The mobile services revenue in New Zealand is forecast to reach $1.9 billion in 2026, increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.8 percent over 2021-2026, according to GlobalData.
Mobile messaging and voice revenues will see a steady decline in New Zealand. Mobile data service revenue will grow at a CAGR of 5.4 percent in New Zealand, driven by continued rise in smartphone subscriptions, growing average monthly data usage and adoption of higher average revenue per user (ARPU)-5G services plans.

4G will remain the leading mobile technology in New Zealand during 2021-2026. 5G services will see significant growth in adoption over the forecast period, with its share of the total mobile subscriptions set to increase from 2.1 percent in 2021 to 18.4 percent by the end of 2026.

This growth is supported by the ongoing investment in 5G network expansion by mobile operators like Vodafone New Zealand, Spark and 2degrees, Aasif Iqbal, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, said.

The average monthly data usage will increase from 4.3GB in 2021 to about 5.5GB in 2026, accelerated by the increase in the consumption of mobile video and social media applications on smartphones on the back of data centric plans promoted by MNOs.

Vodafone is expected to lead the mobile market in New Zealand in terms of subscription share in 2021 and will remain the leading mobile operator through 2026.

Vodafone’s market leadership will be primarily supported by its strong focus on 5G network expansions and on M2M / IoT segment. Vodafone New Zealand has plans to expand M2M/IoT coverage footprint to 60 percent geographic coverage by 2024.