Annual Telco Monitoring Report shows pace of industry change

Issued 20 December 2017
Release No. 74

Annual Telco Monitoring Report shows pace of industry change

The Commerce Commission has today released its Annual Telecommunications Monitoring Report which reveals the key broadband and mobile trends for the year to 30 June 2017.

Telecommunications Commissioner Dr Stephen Gale said this year’s report has been condensed to focus on key trends, allowing it to be out 5 months earlier than in the past.

“This year’s report shows the number of fibre broadband connections continues to increase rapidly, with 460,000 homes and businesses connected to fibre at the end of September – up 60% on last year. This growth in connections to higher speed broadband has also contributed to average broadband download speeds increasing by 40% on last year, and data usage almost doubling. There’s also strong growth in fixed wireless broadband services, which have quadrupled over the past year to reach 117,000 connections,” Dr Gale said.

"Landline calling is continuing to fall with the number of residential local calls nearly halving in the past two years. Text messaging is also declining, as other messaging services like Facebook Messenger, iMessage and Viber continue to grow. Meanwhile, mobile phone calling continues to grow strongly which we attribute to mobile calling being relatively inexpensive and often more convenient,” Dr Gale said.

Dr Gale said both broadband and mobile pricing remains relatively competitive when compared with prices for equivalent offerings in Australia and other OECD countries.

“In terms of competition in the market, it’s pleasing to see smaller players including 2degrees and Trustpower increasing their market share in fixed broadband services.”

Dr Gale also noted that while the retail mobile market appears to be relatively stable at present, the Commission has started a study of the forward-looking competitive landscape for mobile markets. The Commission is aiming to finalise the timetable and scope for this study early next year and complete the study in late 2018.

“Despite competitive pricing, retail telecommunications is a priority area for the Commission because of our ongoing concerns about service quality and the growing number of consumer complaints we are receiving.”

The full report can be found on the Commission’s website. An infographic on the key trends can be foundhere.

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