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Mobile internet, 4G and 5G in New Zealand

New Zealand's Commerce Commission publishes coverage in two measures, and the distance between them tells you about the country. As at June 2025, 4G reached 99.0% of the population, up from 98.5% a year earlier, but 54.6% of the landmass, up from 54.3%. For 5G the figures are 51% of the population — about 2.7 million people — and 3.5% of the land, nearly tripling from 1.16% in 2024. For comparison, 3G at its peak reached 98.8% of the population and 49.9% of the landmass.

The Commission notes that 4G coverage reached a larger landmass and percentage of population than the 3G network ever did, and attributes that to operators upgrading 3G sites to 4G ahead of the shutdown and to the Rural Connectivity Group's tower programme, which had 566 mobile towers live as at 30 June 2025. On 5G it is just as plain: the majority of coverage is concentrated first in cities and then in towns with greater population density.

New Zealand has three operators — Spark, One NZ and 2degrees — and their own 5G numbers differ: Spark more than 50% of the population at June 2025 across 130 locations with a population greater than 1,500, One NZ 64% as of September 2025, and 2degrees 549 5G cell sites.

Roaming in New Zealand without an eSIM

New Zealand is outside the EU and the EEA, so 'Roam Like at Home' does not apply. That arrangement covers the EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, along with Moldova and Ukraine, and New Zealand is not among them. Your operator therefore bills New Zealand data at its own out-of-bundle roaming tariff, without the EU price caps that apply inside the zone. A trip to the other side of the world is rarely a weekend, so that meter runs longer here than almost anywhere. The European Commission advises checking that tariff with your provider first.

3G is switched off in New Zealand: can your handset do 4G or 5G?

This is the most concrete warning on the page, and it comes straight from the regulator: as at April 2026, all three New Zealand mobile operators had shut down their 3G networks. A handset that only supports 3G will not work there. The Commerce Commission spells out the consequences itself: they fall on consumers using older or grey-market handsets that are not compatible with 4G or 5G, on access to emergency services such as 111 calling, and on some older devices still attached to the network.

On the scale of it the Commission is straightforward: as at June 2025 it estimated 500 addresses — 0.02% of the total in New Zealand — relied entirely on 3G coverage. On 2G we make no claim: only One NZ is documented, and that is not a national picture.

Set that next to the 54.6% landmass figure and you have the whole preparation list for a road trip here. Where people live, you will have 4G almost everywhere; between those places, nearly half the map is empty. The Commission does not break down which regions those are, so we name none. One aside, so as not to raise false hopes: One NZ launched a nationwide satellite service in late 2024, but it is text messaging only — no data, no calls. Download your route, your maps and your bookings offline before you drive out of town.