GSMA report sees 5G everywhere in NZ by 2030Almost every mobile user in New Zealand will spend most of their time on 5G networks by the end of the decade according to international research… Read More

TCF echos Gilbertson’s compulsory dispute resolution membership callThe Telecommunications Forum has backed proposals compelling all retail telecoms service providers to join an indust… Read More

Fibre users are using more data than ever despite a slowdown in network footprint growth and customer uptake.Chorus reports the average monthly data use on its fibre network hit 623 GB in Ju… Read More

You don’t hear much talk about the Telecommunications Service Obligation these days: The problems the TSO set out to address appear to have been solved.The original idea of a TSO was t… Read More

A partnership deal between Waikato University and Spark Health will explore innovation opportunities. The two say they will also work on developing what they call a “future focused&rdq… Read More

MBNZ adds Spark 5G fixed wireless broadbandMeasuring Broadband New Zealand says Spark’s 5G fixed wireless broadband customers get fibre-like download speeds even during peak hours.The… Read More

NZ Compare published a press release saying New Zealand broadband prices rate in 128th place out of 223 nations. It asks “Do Kiwis pay too much?”NZ Compare uses data from a surve… Read More

Anawhata is the site of the Rural Connectivity Group’s 500th open access cell tower. The tower serves a coastal community sitting between Piha and Bethells on Auckland’s west coa… Read More

Writing at Geekzone, someone called “Quickymart” take issue with a decade old story he found on Scoop in:No, Bill Bennett, fibre is betterThis story is a decade old. Despite the… Read More

OpenSignal report shows minority of users not ready for network shutdownAn OpenSignal report looking at New Zealand’s readiness for planned 3G network closures suggests some customers… Read More

I’m back on the New Zealand Tech Podcast with Paul Spain.This week we talk about ARM, how that company now dominates mobile devices and could be about to do that same with laptops. It… Read More

Telco signs 10 year renewable energy deal with GenesisA 10 year deal between Spark and Genesis Energy will see the telco buy all the power generated by the Lauriston solar plant.Spark says t… Read More

Earlier today Microsoft took the wraps off a new Windows PC format that adds AI hardware and software. It's a big story, but it hides an even bigger story. There are new Microsoft Surface de… Read More

From the outside, Apple’s latest MacBook Air appears identical to its 2022 counterpart. It has the same ports, a great screen, terrific keyboard and the best trackpad you’ll find… Read More

Chorus anticipates high-bandwidth IoT demandJoe Caccioppoli says New Zealand businesses are rapidly adopting high-bandwidth IoT applications. He says close to half of major customers are eit… Read More

2degrees roaming claims in ComCom Fair Trading sightsMisleading claims about free roaming in Australia have seen the Commerce Commission file eight separate Fair Trading Act charges against… Read More

Vocus, Google to add submarine cable capacityVocus and Google are extending the Pacific Connect submarine cable network link Australia to the United States with a branch landing in Auckland… Read More

Deregulation on cards as copper network investigation opensDeregulation could be on the cards as the Commerce Commission investigation into the copper phone network gets underway.With close… Read More

One New Zealand breaches consumer protection laws againThe Commerce Commission has taken action in the High Court against One New Zealand saying the telco is: “endangering vulnerable c… Read More

Commerce Commission report reveals woeful home WiFiMost New Zealand households have poor WiFi networks that undermine the value for fast broadband connections.The first RealSpeed report rele… Read More

Starlink makes waves in rural New ZealandThree weeks after it launched, (Download Weekly March 15) Starlink’s low-cost satellite broadband plan is making waves with frustrated rural te… Read More

Earlier this month the European Commission fined Apple €1.8 billion over the way the company's App Store deals with music streaming service providers, which in practice boils down to Sp… Read More

Researchers say women workers are more at risk of losing their jobs to artificial intelligence than men.That’s because men and women are not evenly spread across industries and roles… Read More

When Frederick Taylor wrote The Principles of Scientific Management in 1911, it made sense. Taylor thought management could be rationalised. To get there he invented the time… Read More

Upmarket phones lead handset market recoveryAfter many quarters of flagging sales, New Zealand’s mobile handset market grew 10 per cent in the last year. In the fourth quarter sales we… Read More

