Commerce Commission releases latest retail price benchmarking for telco services

The Commerce Commission has released its third report benchmarking New Zealand retail prices for fixed-line phone and broadband services against international prices. A report benchmarking retail prices in New Zealand’s mobile markets will be published in early 2014.

Retail price benchmarking gives an indication of the competitiveness of New Zealand telecommunications markets by comparing prices paid for telecommunications services by New Zealand customers with the prices paid by customers in other OECD countries.

Most customers now buy broadband together with phone services. Prices for a bundle with 60GB of data have dropped 14 percent over the past two years. However, these bundles are still priced 30 percent higher than the OECD average.

For broadband bought without phone services – called naked broadband – New Zealand's pricing for average data consumption is more competitive. For customers with a 60GB broadband plan prices have dropped 41 percent in two years and are 4 percent less than the OECD average, however, these prices are only available to subscribers with an on-account mobile.

The pricing of residential fixed-line voice services purchased without broadband continues to be considerably higher than the OECD average for the average customer. However, competition from mobile and other services appears to have stopped Telecom from further raising its standard residential line rental, which has stayed at $50 a month since June 2011.

For heavy phone users, the story is better. Prices for this group have reduced by about a third since 2011 to a little under the OECD average. The key reason for this is Telecom’s introduction of unlimited national calling for $10 more than the standard line rental.

You can view the report, as well as previous ones, on the Commission's website at: www.comcom.govt.nz/regulated-industries/telecommunications/market-monitoring-2/telecommunications-market-reports