What is Rocket Mobile?

What is Rocket Mobile?

Rocket Mobile is a mobile-phone provider that offers a unique range of prepaid unlimited data plans that use One NZ’s mobile network:

What’s so special about Rocket Mobile’s unlimited data plans?

2degrees, Mighty Mobile, Nova, Spark, Skinny and One NZ each has endless data plans. However, only Mighty Mobile, One NZ and Spark offer truly endless data delivered at maximum data speeds, and then only on their most expensive plans, which cost between $80-$100 per month (before group discounts).

The majority of endless plans come with data caps. This means you only get a certain allocation of full-speed data. Once you hit your plan’s cap, data speeds are wound back quite dramatically, usually to around 1.2Mbps.

And while 1.2Mbps is fast enough for streaming music and surfing the internet, it’s not suitable for video streaming or video calling:

• Netflix recommends a download speed of 3Mbps per stream for playing SD-quality TV shows and movies, 5Mbps for HD and 25Mbps for UHD
• Skype recommends that HD video calling download/upload speeds are 1.5/1.5Mbps

What makes Rocket Mobile’s plans different is that the cheaper plans come with their max data speeds permanently capped, instead of their data limits:

• Rocket Starter ($30): 2Mbps speed cap
• Rocket ($40): 10Mbps speed cap
• Rocket Plus ($45): 40Mbps speed cap
• Rocket Max ($70): Max speed, no cap

This means that if you don’t use your phone to watch a lot of video, you can get an unlimited data plan suitable for you needs for just $30 per month. And all Rocket’s other plans are quite fast enough to watch Netflix in HD!

Indeed, as you can see from the average 4G speeds below, the Rocket Plus plan’s 40Mbps speed limit is pretty much what you can expect from One NZ’s 4G network anyway. So at just $45 per month, if you’re a heavy data user, it represents fantastic value for money.

And if you have access to 5G and can make the most of it, the Rocket Max plan, at $70 per month, is cheaper than similar standalone plans.

Figures according to Opensignal.

Compare Mobile Providers with Canstar Blue

But whatever unlimited data plan you’re considering, it always pays to thoroughly research your choice of provider. And that’s where Canstar’s free comparison tool can help.

Each year we talk to hundreds of everyday Kiwi consumers and get them to rate their mobile phone provider’s levels of value for money and service. For more on our latest research, ratings and awards, just click on the button below:

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About the author of this page

This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in the UK and Australasia, including ACP, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.