Starlink great for rural customers but fibre better for urban areas, expert says

Elon Musk's satellite broadband service Starlink might have topped Consumer NZ's ranking of the country's best internet providers - but there's a warning it won't be the best solution for everyone.

Product Test writer Nick Gelling said 80 percent of Starlink's customers were very satisfied with its service, reliability and connection speed.

It was particularly welcomed by rural customers who had not had access to strong internet services in the past, he said.

Starlink was the first satellite service that Consumer had received enough responses about to include in the survey.

"While more expensive than its competitors, Starlink offers triple the speed. That would be a big deal for rural customers who haven't experienced such fast internet before. It might also explain Starlink's extremely high satisfaction score, 80 percent compared with the average of 58 percent.

"Starlink is able to provide a better service in rural areas, it's quite a lot faster than copper internet and even the 4G wireless internet that gets out into the regions."

While it was a good option for people who could not connect to fibre, it would probably not be best for those living in cities, he said.

"Starlink doesn't really compete with fibre internet. If you are in a place that can get fibre internet, you're better off going with that than with a satellite provider.

"The satisfaction results [for Starlink] wouldn't be anywhere near that high if you were just talking to people in urban areas."

Now NZ was the second-best performer, he said.

"They've been around a few years but are still not a huge player in the market. They're notable for having really good customer service."

Sky Broadband, which was the top performer last year, was bottom of the table.

Sky had been a fairly new entrant to the market last year and had made a push with competitive pricing and putting its "best foot forward", Gelling said.

"Now they've captured that core base maybe they've relaxed a bit and their service has slipped. We're really keen to emphasis that SKy Broadband is a good reminder not to get complacent. Just because your provider was good it doesn't mean they'll be good into the future."

Internet providers could be doing better by New Zealanders, he said.

"The fact that our overall market average for customers satisfaction is only 58 percent across the whole industry shows there's definitely plenty of space to improve."

Many people were worried about how difficult it would be to change providers, but 80 percent of those who had switched said it was a simple process, Gelling said.

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