NZ broadband speeds improve but falling behind international pacemakers

New Zealand tumbles in Ookla's Speedtest Global Index

Ookla’s regular Speedtest Global Index shows New Zealand fixed line broadband speeds are now falling relative to speeds in other nations.

The index for December 2024 shows New Zealand ranked 29 in the world for fixed line broadband speeds. In September 2023, New Zealand ranked 12.

In December, the measured median fixed line broadband speed was 176.81 Mbps. This still compares favourably with the worldwide median speed of 96.45 Mbps, but is a long way behind Singapore which leads the table with median speeds of 330.98 Mbps.

New Zealand peaked in September 2023

New Zealand’s median fixed line broadband speed was 167.56 Mbps. At the time, our position in the league table peaked in September 2023. In other words our median speed has improved, but 17 other countries improved their speed at a faster pace.

The median speed across all countries was 82.77 Mbps in September 2023. Singapore was the leading nation at the time with a median speed of 254.65 Mbps. At the time, Australia sat at 87 with a median speed of 54.98 Mbps.

In the most recent survey Australia nudged up to 79th place, but its median speed jumped by around 50 percent to 78.47 Mbps.

The big picture

Ookla’s data paints a broad brush picture, New Zealand’s relative league table position tends to jump around. In November 2024 we were ranked 27.

Even though there is considerable statistical noise in the figures, there has been a clear and steady fall in New Zealand’s ranking when compared with the rest of the world.

Meanwhile the measured median fixed line broadband speed has steadily increased over the years. In September 2021, New Zealand’s median speed was clocked at 92.05 Mbps. Today’s speed is double that.

Analysis

There are two possible explanations for New Zealand’s falling ranking in the worldwide broadband speed league table.

First, the government supported Ultrafast Broadband network stopped when it reached 87 percent of the population. Many other governments around the world are either close to, or shooting for, 100 percent coverage. Poor speeds for the 13 percent of New Zealanders not covered by the UFB dragging down the median speed.

Government was rightly proud of the world class network it helped deliver to New Zealand’s cities and towns, but it left the job unfinished.

A second reason is that New Zealand has a high number of fixed wireless broadband customers by international standards. Again, their technology choice drags down the national median broadband speed, although performance has improved.

Reasons to be cheerful

Falling down the league table means a loss of prestige but in practice median speeds continue to improve. And anyway, 176.81 Mbps is more than enough for most broadband applications. It’s not as if there’s anything that Singaporeans can do with broadband that can’t be done in suburban Dunedin.

That said, people who live outside the UFB area and suffer speeds well below the national median have grounds for complaint and may be less willing to accept the status quo. The Ookla figures are a reminder than New Zealand is falling behind international best practice.

School principals give Network for Learning a distinction

In 2024 New Zealand school principals gave Network for Learning’s services a 92 percent satisfaction rate. That’s up from 90 percent the previous year.

Even better was the 96 percent rating achieved by the Crown company’s customer support team, which managed the high score despite a 15 percent increase in the number of cases handled during the year.

The numbers come from N4L’s annual report published late in December.

Other highlights include working with 2degrees and the Ministry of Education to get the Satellite for Schools off the ground. The programme connects 40 of the nation’s most remote schools. Meanwhile N4L blocked more than 1.17 billion harmful or spam emails and a total of 3.3 billion safety threats.

International phone handset market grew in 2024

IDC says worldwide phone shipments increased 2.4 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2024. That took the growth for the entire year to 6.4 percent or 1.24 billion units shipped.

Rival research company Canalys says the market grew 3 percent in the last quarter. It puts the overall growth for 2024 at 7 percent with 1.22 billion units shipped.

The numbers are close, but the interpretation put on the figures could not be more different. IDC’s glass half full commentary saw a strong recovery after two years of market decline. The glass is half empty at Canalys which says growth has slowed significantly.

Canalys says Apple maintained its lead over Samsung in terms of market share for the second year. IDC agrees that Apple was the top brand, but notes the combined share of Apple and Samsung has fallen thanks to competition from Chinese brands.

Samsung is set to launch its new phones at 7am NZ time on January 23.

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