New Zealanders are rapidly giving up phone calls in favour of internet services, says the consumer watchdog.
The annual telecommunications report from the country's Commerce Commission has found between 2007 and 2014, the total minutes of calling from landline phones in the country fell by nearly 50 per cent.
While mobile calling was up slightly, it was a rise in mobile data that was picking up the slack, telecommunications commissioner Stephen Gale said.
"As noted in last years report, data revenues continue to rise while voice-related revenues are in decline, reflecting the importance of fixed and mobile internet access for New Zealand households," he said.
Average household data use rose from 26GB to 32GB a month from 2013 to 2014, while average mobile data use nearly doubled from 130MB to 229MB a month in that time.
But the report also found that despite the shift, New Zealand was still one of the most expensive countries in the OECD in which to buy large amounts of mobile data, with 6GB of mobile data still priced at $90 on average.
However, pricing for entry-level broadband was on par with the OECD and pricing for cheaper mobile plans was well below the international average, the report said.
It also noted 2014 was a year of rapid change for the telecommunications industry, with the consumers getting behind new technologies such as 4G mobile and fibre-optic broadband, the introduction of streaming TV and film services, and mergers and rebranding among major industry players.
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