10-Apr-2021 16:19

Is it silly you can buy overseas travel company ESIMs that work here and get better value than NZ contracts that are $40/mo+

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#2690643 10-Apr-2021 16:33

loceff13:
Is it silly you can buy overseas travel company ESIMs that work here and get better value than NZ contracts that are $40/mo+

Examples?

Dochart

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#2690647 10-Apr-2021 16:47

I do agree $16-$19 plan with only 1.5gb is not enough. With 4g that data will be gone within a day and with 5g that data will be gone in minutes.

The only good value plan that NZ has which is better than Australia is the $42.50 40gb endless data group plan on Vodafone and 2degrees. All the plans below it don’t give you as much data compared to Australia.

sbiddle

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#2690651 10-Apr-2021 17:08

Dochart: I do agree $16-$19 plan with only 1.5gb is not enough. With 4g that data will be gone within a day and with 5g that data will be gone in minutes.

The only good value plan that NZ has which is better than Australia is the $42.50 40gb endless data group plan on Vodafone and 2degrees. All the plans below it don’t give you as much data compared to Australia.

Why would you use more data just because you're on 5G? I'm confused.

Of people want more data they can pay for it just like the OP - which is the very issue I don't understand about this thread. If people want higher data caps there are plenty of options for these that aren't expensive - yes included data isn't as high as some Aussie options, but your argument that data allowances on a $16 plan are way too low is a bit like arguing there aren't enough fries in a small McDonalds combo just because you don't want to spend extra to upgrade to a large!

everettpsycho

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#2690652 10-Apr-2021 17:09

Linux:
loceff13:
Is it silly you can buy overseas travel company ESIMs that work here and get better value than NZ contracts that are $40/mo+

Examples?

Three UK offer "go roam" which includes NZ as a destination you can just use up to 20gb of your allowance as if you never left the UK. For £10 (about $20) on prepaid they offer 6Gb

https://www.three.co.uk/payg-data-packs

I've no idea if the data is full speed or throttled, it never seemed great when I used it in Australia for a bit but seeing as I had unlimited on my plan at the time and could call people back in the UK at no extra cost so just had it in an old phone for occasional and emergency use.

Interesting that I looked at their other plans and as per my previous comment they do entice you to stay on their plans, going from 1 month to 12 months saves you £6 a month for the equivalent plan. Then again their plans are all over the place offering a 4 and 8gb plan for the same price so probably not the best network to use for comparison.

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Dochart

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#2690653 10-Apr-2021 17:13

sbiddle:
Dochart: I do agree $16-$19 plan with only 1.5gb is not enough. With 4g that data will be gone within a day and with 5g that data will be gone in minutes.

The only good value plan that NZ has which is better than Australia is the $42.50 40gb endless data group plan on Vodafone and 2degrees. All the plans below it don’t give you as much data compared to Australia.

Why would you use more data just because you're on 5G? I'm confused.

If the speeds are going to be a lot quicker it’s going to use up more data. I have tested this between 3g and 4g and notice that doing the same thing 4g uses more data than 3g so I expect 5g use up more data than 4g.

Linux

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#2690654 10-Apr-2021 17:16

@Dochart Utter utter Rubbish it is still 0's and 1's at the end of the day just delivered faster!

1GB file is still 1GB if delivered over GPRS vs WCDMA vs LTE vs 5G

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2690656 10-Apr-2021 17:19

Linux: Utter utter Rubbish it is still 0's and 1's as the end of the day just delivered faster!

Not utter rubbish if the activities involve content which adjusts bitrate dynamically, such as streaming videos. Also, different encapsulations may result in a higher on-network data size, but we're talking tiny differences. Otherwise, 1GB is 1GB as you say.

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#2690657 10-Apr-2021 17:20

I think he's saying you end up using more data because of you have 15 mins to browse, and you browse as fast as you can, you will use more data per unit time of max browsing

Dochart

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#2690659 10-Apr-2021 17:22

Batman: I think he's saying you end up using more data because of you have 15 mins to browse, and you browse as fast as you can, you will use more data per unit time of max browsing

This is what I mean.

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#2690660 10-Apr-2021 17:24

SirHumphreyAppleby:
Linux: Utter utter Rubbish it is still 0's and 1's as the end of the day just delivered faster!

Not utter rubbish if the activities involve content which adjusts bitrate dynamically, such as streaming videos. Also, different encapsulations may result in a higher on-network data size, but we're talking tiny differences. Otherwise, 1GB is 1GB as you say.

Kind of a valid point but 3G vs 4G vx 5G offers awesome streaming capabilities so the difference would be so small the end user would notice next to no difference

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#2690661 10-Apr-2021 17:26

Dochart:
Batman: I think he's saying you end up using more data because of you have 15 mins to browse, and you browse as fast as you can, you will use more data per unit time of max browsing

This is what I mean.

That is quite different

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#2690747 11-Apr-2021 01:00

GSManiac:
The fact that the majority of Telcos still only offer 1.5gb of data per month for $19 is frankly criminal.
There’s been no movement on the data allowance for like 5 years.

My friend in Sydney pays $28 per month for unlimited calls / texts plus 42gb of data per month.

The best on offer in Nz at the moment is Kogan and I guess being an Australian company is the reason they offer better data caps. I pay $27.5 for unlimited calls / texts and 15gb of data per month. Plus I’m getting free 5g speeds where available. This is closer to where the other companies should be in 2021.

Everyone I know seems to be on the spark $19 plan. Why aren’t more people complaining? It’s like being stuck in 2010.

To me this reads like too much hyperbole and innacuracy.

Why would I be complaining? Every year since 2010, I either get a price drop or a data limit increase.

If I compare a 2010 plan with a 2021 plan then they are very different offerings. Plus they include significant service improvements, like 4G in 2013, which aren't cheap to introduce to NZ. The Spark $19 plan is probably popular for Spotify users, a feature that didn't exist in 2010.

As others have pointed out, it is more expensive to provide mobile services in NZ where population density and numbers are lower and the terrain is more rugged making coverage more expensive to provide.

Anyway, there was no 2010 NZ mobile plan which offered 1.5GB pm for under $20. In 2010, 2Degrees was the cheapest at "$20 for 512Mb (later increased to 1GB) for 30 days" (p.48) but their their data network in 2010 was rather limited in the four main centres and some holiday destinations. See this late-2010 topic on Geekzone for comments about this.

I suspect that the aggressive pricing from 2Degrees in their early years and from Kogan in more recent years are due to setting slim margins to increase market share. Kogan is also only only providing online support so it is no surprise that they are also the cheapest.

Another relevant trend is that most of the cheapest sub-$20 plans have disappeared in recent years. The three main telcos have learnt that they need, say, $15 a month to be profitable. Customers who pay less than, say, $10 a month are not usually profitable. This is another reason why $20 data quotas might not have increased more rapidly.

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