When it had 58,000 customers, the commission’s calculations for the Telecommunications Development Levy put Starlink’s New Zealand revenue at $100.96 million.

The regulator has yet to reveal the latest Telecommunications Development Levy (TDL) financials.

But with 85,000 customers, Musk’s firm will be earning between $120m and $185m from New Zealand, depending on how users are balanced across its plans – which for residential customers during the surveyed period ranged from $79 per month for “deprioritised data” to $159 per month for maximum speed and unlimited data. Business plans cost more.

In June this year, Starlink increased the cost of those plans from $79 to $85, respectively, as it hiked its charges globally ahead of SpaceX’s IPO.

As well as its broadband plans, which involve dishes being placed on the roofs of homes (or baches, boats or campervans), Starlink also offers business plans via Spark, One NZ and 2degrees and partners with Spark and One NZ on satellite-to-mobile services.

Power companies, Sky TV also nibbling share

Two other trends have eaten away at the major telcos’ market share, one being the rise of gentailers offering power and broadband bundles.

Mercury has increased its national broadband market share from 6% in 2021 to 8% in 2025, while Contact Energy – absent from the market at the start of the decade – is now on 5%.

In addition, Sky TV has entered the broadband market, where the firm now holds a 2% share.

In the first half of FY2026, Sky said its broadband revenue rose by $23m as customers increased 37% to 56,000.

“The launch of Amazon’s Leo service in 2026 is likely to slow Starlink’s momentum by introducing a competing leo (low earth orbit) satellite provider,” the commission’s report says.

Is Musk killing our wisps?

Opinion has been split on the rise and rise of Starlink in New Zealand. The positive spin is that many of its customers are in remote rural areas that Spark and other providers found uneconomic to service, or to upgrade to faster broadband.

Musk’s firm, which offers DIY installation for its rooftop dishes, has alleviated the need for the Government to pump billions into a public-private project to further extend fixed wireless or fibre in rural areas.

Critics say it has left rural New Zealand in the hands of a single provider with a mercurial boss, and that its rise has pressured the network of small provincial and rural wireless internet service providers (wisps).

Late last year, Bay of Plenty wisp Evolution Networks, whose shareholders had included Ōpōtiki District Council, was placed in liquidation, owing close to $500,000.

The rise of Starlink has also caused pain for the small, rural and provincial ISPs who make up Wispa (the wireless internet service providers association).

“We and other wisps are now removing some of our wireless sites where the number of customers connected to the tower has fallen below a level that’s viable,” said Jesse Archer, owner of Bay of Plenty internet provider Full Flavour.

“This is a direct result of customers choosing Starlink instead of a local provider.

“When we remove a tower, it’ll never be reinstated, so rural folk living within the vicinity permanently lose the choice we presently offer and Starlink further consolidates its monopoly.”

Wispa earlier called Starlink’s introductory pricing and free or heavily discounted dish deals “potentially predatory”.

“My concern is that the report risks making it sound like Starlink is simply filling a gap left by copper withdrawal, when there is more to the story than that,” said Matthew Harrison, owner of Taranaki wisp Primo.

“We have built networks, put people on the ground, supported communities and invested in places the large national providers often did not.”

Harrison added, “Regional providers have been servicing many of these rural areas for 10 to 20 years. The Government spent millions backing rural wireless through the Rural Broadband Initiative and rural capacity upgrades, but never properly followed that up by opening the spectrum needed for those networks to keep improving as technology moved on.”

Harrison, Archer and other Wisp owners say they’re not looking for a handout, just access to the radio spectrum they need to compete more effectively with Starlink.

One NZ, Spark and 2degrees received free 5G spectrum in return for pledges to expand their provincial and rural networks.

“Overseas, wisps are using spectrum like 3GHz and 6GHz to deliver much faster fixed wireless broadband. Here in New Zealand, regional providers have not been afforded the same tools,” Harrison said.

‘Holding their ground’

The commission’s report says wisps are “holding their ground”. The regulator includes wisps as part of its omnibus “other” category in rural broadband market share, which fell from 26% in 2024 to 24% in 2025.

The commission says wisps have diversified into new areas, including offering technical support for Starlink customers.

A number of wisps have also become resellers for the business-grade version of Starlink, the regulator says.

And although Primo and Full Flavour are critics of the Government’s approach, the regulator also uses them as positive case studies for another wisp diversification strategy – moving into fibre.

“Primo is developing a fibre network in Egmont Village in Taranaki. Primo also announced it is beginning to build a fibre network in Ōhawe in South Taranaki,” the commission’s report says.

“Other wisps, such as Full Flavour and Yrless, advertise being able to provide fibre for rural subdivisions or private fibre installations.

“This year, Wisps had around 2200 rural fibre connections on their own fibre networks, an increase of around 10% (500) over the past year.

“Wisps are able to economically build fibre networks in areas with a certain density and geographic characteristics. We expect to see Wisps’ fibre coverage expand as more opportunities are identified in rural areas.”

Competition for Starlink on the way

Starlink has been revving up its New Zealand operation, adding extra capacity with new ground stations in Christchurch and – controversially – inner-city Auckland.

The bolstering comes ahead of the firm’s first real competition in New Zealand, and worldwide.

“The launch of Amazon’s LEO service in 2026 is likely to slow Starlink’s momentum,” the commission’s report says.

Amazon Leo is due to launch in Australia later this year. There is no local launch date yet, but its first New Zealand ground station is under construction and the firm has advertised for local staff.

Amazon is launching its own Leo satellites on a programme with a US$10 billion ($17.73b) budget, but also jump-started its operation by buying the Apple-backed Globalstar for US$11.6b earlier this year (Globalstar is Apple’s partner for its iPhone SOS text service).

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.