Starlink’s predatory pricing challenges rural fixed wirelessIf you googled ‘New Zealand fixed wireless broadband’ in the past week, chances are you saw a Starlink advertise… Read More

Business calls for tougher data leak penaltiesKordia's annual survey of large company attitudes to online crime shows most want to see stiffer penalties for businesses who fail to protect cu… Read More

Aue to take over at Chorus as Rousselot moves onChorus CEO JB Rousselot will leave the company in April. Chief operating officer and former 2degrees CEO Mark Aue will step into the role.The… Read More

Spark spends $15m on accelerate Aotearoa projectSpark has tipped $15 million into an innovation fund designed to help companies use digital technologies to improve productivity and increase… Read More

Chorus names fibre expansion sitesChorus says it will extend its fibre network to reach another 10,000 premises. This is the first official move that takes the network beyond areas covered b… Read More

You can hear me talking about these topics on RNZ Nine-to-Noon with Kathryn Ryan. Angry mob wreck Waymo self-driving carOn Saturday a crowd smashed up and set fire to a Waymo self-driving ca… Read More

Chorus says a planned $200 million extension to the fibre network connecting 30,000 premises is on hold. In the meantime the company has committed to investing $40 million to connect another… Read More

Starlink launch puts One New Zealand promise on scheduleA Starlink satellite launch increases the chance that One New Zealand may deliver on an advertised promise that customers will have 10… Read More

2degrees Nelson customers test cell towers in space2degrees says it has begun more extensive trials of satellite to mobile technology. The telco says staff and customers in the Nelson region… Read More

Regulator moves on telco comparison shoppingGuidelines published this week by the Commerce Commission aim to make it easier for consumers to compare telco offers.The draft guidelines are par… Read More

Commerce Commission opens fibre deregulation debateNew Zealand's fibre regulation regime is less than two years old, yet this week the Commerce Commission began looking at deregulating fibre… Read More

Spark turns to Lynk Global LEOS for back-up mobile backhaulSpark plans to use Lynk Global's low earth orbit satellite network to provide cell tower backhaul during emergencies.The company sa… Read More

MyRepublic's MVNO becomes Rocket Mobile after broadband business sell-offWhen Singapore-based MyRepublic sold its fibre broadband business to 2degrees, the company's nascent mobile operation… Read More

A review of New Zealand's telecommunications regulatory challengesRecently the Download Weekly sat down with Telecommunications Commissioner Tristan Gilbertson and members of the Commerce Co… Read More

One New Zealand's application to buy Dense Air to pick up its spectrum holdings is with the Commerce Commission.The telco applied to the Commerce Commission seeking clearance for the deal. T… Read More

Chorus capex plans rural expansion, resilience investmentChorus plans to spend $234 million expanding its fibre network into rural areas and a further $93 million on resilience. Yet the comp… Read More

NCSC defended cyber attack on major telcoIn its latest Cyber Threat Report, the National Cyber Security Centre revealed it disrupted an attack on customers of 'a major telecommunications pro… Read More

Apple's 'Scary Fast' launch event was remarkable on a number of counts. Let's start with the most trivial remark: It was the first live streamed Apple launch to take place during New Zealand… Read More

Tuatahi First Fibre buys Unison FibreTuatahi First Fibre has acquired Unison Fibre. The deal will add around 3500 customers to Tuatahi's footprint and enable retail service providers to offe… Read More

Elon Musk paid $44 billion to take control of X-Twitter at the end of October 2022.It's been a ride ever since with story after story about the stupid, evil or inexplicable things that have… Read More

Spark acquires Adroit environmental monitoring businessSpark says it has agreed to buy the remaining shares in Adroit, an environmental Internet of Things business. The company provides tech… Read More

If you follow Apple blogs you’ll have heard grumbling about FineWoven accessories.FineWoven is an Apple brand name for what it calls a ‘premium’ material. The company uses… Read More

There are few surprises in the iPhone 15 Plus. Many of the features that separate the 15 Plus from the iPhone 14 Plus were first introduced last year in the iPhone 14 Pro models.It's a decen… Read More

TDR complaints reach new high after awareness campaignIt's been a busy year for the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution scheme. In the 12 months to June 2023 it handled 3725 consumer compl… Read More

Spark's Innovation Studio makeoverSpark has updated its Innovation Studio where customers and interested organisations can see exhibits of technologies such as AI, computer vision and IoT. I… Read More

