VoIP Providers in New Zealand: Home and Business Compared

Choosing a VoIP provider in New Zealand has moved from a nice-to-have to something almost every household and small business now has to think about. With Chorus retiring its old copper phone network, the traditional landline is disappearing, and voice calls are shifting onto the internet. This guide compares the main VoIP providers serving New Zealand, explains what plans actually cost, what separates good call quality from bad, and how to switch without losing your number – written for people who have never had to shop for a phone service this way before.

What is a VoIP provider, and how does it work?

A VoIP provider is a company that carries your phone calls over the internet instead of over a dedicated copper phone line. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. In plain terms, your voice is turned into small packets of digital data, sent across your broadband connection, and turned back into sound at the other end – the same way a video call or a voice message works.

Because the call travels over data rather than a physical phone circuit, a VoIP provider does not need to run a new wire to your home or office. You keep your usual internet connection and add a voice service on top. That single change is what makes VoIP cheaper, more flexible and far easier to scale than the phone systems it is replacing. A provider typically supplies you with a phone number (or lets you bring your existing one), a way to make and receive calls, and an online dashboard to manage it all.

Why New Zealand is moving to VoIP

The main reason VoIP matters in New Zealand right now is the retirement of the copper network. Chorus, which owns most of the country’s old phone lines, has brought its copper shutdown forward to 2028, and copper in areas already served by fibre has been winding down since mid-2026. As the copper goes, the traditional PSTN landline – the kind that worked in a power cut – goes with it. Anyone who still wants a home or business phone number is being moved onto a voice service that runs over fibre, fixed wireless or another internet connection. That service is VoIP, whether or not the provider calls it that.

This brings a genuine benefit (lower cost and more features) but also one important safety trade-off, covered below: a VoIP phone depends on both power and internet, so it will not work in a blackout unless you have arranged a backup. It is the single most important thing to understand before you switch.

Home VoIP vs business VoIP: two different markets

VoIP in New Zealand splits into two quite different products, and knowing which one you need saves a lot of confusion.

Home phone over fibre

For households, VoIP usually means a simple “home phone” line that plugs into your fibre router and keeps your familiar landline number. It is sold by the big retail telcos – One NZ, Spark and 2degrees – usually as a cheap add-on to a broadband plan, with national calling included or available as an extra. You get one number, basic calling, and that is about it. The goal is to replace the old landline as closely as possible, not to add business features.

Business VoIP and cloud PBX

For businesses, VoIP means a cloud PBX (private branch exchange) or hosted phone system. A PBX is the “switchboard” that routes calls inside an organisation – the thing that lets one published number ring the right person, hold calls in a queue, or run an auto-attendant menu. A cloud PBX does all of that from the provider’s servers, so you do not buy or maintain any hardware on site. Business plans are priced per user or per concurrent call and bundle features such as call recording, voicemail-to-email, hunt groups and integration with your customer software. Specialist providers such as 2talk, VoIPLine Telecom and KiwiVoIP sit here, alongside global platforms like RingCentral and Zoom Phone.

VoIP providers in New Zealand compared

The table below compares the main VoIP options available to New Zealand homes and small businesses, from local specialists to the global cloud platforms. Prices are indicative starting points and, for business plans, are quoted excluding GST unless noted – always confirm the current figure on the provider’s own site, because rates change.

2talk

2talk is a long-established New Zealand VoIP and broadband provider aimed mainly at business and SoHo (small office/home office) users. Its voice plans run on a no-contract, pre-pay model and scale from a free casual tier up to larger multi-trunk plans, with pricing published openly from around $10 per month (ex GST) for a single trunk. It also sells fibre broadband and business mobile, so it can be a single supplier for a small office. 2talk’s own pricing page carries the standard warning that its voice runs over non-copper lines and so will not work – including for 111 – during a power outage.

VoIPLine Telecom

VoIPLine Telecom runs a New Zealand operation out of Auckland (it also operates in Australia, the UK, Ireland and the US) and is built around a hosted PBX with a drag-and-drop call-flow editor, so you can build IVR menus, queues and time-based routing yourself without a technician. It offers SIP trunking, 0800 numbers, Microsoft Teams direct routing and call-centre features, advertises a 99.9% uptime SLA and a 30-day free trial, and quotes most plans on request rather than from a fixed price list. Number porting is charged per number.

KiwiVoIP

KiwiVoIP is a New Zealand-owned provider with local engineers and openly listed hosted PBX plans – a useful trait when many rivals hide pricing behind a quote. Its business voice tiers start at $24.95 per month (ex GST) for a one-to-two-person plan and rise to around $59.60 for a nine-plus-person plan, each including NZ local numbers, bundled landline and mobile minutes, unlimited inbound calls and unlimited extensions on its own platform. It also supports the 3CX phone system for businesses that prefer it, with 3CX softphone licensing from about $10 per month.

