A measure of market trends<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market share of the incumbent provider, Spark, has decreased over the last five years. Energy bundlers such as Mercury have entered the broadband market over this period and begun to increase their market shares as consumer preference for energy bundles has increased,\u201d the commission said in its annual market monitoring report, released in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the rural market, LEO (low-Earth orbiting) satellite provider Starlink has seen considerable growth since its entry in 2021,\u201d the commission said.<\/p>\n
The commission\u2019s June report said Starlink customers had increased 57% from 37,000 to 58,000 over the past year, accounting for 19% of the rural market and 2% overall.<\/p>\n
Starlink owner SpaceX was beneath the levy\u2019s $10m threshold in 2023.<\/p>\n
In 2024, SpaceX\u2019s qualifying New Zealand revenue – that is, revenue generated from telecommunications services – was $73.79m as it debuted on the levy charts.<\/p>\n
This year, SpaceX\u2019s qualifying revenue jumped 38% to $100.99m. <\/p>\n
(SpaceX\u2019s slower revenue growth than customer growth is presumably down to Starlink supplementing its $159-a-month household plan with a slower $79-a-month option.)<\/p>\n
The period has also seen Sky TV enter the telco market with broadband plans, with a slow but steady rise.<\/p>\n
Last year, Sky had $52.38m in revenue to which the levy could be applied. This year, it was $60.13m as the pay TV provider reported a 4% increase in broadband customers to 50,867.<\/p>\n
Overall, telco revenue tracked for the commission\u2019s levy calculations is up this year to $4.9b from $4.8b last year.<\/p>\n
Rural residential broadband market share.
\nSource \/ Commerce Commission Telecommunications Monitoring Report, June 2025. The regulator says the ‘Other’ category consists mainly of “many smaller providers such as wisps [wireless internet service providers] that operate non-cellular wireless networks regionally”.<\/p>\n
Spark share slides<\/p>\n
As the UFB rollout wrapped up, Jarden\u2019s Arie Dekker predicted that the \u201cOther category\u201d could grow to include hundreds of thousands of customers due to the new fibre setup making it easier for a power company or pay-TV provider to offer internet. <\/p>\n
That seems to be playing out (with the addition of Starlink, too). <\/p>\n
And it seems to have impacted the largest player the most.<\/p>\n
Spark, which had 32.86% of industry-qualified revenue in the year to June 2021, had dropped to 28.87% by last year and 21.17% this year.<\/p>\n
One NZ, Chorus and 2degrees all saw modest increases in their actual revenue this year (see table below), but Spark fell back.<\/p>\n
And the field of alternative players just got bigger.<\/p>\n
Mercury and Contact are now the fourth and fifth largest retail internet providers in New Zealand, the commission says, having doubled their market share from 6% to 13% over the past five years.<\/p>\n
Last month, Genesis Energy joined them, launching its own bundled broadband plans. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a nuanced picture. Sky and Genesis could have created their own retail broadband services from scratch, but both minimised risk by partnering with 2degrees, which manages their services behind the scenes (Contact partners with wholesale specialist Devoli, one of many wholesale and infrastructure firms that also feature on the tables below).<\/p>\n
The Commerce Commission’s final determinations for 2025 Telecommunications Development Levy payments. (In the regulator’s jargon, each firm is a “qualifying liable person” or QLP.)<\/p>\n
Starlink, Starlink, Starlink<\/p>\n
Starlink has multiple lines of business in New Zealand. <\/p>\n