Across the board in New Zealand, real costs of comparable utilities for consumers are increasing over time, while the cost of telecommunications services continues to decrease, even as consumer demand and the quality of services provided are increasing.
The latest consumers’ price index (CPI) released by Statistics New Zealand shows that inflation has increased at the rate of 2.2% for the year to March 2017. Housing and household utilities as a consumer category increased 3.3% over the same time period.
Drilling down further into this data; local authority rates and payments increased 3.2%, electricity increased 2.18%, and gas increased 2.78%
By comparison, for the annual period ending March 2017 telecommunications equipment costs decreased by 16.52% and telecommunications services costs dropped by 2.54%.
Overall, the decrease in telecommunications costs is in direct contrast to the increase in overall utilities costs paid by consumers nationwide, which demonstrates the telecommunications industry offers New Zealand consumers and businesses excellent value for money.
