Kiwis – Don’t Get Caught Short on Your Data Caps

Kiwis – Don’t get caught short on your data caps

Auckland, 22 September 2017 - As faster, better quality broadband connections are being rolled out across the country, and our appetite for streaming increases, Kiwis are being warned not to get caught short on their data limits.

Canstar Blue general manager Jose George explains.

“Our latest research suggests that streaming is becoming increasingly popular – especially amongst the older generations – but around 12% of people are still being caught out with additional bills because they exceed their data limit. This could either be because they don’t know their data limit, they don’t know how much data they are using, or most probably, a combination of the two.”

Caught on the current of Streaming

Despite music services such as Spotify only arriving in New Zealand in 2012 and video streaming becoming available in 2014 (popular service Netflix not until 2015), downloading content from the internet has become an incredibly popular way to access our viewing and listening entertainment. It’s estimated that over one quarter of Kiwis currently subscribe to at least one streaming service and information from telecommunications infrastructure company Chorus, also suggests that data consumption for the average Kiwi household, currently sitting around 150GB per month, will continue to increase.

George comments:

“The way we watch TV and listen to music is evolving and our reliance on downloading to keep up with the latest trends is increasing. Around 50% of people are currently signed up to a plan that has a data cap but with increasing numbers of providers in the market, consumers should always shop around for a good deal.”

Where does your data go?

It can sometimes be hard to know how much data you use, and therefore if you should go for a capped, or unlimited data plan. To give you an idea, here’s a list of the most common uses and a rough guide to how much data they use:

Streaming TV services – A rule of thumb is approximately 1GB of data for every hour of streaming service views. If you’re watching in high definition this will increase to 3GB of data per hour.

Streaming music services – Again a rough guide is around 40MB (0.04GB) an hour.

Gaming – This will vary but if a game says it is 3GB, it will use up 3GB of your data to download it.

Live Streaming – If you want to broadcast to the world from your front room you need to assume you’ll be using at least 650MB (0.650GB) per hour.

Browsing the internet – It really does depend what you are doing but if you use a ball park figure of around 20MB (0.02GB) per hour this should give you a good idea of how much you use.

Satisfied customers

Canstar Blue recently surveyed 1,709 Kiwi consumers who ‘bundle’ their telco services (mobile/landline/internet) to determine the Customer Satisfaction Award winner for 2017.

We are delighted to announce Slingshot, as this years’ recipient.

Accepting the award, Slingshot General Manager Taryn Hamilton says:

“We’re stoked to pick up the award this year – it’s a nod to Slingshot’s focus on the customer experience and making things as simple as possible for Kiwis.

“Following our recent success adding power to Slingshot’s services, we know that bundling is the future – Kiwis are keen to keep connected and save money by having a bunch of their home utilities with one provider, and one monthly bill.”

For further information regarding this survey, please click here.

ENDS

About the survey

Canstar Blue commissioned I-view to survey New Zealand consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction. The outcomes reported are the results from New Zealanders who have bundled home telecommunication services and have paid bills (i.e. combined mobile/landline/internet package) in the last 2 years – in this case, 1,709 New Zealanders.

About Canstar Blue

Launched in June 2011, Canstar Blue is a customer satisfaction research and ratings business that’s core purpose is to help consumers make better purchasing decisions. Based on independent research conducted I-view (owned by Ipsos), our aim is to act as the real voice of the consumer. To date, more than 42,000 Kiwis have rated their customer satisfaction across more than 45 different categories.

Canstar Blue is an initiative of CANSTAR. Active since 1992, CANSTAR is New Zealand and Australia’s premier research and expert ratings agency working with over 30,000 products and more than 300 brands in the financial services industry. CANSTAR is chiefly focused on helping consumers make better financial decisions.

What are the Canstar Blue ratings?

Canstar Blue researches, compares and rates products and services according to customer satisfaction across categories including banking, telecommunications, appliances, electronics, utilities and FMCG. Results are freely available to consumers who are encouraged to use the ratings as a guide to product excellence. The full range of results can be viewed atcanstarblue.co.nz

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