Home phone from One NZ, Spark and 2degrees

For households, the three big retail telcos all offer a voice-over-fibre home phone that keeps your existing number. One NZ, for example, sells a fibre and fixed-wireless home phone from around $10 a month when added to broadband, with national calls included and mobile or international calls charged per minute. Spark and 2degrees offer broadly similar add-ons. These are the simplest path for a family that just wants a landline-style phone, but they are not designed for business call handling.

Global cloud platforms

Larger businesses, or those wanting tight software integration, often look at international unified-communications platforms. RingCentral starts at roughly NZ$34 per user per month on an annual plan and is strong on CRM and app integrations. Zoom Phone starts near US$15 per user per month, though unlimited New Zealand calling sits on a higher tier. Dialpad offers New Zealand local numbers and AI call features, and Microsoft Teams Phone adds calling to an existing Teams deployment. 3CX is a slightly different model – a phone-system software licensed per system per year (with a free tier for small setups) that you host yourself or through a partner and pair with a New Zealand SIP trunk.

What VoIP really costs in New Zealand

VoIP is almost always cheaper than the copper landline it replaces, but the pricing model is different, so compare carefully. There are three cost patterns to watch for:

• Home add-on pricing: a flat monthly fee (often around $10) bolted onto a broadband plan, with national calls usually included and mobile or overseas calls metered per minute.
• Per-trunk or per-plan business pricing: used by NZ specialists such as 2talk and KiwiVoIP, where a monthly fee buys a set number of concurrent calls (trunks), numbers and bundled minutes – roughly $10 to $180 a month depending on size.
• Per-user cloud pricing: used by global platforms such as RingCentral and Zoom Phone, where you pay a monthly amount for each person who needs a phone, so cost scales directly with headcount.

On top of the headline plan, budget for possible one-off costs: number porting fees (commonly $10-$22 per number), extra minute bundles if you make a lot of mobile or international calls, and any handsets you choose to buy rather than using an app. Many providers also offer a free trial, which is the cheapest way to test call quality before committing.

What features to look for

The right feature set depends on whether you are a household or a business, but these are the ones that matter most when comparing providers:

• Number porting: the ability to keep your existing phone number when you switch. For most people this is non-negotiable.
• Auto-attendant and IVR: an automated menu (“press 1 for sales”) that routes callers to the right place – essential for businesses, irrelevant for homes.
• Call queues and hunt groups: hold and distribute incoming calls across a team so none are missed.
• Voicemail-to-email: messages transcribed or forwarded to your inbox so you can read and action them quickly.
• Softphone and mobile apps: make and receive calls on your business number from a laptop or smartphone, which is what makes remote and hybrid work possible.
• Call recording and analytics: useful for training, compliance and understanding call volumes.
• Integrations: links to your CRM or helpdesk so customer details appear on screen when the phone rings.

If you need to choose actual handsets rather than apps, see our separate guide to VoIP phones and handsets, which covers desk phones, cordless options and analogue adapters.

Call quality: what actually determines it

Call quality on VoIP depends far more on your internet connection than on the provider you pick. Because your voice travels as data, anything that disrupts that data – congestion, high latency or packet loss – shows up as choppy, delayed or robotic audio. Three things make the biggest difference:

• Enough upload bandwidth: each call needs surprisingly little, roughly 100 kbps in each direction, but it must be consistently available. Before switching, it is worth running a quick check to test your broadband speed, paying attention to the upload figure, not just download.
• Quality of Service (QoS): a router setting that gives voice packets priority over everything else so a big download does not break your call. Our explainer on Quality of Service for home Wi-Fi covers how to turn it on.
• A stable connection: fibre is ideal for VoIP. Fixed wireless and satellite can work well too; if you are rural and relying on Starlink satellite internet, VoIP is usually fine, though occasional brief dropouts are more likely than on fibre.

If calls are breaking up, the fix is usually at your end rather than the provider’s. Dialling in the right router settings for faster internet – enabling QoS and keeping firmware up to date – resolves most problems before you ever need to call support.

How to switch to VoIP without losing your number

You can almost always keep your existing phone number when moving to VoIP, through a process called number porting. The key rule is simple: start the port with your new provider while your old service is still active. If you cancel the old line first, the number can be released and lost. A typical switch looks like this:

1. Choose your new provider and plan, and ask them to port your existing number as part of sign-up.
2. Provide your current account details exactly as they appear on your old bill – mismatched details are the most common cause of porting delays.
3. Keep the old service running until the port completes, which usually takes a few business days.
4. Set up your handset or app, test an outgoing and an incoming call, and only then cancel the old line.

