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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Ultimate Geek

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#2690750 11-Apr-2021 01:46

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.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/unlimited-data-plans/?icmp=uk~1_consumer~topnav~1_shop~2_sim_only~4_unlimited_plans&linkpos=topnav~1~1~2~4

Vodafone UK offer exactly this. Something like this, I agree, is needed in NZ.

lNomNoml

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#2690754 11-Apr-2021 04:15

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.

Agreed 100%, been no progression in the last few years, we are slowly paying more than we should for what we get compared to other regions.

RunningMan

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#2690756 11-Apr-2021 06:42

halper86:

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/unlimited-data-plans/?icmp=uk~1_consumer~topnav~1_shop~2_sim_only~4_unlimited_plans&linkpos=topnav~1~1~2~4

Vodafone UK offer exactly this. Something like this, I agree, is needed in NZ.

That's exactly the sort of thing I was thinking.

jjnz1

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#2690798 11-Apr-2021 09:08

As I mentioned in another post, I was advised by a Spark account manager that Spark are internally trialing unlimited plans based on speed caps. 1mbps, 5mbps 10mbps 20mbps full speed etc.

I think this would be a smart move to squeeze a bit more money out of customers just to get an unlimited no worries plan, I would expect these to be in the sub $40 category surely.

cyril7

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#2690802 11-Apr-2021 09:40

jjnz1: As I mentioned in another post, I was advised by a Spark account manager that Spark are internally trialing unlimited plans based on speed caps. 1mbps, 5mbps 10mbps 20mbps full speed etc.

I think this would be a smart move to squeeze a bit more money out of customers just to get an unlimited no worries plan, I would expect these to be in the sub $40 category surely.

I would go with that, for me it's rare to need much over 5Mb/s on mobile devices, even a tethered laptop it would be sufficient if I knew it was unlimited.

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#2690819 11-Apr-2021 10:52

l43a2:

do people really need more data? most workplaces offer wifi and most people have wifi at home, tons of free wifi in public places.. etc

Late reply to this question but here are some stuff to consider. Before Covid-19 Level 4 lockdown in 2020 the company I worked for did an internal survey about remote work conditions. They found a significant number of people did not have broadband service at home and relied heavily on their mobile devices' data as a connection.

Why? Because back then the company contract included a mobile connection with "unlimited" data plus unlimited local calls and SMS. It also included a $ 100 allowance for when you needed to call our offices or clients overseas.

I put "unlimited" because there was a large shared pool but it was never fully used. But some people were going through hundreds of gigabytes on mobile.

The company then changed to a different corporate plan, with a 20 GB limit per user and any excess was paid by the user.

The same company had to constantly remind people to please, please, please connect their phones to the guest WiFi at work and if they had broadband to connect to their WiFi at home.

Some people completely ignored this and didn't care. Some people wouldn't even know how to connect to WiFi (despite being a technology company, lots of project managers and other roles were not tech-related at all).

Now, the question was "do people really need more [mobile] data?" and the answer would be not many people but only in ideal conditions. Some don't have broadband at home (extra cost), some don't use WiFi even when freely available.

There are lots of different users. Mobile operators have to provide services/cost-effective solutions to a few segments. These seem to be:

- People who want mobile data while on the go between home (broadband) and office (business network)
- People who want mobile data for everything because they either don't want to pay for broadband (an extra cost)
- People who don't have access to broadband infrastructure (no fibre, full exchange, etc)

Some of these could use fixed-mobile broadband instead of using mobile data. The reason is that fixed-mobile broadband services allow operators to provision capacity in specific areas while mobile usage makes things difficult due to its nature.

A lot of people will still not use fixed-mobile broadband because it would still be a second account and so on.

Back to the question on the subject "Are telcos stingy with mobile data allowances?" Not necessarily. It depends on who are their customers and how they use this data. You may not fit in their customer profiles, so go around shopping or be open to using other services.

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#2690820 11-Apr-2021 10:52

I don't want unlimited at 5Mbps. I want max speed.

Each to their own

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freitasm

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#2690823 11-Apr-2021 10:57

Batman: I don't want unlimited at 5Mbps. I want max speed.

Each to their own

So be prepared to pay for it.

antonknee

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#2690841 11-Apr-2021 12:47

I tend to think our data allowances are stingy compared to overseas - but I will accept that our population density makes it more expensive to provide these services. I strongly feel the Chorus model would have worked incredibly well to reduce triplicate investment from our MNOs which would have enabled cheaper pricing/more generous allowances.