Vocus brands refund broadband plus power cancellation feesCompanies in the Vocus Group, now part of 2degrees, have refunded customer almost $480k following a Commerce Commission investigatio… Read More

A decade ago the media sector, in effect, saw off digital piracy. Now piracy is on the way back.Last week the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) published a report showing piracy declin… Read More

Yesterday's post ‌What is going on with Microsoft Surface? looks at the rapid recent decline in the device's fortunes. This follow up explores less obvious reasons why Microsoft is sell… Read More

Almost overnight demand for Microsoft's Surface range of devices has dried up. What is going on? To understand the present, let's start by looking at the past. In 2012 Microsoft announced i… Read More

Schools enter the satellite age with Network for Learning Network for Learning has gone public with a programme that uses satellites to deliver broadband to schools off the nationwide fibre… Read More

Writing at The Register, Simon Sherwood reports on a company saving large sums of money by moving from the cloud to hosted servers. 37 Signals says cloud repatriation plan has already saved… Read More

iPhone 15 models surface as China fears hit Apple share price New iPhone models appeared in a week where Apple's share price tumbled on fears the company could be locked out of parts of the… Read More

Microsoft surprised the market three years ago when it used Android for its weird Surface Duo. Now it has dropped another surprise. It has set customers adrift by saying it will not upgrade… Read More

Skinny tops every mobile customer service category Spark's low-cost, low-customer touch Skinny brand came out top in all four categories in the Commerce Commission's first Residential Mobile… Read More

SpaceX has achieved much since it launched its Starlink low earth orbit satellite broadband service in 2020.Commercial service started in February 2021. At the last count, Starlink said it h… Read More

Mighty Ape swings into mobile marketOnline retailer Mighty Ape has launched Mighty Mobile, a mobile phone business, on the back of a MVNO agreement with One New Zealand.Mighty Mobile offers… Read More

Extreme weather trims Chorus resultChorus reported a 60 per cent drop in full-year net profit at $25 million down from $64 million a year ago.Part of that can be attributed to $10 million on… Read More

Chance’s are, you don’t need to spend money on antivirus software. As How to know if you need security software suggests: there’s no point strengthening the front door if y… Read More

One New Zealand has received a record fine for the FibreX marketing campaign the company ran between 2016 and 2018 when it was known as Vodafone.Last week Justice Moore handed down a $3.675… Read More

Open source software is free. Anyone can download open source programs, run them, copy them and pass them on to friends and colleagues without paying a licence fee and without breaking any l… Read More

Voice call made from remote location using cell tower in the skyA conversation between two 2degrees employees in the Hunua Range near Auckland was the first call made by a telco using a low… Read More

No-one doubts the quantity of information on the internet. What about its quality? It’s pointless attempting to estimate the amount of on-line information. There are millions of web si… Read More

Unesco, the UN’s education, science and culture agency, wants schools to ban mobile phones. The organisation says there is evidence that excessive phone use leads to poor educational… Read More

New Zealand behind the 5G availability pack OpenSignal’s June 2023 worldwide experience survey notes that New Zealand has 6.8 per cent 5G availability. That’s the proportion of t… Read More

Google’s Android phone operating system has been around for 15 years. It’s been wildly successful in the sense that the majority of the world’s mobile phones run Android.Ye… Read More

2degrees and Lynk demonstrate satellite voice callsLynk, the satellite to mobile phone service, says it has successfully made the first two-way voice call via satellite using a standard hand… Read More

Last night Samsung launched two folding phone handsets: the Galaxy Z Fold5 and Galaxy Z Flip5. As the names suggest they are the fifth generation of the company’s folding phones.It has… Read More

Ericsson’s perspective is worth hearing. With Huawei shut out of many international markets, the Swedish telecoms equipment giant plays an important role building 5G networks for telco… Read More

Spark says it has started building its 5G standalone network. The telco is using technology from Ericsson and Red Hat. It is New Zealand’s first 5G standalone build.When New Zealand&rs… Read More

New Zealand’s 3G chapter will finally draw to a close late in 2025 when 2degrees closes its network. One New Zealand previously said it will close its 3G network by next August. In Mar… Read More

