Coalition questions swirl and insults fly in Parliament, ankle bracelet fears in wake of a leaked report and it’s officially the last week of winter. Video / NZ Herald / Getty / Telegram
Mobile phone plans offered by the likes of retailers and power companies have never been much cop.
The Commerce Commission sees potential for such “MVNO” (mobile virtual network operator”) deals, where another company sells a rebadged version of Spark or One NZ’s service to juice competition.
But while the bigtelcos have been keen to partner with others, there’s always been a ceiling on what MVNOs can offer. Spark and One NZ historically haven’t wanted partners to undercut them on features or price.
The ComCom in its annual monitoring report said this segment actually shrank from a puny 1.8 per cent of the market to just 1.3 per cent last year.
Now, newcomer Mighty Mobile (from online retailer Mighty Ape) has launched an unlimited data, no speed-limit plan that, at $66.58 per month, is cheaper than the equivalent offering from its MVNO partner One NZ.
The ComCom won’t quite be reaching for the champagne, however. There are a couple of catches.
The most obvious is to that to get that killer rate of $66.58, you have to pay for a whole year upfront, which works out to $799.
If you want to be charged by the month, then Mighty Mobile’s no-limits plan costs $80 per month, the same as One NZ’s no-caps deal.
Although Mighty Mobile offers unlimited calling and texts (not including pictures) on both sides of the Tasman, there’s no roaming beyond Australia. And the unlimited data applies only to NZ.
Daily roaming will be available as an add-on by the end of 2023.
The plan is for personal use only.
And, on a related note, the fine print says it’s not wholly unlimited. A “fair use” policy applies, so if you’re chugging huge amounts of data 24/7, you’re likely to get a tap on the shoulder, with suspicions over whether you’re in fact sharing your Mighty with flatmates or a small business.
Despite the provisos, “It’s great to see another entrant into the MVNO space - and one that has a strong brand and distribution network,” Technology Users Association head Craig Young said.
“Getting more providers in the market is all about innovation and competition so it’s good to see Mighty Ape doing something different from other players and appealing to the market that is all about high usage and high speed.
“It’s a tough market to break into as we have seen with other players who have tried, but hopefully this offering will encourage users to look at providers other than just the big three retail brands.”
Mighty Ape CEO Gracie MacKinlay and One NZ chief executive Jason Paris at today's launch. Photo / Supplied
One gives you unlimited data subject to a 10 megabits per second speed limit, for $40 per month (or $33.25 per month if you pay for a year upfront).
Mighty Mobile bills 10mbps as enough for high definition video. That’s ambitious, but it should still be doable for most social media clips, and while modest bandwidth, it’s still a noticeably faster than the 1.2mbps you can be throttled to if you’re on an “endless” data plan.
The other costs $50 per month plan with a 50mbps speed limit (or the equivalent of $41.58 if you pay $499 up front). Like all of the Mighty Mobile plans, it supports hot-spotting - or sharing your phone’s internet connection with a laptop or other devices. This would be the minimum to choose if you want to take advantage of hot-spotting.
All of the plans include a free sim card. You bring your own phone. Those annual charges have to be paid up-front. Service is provided over One NZ’s network.
Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan (right) with Vodafone NZ (now One NZ) CEO Jason Paris during the 2019 launch of Kogan Mobile. Photo / Michael Craig
Mighty Ape’s life under Kogan’s rule
Mighty Mobile has been launched by Mighty Ape - the Kiwi-founded online retailer bought by ASX-listed Kogan for A$122.4m (then $128.3m) in December 2020.
Kogan launched Kogan Mobile in NZ four years ago as a cut-price pre-pay service. That brand (which also uses One NZ’s network) remains.
While Kogan, an online retailer founded by maverick entrepreneur Ruslan Kogan, has seen a profit pullback as punters return to malls in the post-lockdown era, its Kiwi acquisition has performed relatively well.
Mighty Ape had revenue of A$163m in 2022, compared to A$120m in the year before it was bought out. Its gross profit of A$39.1 was double its pre-Kogan life. And its total number of active customers was 783,000 - or about 12 per cent more than before the Kogan buyout.
Longtime sales and marketing chief Gracie MacKinlay became Mighty Ape CEO last year, replacing founder Simon Barton as CEO last year (Barton stayed on as CFO to help with the transition until April this year).
MVNO shrinkage
A spokeswoman refused to give Kogan Mobile numbers for NZ.
In its most recent annual report, the firm said Kogan Mobile accounted for 5.9 per cent of its gross profit across Australia and NZ (Mighty Ape was the second largest contributor on 21.2 per cent).
In its 2022 Annual Telecommunications Monitoring Report, released in June this year, the Commerce Commission said Kogan Mobile and other MVNOs had a total of 77,000 (or 1.3 per cent of the market) down from 106,000 (1.8 per cent) in 2021.
This drop was largely due to the 2degrees-Orcon Group merger, which took two of the (relatively speaking) larger MVNO deals off the table, the watchdog said.
The regulator noted that things ticked up in August 2022 when internet service provider MyRepublic launched a mobile service under an MVNO deal with Vodafone NZ (now One NZ).
But in July this year, MyRepublic quit NZ, with 2degrees picking up its broadband customers.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
