Data for December 2018
This monthly report is brought to you by CompareBear.co.nz: a free utilities comparison service whose goal it is to help
New Zealanders find the best power and broadband plans for their needs. Users can switch to the most appropriate
provider in minutes and, on average, save more than $200 per year by switching. The data published below is gathered
from more than 50,000 monthly users across comparison services Glimp.co.nz and CompareBear.co.nz.
December 2018 summary (attribute quotes to Denis Tyurkov, CompareBear co-founder):
“Households in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch saved an average of $10 each in power across the month of
December. This is probably due to a combination of less power usage during warmer summer months but also thanks to many
choosing to go away during the Christmas and New Year period.”
“It was very much business-as-usual in terms of the power and broadband providers in New Zealand during the end
of 2018 with normal rates of customer switching throughout the month of December.”
“We’ll see much more movement this month and in coming months as retailers try to entice customers with new year
deals.”
“It’s a great time to compare providers at CompareBear.co.nz because there are many deals on broadband, power,
and mobile and you can almost be sure to land yourself a better price.”
“For the second month in a row, Orcon gained the most amount of new broadband customers through
CompareBear.co.nz while Spark lost the highest number. This is probably thanks to aggressive pricing from Orcon.”
Power:
The provider with the largest number of customers switching to it: Powershop (78% of all switches)
The provider with the largest number of customers switching away from it: Genesis (11% of all switches)
Average household price of power across all providers for December 2018 (change from previous month):
Auckland: $149.56 (-$6.38)
Wellington: $176.30 (-$11.02)
Christchurch: $161.28 (-$13.63)
Broadband:
The provider with the largest number of customers switching to it: Orcon (65% of all switches)
The provider with the largest number of customers switching away from it: Spark (14% of all switches)
Average household price of broadband across all providers for December 2018: $95.38
Percentage of all new broadband plans without landline (broadband only): 74.64%
Monthly breakdown of internet usage type (% change from previous month):
Light — 5.12% (+ 0.89% from previous month)
Moderate — 19.28% (+ 0.62% from previous month)
Heavy — 53.05% (+ 0.18% from previous month)
Extreme — 22.55%
Extreme — 23.88% (- 0.49%) * previous month: 24.37%
* Light = using internet for emails and a little bit of browsing. Moderate = more regular browsing, social media use, Skype calls and Spotify streaming. Heavy = downloading, using Netflix and YouTube. Extreme = gaming, conferencing, and streaming large amounts of video.