Porting fees are modest (often $10-$22 per number) and are usually a one-off. If you run a business phone system, consider porting outside peak hours to minimise any brief disruption.

Common mistakes when choosing a VoIP provider

Most VoIP regrets come from a handful of avoidable errors rather than from picking the “wrong” brand:

• Ignoring the power-cut problem: assuming the new phone will work in a blackout like the old landline did. It will not, unless you add a battery backup or keep a charged mobile for emergencies.
• Buying on headline price alone: a cheap base plan can cost more once per-minute mobile and international charges are added. Check the call rates, not just the monthly fee.
• Underestimating the internet connection: putting a business phone system on a congested or low-upload connection and blaming the provider when calls break up.
• Cancelling the old line too early: the fastest way to lose a number you wanted to keep.
• Choosing a provider with no local support: an overseas platform may be cheaper, but a New Zealand provider can help with local numbering, porting and emergency-calling rules.
• Over-buying features: a household does not need call queues and IVR; paying for a business plan you will never use is simply waste.

Security, privacy and emergency calling

VoIP calls carry the same sensitive information as any phone call, so security matters. Reputable providers encrypt call signalling and audio (look for SRTP and TLS support), offer strong account passwords and two-factor login, and keep their systems patched. The main risks are weak account passwords and misconfigured systems that expose a SIP line to toll fraud, so use long, unique passwords and enable any available login protection.

The one safety point unique to VoIP is emergency calling. Because the service needs power and internet, a VoIP phone cannot reach 111 during a power cut or internet outage. New Zealand providers are required to tell you this. If anyone in your household depends on a working phone for medical or safety reasons, register with your provider’s vulnerable-consumer or 111 contact service, keep a charged mobile on hand, or fit a small uninterruptible power supply to your router and phone.

Who VoIP suits – and who should wait

VoIP suits almost everyone in New Zealand now, because for most people it is no longer optional – the copper landline is going regardless. It is an especially good fit for small businesses that want professional call handling without expensive hardware, for remote and hybrid teams that need to work from anywhere, and for households wanting to keep a landline number cheaply. Businesses running their own office systems may prefer self-managed options, and can pair a SIP trunk with tools covered in our guide to self-hosted software for small businesses.

The only people who should pause are those in a genuine blackspot with no reliable fibre, fixed-wireless or satellite option, or anyone whose safety depends on a phone that works without power and who cannot arrange a backup. Even then, the answer is usually to sort out a resilient internet connection and a backup plan rather than to cling to copper that is being switched off anyway.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is VoIP cheaper than a traditional landline in New Zealand?

In almost every case, yes. A home VoIP line often costs around $10 a month as a broadband add-on, with national calls included, and business plans avoid the line rental and hardware costs of an old phone system. The savings are largest on long-distance and international calls. Just check the per-minute rates for mobile and overseas calls, as these vary between providers and can add up if you make a lot of them.

Will VoIP work during a power cut or for 111 calls?

No, not on its own. A VoIP phone needs both mains power and a working internet connection, so it stops working in a blackout or an internet outage, including for 111 emergency calls. This is the key difference from the old copper landline. To stay safe, keep a charged mobile phone for emergencies, or fit a battery backup (an uninterruptible power supply) to your router and phone. Let your provider know if someone in the home relies on a phone for medical reasons.

Can I keep my existing phone number when switching to VoIP?

Yes. The process is called number porting, and it works between almost all New Zealand providers. Arrange the port with your new provider when you sign up, and keep your old service active until the transfer finishes – usually a few business days. Do not cancel the old line first, or you risk losing the number. A small one-off porting fee, typically $10 to $22 per number, usually applies.

What internet speed do I need for good VoIP call quality?

Each VoIP call uses only about 100 kbps in each direction, so even a modest connection has plenty of raw speed. What matters more is consistency and enough upload bandwidth, especially if several calls run at once. A stable fibre connection is ideal. Turning on Quality of Service on your router, which gives voice priority over other traffic, prevents most call-quality problems caused by other devices using the connection.

Do I need special hardware, or can I use an app?

You can use either. Most providers offer a softphone app for your computer or smartphone, which lets you make and receive calls on your business number with no extra hardware – ideal for remote work. If you prefer a physical handset, you can use a dedicated VoIP desk phone or connect an existing analogue phone through a small adapter. For a home line, the phone usually just plugs into a port on your fibre router.