One NZ has been named as the umlaut Best in Test winner for the fifth consecutive year running (2021-2026), this year achieving its strongest result yet with a clean sweep across every award category assessed in the independent benchmark.
The result means One NZ ranked first for:
- Overall Network Experience
- Voice Experience
- Data Experience
- Crowd Experience
- Reliability Experience
One NZ achieved the highest overall score in the benchmark and outperformed competitors across every category measured.
The results were decisive, with One NZ leading the runner-up by significant margins across every category:
- Overall Network Experience: One NZ ranked #1, +5.6% vs runner-up 2degrees
- Voice Experience: One NZ ranked #1, +8.7% vs runner-up Spark
- Data Experience: One NZ ranked #1, +2.6% vs runner-up 2degrees
- Crowd Experience: One NZ ranked #1, +1.5% vs runner-up 2degrees
- Reliability Experience: One NZ ranked #1, +5.5% vs runner-up 2degrees
What this means for customers
For One NZ customers, that means a better mobile experience whether they're making calls, streaming content, working remotely, running a business, browsing online, or staying connected with friends and family.
One NZ Chief Technology Officer Kieran Byrne said the award reflects a sustained focus on investing in and evolving the network to deliver the best possible experience for customers.
"We know how important it is for New Zealanders to have access to excellent, reliable mobile coverage, and we want them to be better connected with us. For One NZ to be recognised as umlaut's Best in Test winner for the fifth consecutive year is an outstanding achievement for our team, and one we're incredibly proud of.
"What's particularly significant is that this year we've achieved a clean sweep across every category measured by umlaut. These weren't narrow victories – we led the competition across voice, data, reliability and overall network performance.
"Independent benchmarking like umlaut provides one of the most rigorous assessments of network quality available. This result validates the investments we've made and the work our teams do every day to deliver a consistently superior experience for our customers.
"Whether our customers are making calls, streaming content, running businesses, working remotely or staying connected with family and friends, they rely on our network to perform. This recognition demonstrates that One NZ continues to set the benchmark for mobile network performance in New Zealand, offering fantastic mobile coverage that our customers can rely on."
The fifth consecutive Best in Test award reinforces One NZ's commitment to ongoing investment in network infrastructure, coverage, capacity and resilience across New Zealand.
"We're proud to have maintained our leadership position for five consecutive years, but we're not standing still," Byrne said. "We'll continue investing in our network so our customers can enjoy the best possible experience wherever they are in New Zealand, today and into the future."
How did One NZ achieve this result?
Over the last year, One NZ invested more than $100 million in its mobile network, and completed approximately 250 site upgrades and new builds, across New Zealand. This investment included targeted improvements in areas identified through customer feedback, and expanding 4G and 5G services
In addition to investment in cell sites, One NZ completed the shutdown of its legacy 2G and 3G networks, enabling the reallocation of spectrum to 4G and 5G services, supporting increased capacity and improved performance as data demand continues to grow.
The annual umlaut benchmark combines extensive nationwide drive testing with real-world customer experience data to assess network performance across multiple dimensions, including voice, data, reliability and overall user experience.
How does umlaut assess mobile networks?
umlaut is an independent network benchmarking organisation that assesses mobile network performance through nationwide testing and real-world customer experience data. (see also https://www.umlaut.com/benchmarking and the NZ report here).
Its annual benchmark evaluates mobile networks across voice, data, reliability, crowd experience and overall network performance. This specific benchmark includes drive testing Spark, 2degrees, One NZ over 8230km across Voice, Browsing, Downlink, Uplink, YouTube, interactivity (latency) performance across many cities, towns and roads across New Zealand as well as aggregating six months of crowd sourced data performance. The latter reflects experience as measured 24/7 across many thousands of smartphones as customers use and experience the networks across all operators.
The 2026 results mark the fifth consecutive year that umlaut has ranked One NZ as Best in Test.
ENDS
Media contact:
media@one.nz
