Telecommunications in New Zealand

Telecommunications in New Zealand are fairly typical for an industrialised country.

Fixed-line broadband and telephone services were largely provided through copper-based networks, but fibre-based services now represent the majority of connections. Spark New Zealand, One NZ, and 2degrees provide most services, while a number of smaller mobile virtual network operators also exist.

The first telegraph opened in New Zealand between the port of Lyttelton and Christchurch on 16 June 1862.^[1] The line was constructed along the Lyttelton - Christchurch railway line.^[1] The Vogel Era from 1870 saw a major expansion of the telegraph network, including an inter-island cable.^[1] Telegraph lines increased from 699 miles (1,125 km) in 1866 to 3,170 miles (5,100 km) in 1876.^[2] The first overseas telegraph cable between Australia and New Zealand began operation on 21 February 1876.^[1]

The Electric Telegraph Department formed to manage the growing telegraph network was merged with Post Office Department to form the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department in 1881.^[3]

Following early experiments with telephones on telegraph lines, the colonial government established a state monopoly in telephony with the Electric Telegraph Act 1875.^[1] By 1900 there were 7,150 subscribers to telephone services.^[4] Telephony subscriptions grew greatly over the next century, it was estimated by 1965 that 35% of New Zealanders had a telephone.^[5]

New Zealand's first payphones were installed in 1910, which was 21 years after the first ones in the United States. They were originally bright red.^[6]

By the 1980s there was major telephony traffic congestion on the New Zealand Post Office network.^[7] In Auckland, the central exchange was overloaded and "verging on collapse"^[7] elsewhere in New Zealand users often experienced network overloading and crashes.^[7] Some areas still had manual telephone exchanges; Queenstown, for example, wasn't upgraded to automatic service until 1988.^[8] The New Zealand Post Office was highly inefficient, being hamstrung as a government department and required to apply to the Treasury for capital investment.^[7] As the Post Office was a monopoly, it had no incentive to improve customer service.^[7]

The monopoly over telecommunications came to an end in 1987 when Telecom New Zealand was formed, initially as a state-owned enterprise and then privatised in 1990.^[9] Competition began in the early 1990s, greatly reducing prices. The first competitor to market was Clear Communications, a consortium of North American and New Zealand businesses. Chorus, which was split from Telecom (now Spark) in 2011,^[10] still owns the majority of the telecommunications infrastructure, but competition from other providers has increased.^[9] A large-scale rollout of gigabit-capable fibre to the premises, branded as Ultra-Fast Broadband, began in 2009 with a target of being available to 87% of the population by 2022, which was achieved.^[11] As of 2017^[update], the United Nations International Telecommunication Union ranks New Zealand 13th in the development of information and communications infrastructure.^[12]

• Country calling code: 64
  • The same code is also used to reach Scott Base in Antarctica and the United States base McMurdo Station nearby.

• Number of mobile connections: 5.8 million (2021)^[13]
• Coverage available to approx 98% of the population.
  • Operators:
    • 2degrees (operating UMTS and LTE)
      • Virtual network operators: Warehouse Mobile (owned by The Warehouse Group),^[14] Nova Energy,^[15] Orcon (owned by 2degrees),^[16] Slingshot (owned by 2degrees), and Electric Kiwi.^[17]
    • One NZ (operating GSM, UMTS, HSDPA and LTE)^[18]
      • Virtual network operators: Flexiroam,^[19] Kogan Mobile NZ,^[20] Mighty Mobile (owned by Mighty Ape),^[21] and Rocket Mobile (formerly MyRepublic).^[22]
    • Spark New Zealand (operating UMTS, HSDPA and LTE)^[23]
      • Virtual network operators: Skinny (owned by Spark NZ), Digital Island,^[24] Compass,^[25] and Flexiroam.^[19]

• Number of fixed line connections: 1.92 million (2000)
• Individual lines available to 99% of residences.
• VoIP Cloud Based Voice services are now mainstream.
• Traditional Copper line Operators:
  • Chorus Limited: A large numbers of ISPs (referred to as "retail service providers") retail Chorus' connections to personal and business customers. As a wholesaler, Chorus does not retail internet connections to end users.

• Domestic:
  • Optical fibre and microwave links between cities
  • Submarine optical fibre cables between the North Island and the South Island
• International:
  • Submarine cables:
    • Hawaiki Cable (launched July 2018)^[26]
    • Southern Cross Cable (to Australia and Hawaii)
    • TASMAN 2 (to Australia)
    • Tasman Global Access (to Australia, completed March 2017)^[27]
    • Moana Cable (proposed)^[28]
  • Satellite earth stations: 2 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

As of May 2022^[update], there are approximately 2000 payphones in New Zealand, which few people use anymore due to the abundance of cell phones.^[6] Some of them offer WiFi with a reception radius of 50 metres. Most calls made on these phones are 0800 numbers.^[6] Telecom previously made phone cards, which had various designs such as New Zealand plants and birds. They were a fad for collectors; some cards would sell for up to $14,000.^[29] Telecom phased these out completely in 1999,^[30] which caused prices of phone cards price to drop significantly. Today, mint condition cards sell for $1.^[29]

• Radio broadcast stations: AM 124, FM 290, shortwave 4 (1998), 4 on Freeview digital satellite.
  • See also: List of radio stations in New Zealand
• Radios: 3.75 million (1997)

• Television broadcast stations: 41 (plus 52 medium-power repeaters and over 650 low-power repeaters) (1997)
  • These transmit 4 nationwide free-to-air networks and a few regional or local single transmitter stations. Analogue was phased out between September 2012 and December 2013
  • Digital Satellite pay TV is also available and carries most terrestrial networks.
  • Freeview digital free satellite with a dozen SD channels, with SD feeds of the terrestrial HD freeview channels.
  • Freeview, free-to-air digital terrestrial HD and SD content.
  • See also: List of New Zealand television channels
• Televisions: 1.926 million (1997)

• Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 36 (2000)
• Internet users: 4.55 million (2021)^[31]
• Fixed internet connections: 1.24 million (2013)
• Country code (Top level domain): .nz

The government charges a $50 million Telecommunications Development Levy annually to fund improvements to communications infrastructure such as the Rural Broadband Initiative. It is payable by telecommunications firms with an operating revenue of over $10 million, in proportion to their qualified revenue.^[32]

• Economy of New Zealand