Long before New Zealand’s network operators upgraded their first cell sites to 5G, it was obvious everyday  mobile users wouldn’t notice much change.The technology promised… Read More

Commerce Commission One NZ clash over 100% mobile coverage claimOne New Zealand, formerly Vodafone, has come out fighting after a Commerce Commission letter asked the telco to halt its 100 p… Read More

Meta, the company we know best as Facebook, chose a smart moment to launch Threads, its Twitter rival.Last week, Twitter was offline to many users for hours.Twitter has been unstable for mon… Read More

Autumn 2023's Measuring Broadband New Zealand report shows a continuing gulf between fixed wireless broadband performance in areas where fibre is available and in rural areas where there is… Read More

Apple's Pages word processor comes as part of the deal when you buy a Mac. It is an excellent writing app in its own right. Pages handles all the important word processing tasks. You may not… Read More

One New Zealand is now blocking child sexual exploitation and abuse material at the network level. It says the move will prevent active or inadvertent access to any known child abuse materia… Read More

Telecommunications is getting better for rural users, but outside the UFB fibre footprint it is more expensive and of a lower quality.This is highlighted in the Commerce Commission’s 2… Read More

Telecommunications is getting better for rural users, but outside the UFB fibre footprint it is more expensive and of a lower quality.This is highlighted in the Commerce Commission’s 2… Read More

Apple’s Vision Pro is a bold take on the future of computing at an heroic price point.The US$3500 spatial computing headset launched this week is likely to cost over NZ$6000 when it la… Read More

This year's NZ Herald Infrastructure Report includes a story I wrote updating the state of communications networks in parts of the country hit by Cyclone Gabrielle:Infrastructure Report: Com… Read More

iA Presenter is a new tool for building presentations or slide decks. It launches today. For now it is Mac-only.It is in the same space as PowerPoint1, Keynote and Google Slides, but distinc… Read More

Satellite-to-mobile phone text services from any part of New Zealand could be months away. 2degrees recently conducted successful trials of the technology with satellite operator Lynk in a p… Read More

It’s easy to sceptical about the current wave of AI euphoria. There is a lot of hype to navigate. Every tech company has an AI story to tell: worthwhile or not. Failure to tick the AI… Read More

Chorus is planning a major reorganisation it says is necessary to deal with a changing market and new regulatory settings.In 2020 the 2006 Telecommunications Act was amended to set a new reg… Read More

by Tim HaywoodA few weeks ago, I wrote about the exciting announcements from One NZ, 2degrees and others across the mobile and satellite industries regarding mobile phone direct to satellite… Read More

New Zealand’s 3.5GHz windfall is more rural coverage soonerIn times gone past governments would auction mobile spectrum for vast sums and treat the proceeds as a windfall. While it loo… Read More

Second generation Apple AirPods Pro at a glance For: Better noise cancelling, sound and battery life, improved controls, integrates well with Apple ecosystem. Against: You may find bette… Read More

Europe's home-grown LEO constellation plan takes shapeA European Union plan to build the continent's own LEO satellite constellation is taking shape.Last week a consortium that reads like a… Read More

At NZ Business, Kordia regional cyber security business manager Peter Bailey delivers a few home truths about data breaches:When we hand over our credentials and ID to businesses, we are tru… Read More

Looked at from one perspective SpaceX’s Starlink could be the missing piece of New Zealand’s rural broadband jigsaw puzzle.The Commerce Commission thinks it is. This week it said… Read More

The first Measuring Broadband New Zealand report to include low earth orbit satellite alternatives shows the technology outperforms fixed wireless by a large margin.Tests show New Zealand cu… Read More

It’s not new, but the MagSafe Leather Wallet Apple sent alongside the review iPhone 14 is worth writing about.Long-time MacBook owners will remember MagSafe as the magnetic power conne… Read More

When the company changed hands there were high profile predictions that it was days away from operational meltdown. Those predictions kept coming as the company laid off key workers and shut… Read More

If you are on a tight budget and looking for decent Bluetooth sounds, Sony’s NZ$89 WH-CH520 headphones are hard to walk past.That money won’t get you active noise cancelling or f… Read More

If you found yourself wondering why the cloud hyperscalers have chosen this moment to build in New Zealand, the answer lies in Gartner’s latest cloud forecast.The analyst firm expects… Read More