About Canstar's Most Satisfied Customers Monthly Mobile Award
Canstar's Most Satisfied Customers Monthly Mobile Award reveals the mobile phone provider that delivers the best consumer satisfaction to its customers.
We ask Kiwi mobile users with monthly plans to rate their satisfaction with their providers by Overall Satisfaction, as well as important criteria such as Customer Service, Network Coverage and Value for Money.
Numbers crunched by Canstar's researchers:
- 2455 Customers Surveyed
- 11 Providers Assessed
- 4 Providers Shortlisted
- 1 Award Winner
The best prepaid mobile provider in NZ
The brands rated are listed below in order of best overall satisfaction.
1. Skinny
Skinny wins our Monthly Mobile Award on the back of a perfect set of 5-Star ratings from its customers across all our award categories.
It's a superb result that sits alongside Skinny's decade-long dominance of our Prepaid Mobile Award.
Skinny has six different monthly plans, which cater for all budgets and mobile-use needs. 5G is currently included in all Skinny plans at no extra cost.
Four-weekly plans
$8 Plan: 100 Minutes & Unlimited Texts in NZ & OZ – 250MB Data
$17 Plan: 200 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts in NZ & OZ – 1.5GB Rollover Data
$27 Plan: 300 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts in NZ & OZ – 4GB Rollover Data
$40 Plan: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (speeds reduce after 10GB)
$50 Plan: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (speeds reduce after 40GB)
$70 Plan: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (no speed cap)
Yearly plans
Skinny also offers two 12-months plans, that offer considerable savings. The data, call and text allowances renew every 28 days.
$296 Plan: 300 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited texts NZ & OZ – 4GB rollover data
$439 Plan: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (speeds reduce after 10GB)
2. 2degrees
2degrees offers four monthly plans that have carryover data. Plans come with a great perk: a free hour of data each day to use at a time that suits your data needs. Three of the plans also allow you to add up to five extra people at discounted rates to form a group plan:
$35 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts in NZ & OZ – 3GB Rollover Data
$45 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – 6GB Rollover Data; add extra members on group plan from $25/m
$55 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – 15GB Rollover Data; add extra members on group plan from $25/m
$65 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – 80GB Rollover Data; add extra members on group plan from $25/m
2degrees also has one monthly unlimited data plan:
$80 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (no speed cap); add extra members on group plan from $40/m
Add a Sidekick plan for your smartwatch to plans for $5/m.
3. Spark
Spark offers six endless data plans, each offers:
- Free data for Spotify music
- 10% Spotify Premium discount (except on : $90 plan)
- Add $20 Kids Plan (except on: $43 plan)
Endless data plans
$43 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (speeds reduce after 3GB)
$50 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (speeds reduce after 6GB)
$65 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (speeds reduce after 75GB)
$75 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (speeds reduce after 150GB); add up to four companion plans for $40/m each.
$90 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (no speed cap). Free Spotify Premium (usually $18.99/month). Add up to four companion plans for $45/m each. International talk and texts.
$95 Netflix Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (no speed cap). Free Netflix Standard (usually $25.99/month). Add up to four companion plans for $45/m each. International talk and texts.
All Spark plans offer hotspotting and free voicemail.
$20 Kids Plan
Spark also offers a dedicated plans for kids, up to 17.5 years of age:
- Features: 100 minutes & 100 texts to NZ – 2GB data, half of which is allocated by parents.
- Extras: Hotspotting, save 10% on Spotify Premium
4. One NZ
One NZ keeps it simple, with four mobile plans, two of which are eligible to be teamed up with companion plans for a considerable discount:
$40 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – 3GB Data
$50 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ – Endless Data (speeds reduce after 6GB)
$70 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ plus 250mins & 50 texts to 20 international destinations – Endless Data (speeds reduce after 50GB); add up to three companion plans for $35/m per plan.
$85 Plan: Unlimited calls & texts to NZ & OZ plus 250mins & 50 texts to 20 international destinations – Endless Data (no speed cap); add up to three companion plans for $40/m per plan.
All One NZ plans offer hotspotting, fee voicemail, One NZ rewards and are 5G ready. They also offer One NZ's satellite text facility.
Choosing the best monthly mobile plan provider
It’s always interesting comparing consumers across Canstar’s research. And our latest mobile awards have revealed an interesting distinction between prepaid and monthly mobile users.
Half of the respondents in our award survey who have monthly plans have unlimited data, compared to just 18% on prepaid plans. Although around the same percentage of respondent say they use apps to communicate, rather than traditional talk and texts: 69% of monthly users vs 65% of prepaid users.
However, across both sets of mobile users, Value for Money is the major concern when rating their choice of provider, followed by Customer Service.
Here’s the full rundown of what the consumers in our survey say are the main things they consider when rating their monthly mobile providers:
- Value for Money: 26%
- Customer Service 21%
- Network Coverage: 17%
- Billing: 12%
- Accessibility of Provider: 12%
- Assistance Managing Data: 8%