To freitasm’s point, I used to be one of those people who don’t pay for broadband and just do everything off of hotspot and mobile data. It’s a painful existence - reconnecting things all the time, sometimes it just doesn’t work, phone calls make it drop, sucks for things like Chromecast.

I would love to see all unlimited plans with varying speeds. I will never go back to a non-unlimited mobile plan (even though I now have broadband at home) because it’s just so flexible and great to have as a backup. However I don’t need to be able to get 100 mbps on my phone - the internet on mobile is great at 5mbps.

antonknee

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#2690843 11-Apr-2021 12:52

Which reminds me - I believe according to the Commerce Commission we pay less than the OECD average for mobile - but more at the high end (unlimited plans).

I’d love to see higher data caps but I’m not sure what we have now is markedly unfair. Our telcos operate at below average margins indicating we’re probably not getting ripped off.

Stingy sure, but perhaps not unfairly so.

Dochart

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#2690844 11-Apr-2021 12:58

lNomNoml:
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.

Agreed 100%, been no progression in the last few years, we are slowly paying more than we should for what we get compared to other regions.

It’s been at 1.25gb for the $19 plan for a few years now and then you look at Australia and the equivalent to the $19 plan they can get 8-12gb of mobile data. Yes, Australia has over 25 million people so thats probably why they can offer more data for a cheaper price but they have more land compared to New Zealand so they would need to pay more for extending their coverage throughout Australia.

I’m not expecting NZ Telcos to give us 8-12gb of mobile data for $19 but at this stage the $19 plan should be at least 3-4gb by now.

Dochart

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#2690846 11-Apr-2021 13:06

antonknee: I tend to think our data allowances are stingy compared to overseas - but I will accept that our population density makes it more expensive to provide these services. I strongly feel the Chorus model would have worked incredibly well to reduce triplicate investment from our MNOs which would have enabled cheaper pricing/more generous allowances.

To freitasm’s point, I used to be one of those people who don’t pay for broadband and just do everything off of hotspot and mobile data. It’s a painful existence - reconnecting things all the time, sometimes it just doesn’t work, phone calls make it drop, sucks for things like Chromecast.

I would love to see all unlimited plans with varying speeds. I will never go back to a non-unlimited mobile plan (even though I now have broadband at home) because it’s just so flexible and great to have as a backup. However I don’t need to be able to get 100 mbps on my phone - the internet on mobile is great at 5mbps.

I thought about this awhile ago whether it would have been better to use the Chorus model when it comes to mobile networks. I guess the RCG is similar to the Chorus model in a way but if they were to have done the Chorus model for all cell cites I reckon this would have reduced the overhead costs as Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees would be sharing the cost of the cellsite therefore cheaper plans with more data as well.

Dochart

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#2690847 11-Apr-2021 13:10

antonknee: Which reminds me - I believe according to the Commerce Commission we pay less than the OECD average for mobile - but more at the high end (unlimited plans).

I’d love to see higher data caps but I’m not sure what we have now is markedly unfair. Our telcos operate at below average margins indicating we’re probably not getting ripped off.

Stingy sure, but perhaps not unfairly so.

The high end unlimited plans are a rip-off in NZ but if you’re in a group plan it ends up being around the same price as a single unlimited data plan user in other countries such as UK and USA.

I do hope in the future that they increase the data caps for some of the lower end plans.

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#2690848 11-Apr-2021 13:14

It’s hard to guarantee minimum speed based services over mobile networks as you’ve got to contend with:
* your normal Internet performance issues that impacted fixed services.
* handset capability - eg. Level of CA support, bands etc.
* signal quality - if you are in a low signal area, you may very well be unable to get your 20mbps.
* cell site capacity - some cell sites get incredibly ‘hot’, with fixed wireless you do have some control over what site or sector and how much load you are prepared to tolerate. With mobile, you have none of those controls as folks are free to roam or travel in packs.

All of these make it a potential minefield for delivering x mbps (depending on how hard the likes of the comm comm decide to enforce it vs. it being best efforts).

As for no cap plans, as an operator you’d want to avoid is a handful of customers absolutely torching your 3G bandwidth from filming 24/7 livestreams... as that type of activity is better suited to a fixed network arrangement.

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#2690849 11-Apr-2021 13:14

nztim: AT&T and T-Mobile in the US have “unlimited data” for $50 p/m but their network is heavily over subscribed and you are lucky to get 10mbps on it

And the Verizon wireless owned visible wireless does unlimited talk, text and unlimited data for $US 25 per month.

https://www.visible.com/

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