MBNZ
adds Spark 5G fixed wireless broadband
Measuring
Broadband New Zealand says Spark’s 5G fixed wireless
broadband customers get fibre-like download speeds even
during peak hours.
The June
2024 MBNZ report is the first to include performance
information on the 5G service. It clocked 5G fixed wireless
delivering average peak hour download speeds of 329 Mbps.
During less busy times the network can hit 348
Mbps.
Upload speeds average 49 Mbps during peak hours
which is, in effect, the same as the average 50 Mbps seen
the rest of the time.
Much faster than 4G
FWB
This is almost 10 times the 49 Mbps reported
average peak speed of 4G fixed wireless broadband services
across the nation. Spark’s urban 4G fixed wireless is 61
Mbps. 5G is about 70 per cent faster than the measured LEO
satellite peak speed of 186 Mbps.
While it is also
faster than the 309 Mbps speeds seen on the most popular
fibre broadband plans, it trails well behind One NZ’s HFC
network and the fastest fibre plans.
At this stage 5G
fixed wireless broadband has a relatively small number of
users. The Commerce Commission says there are 5,500
connections today. Typically performance on fixed wireless
and other networks where bandwidth is shared can drop as
more users climb aboard.
Potentially
attractive
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Telecommunications Commissioner, Tristan
Gilbertson, says the report shows 5G fixed wireless as a
“potentially attractive option for consumers”.
He
says future MBNZ reports will add further information,
including latency, and will look at how 5G wireless
broadband performs across a wider range of applications –
such as streaming and video conferencing.
Looking into
the MBNZ data, New Zealand’s fibre, HFC, satellite and 5G
fixed wireless networks all manage to deliver a good
broadband experience able to satisfy most users. That’s
less likely to be the case for ADSL or VDSL customers while
4G fixed wireless broadband has a wide performance range
running from good all the way down to poor.
NZ new Wynyard Quarter
building.
After seven years in the
wilderness, One NZ moves back to town
Mansons is
building a new office for One New Zealand at 30 Daldy Street
in the Wynyard Quarter. It is about 400m from the old
Vodafone building on Viaduct Harbour Avenue.
The
company describes the new office as a “flagship
sustainable building” which it says “is designed to
enhance connection, support future ways of working, employee
wellbeing and sustainability”. That’s a long way of
saying it’ll be a nice place to work.
Masons is
aiming for a 6-star Greenstar rating with the New Zealand
Green Building Council (NZGBC). That means it is about as
sustainable as possible. It will have solar panels for
renewable energy and rainwater harvesting.
There will
be two towers linked by bridges, One NZ will use three
floors in each tower.
One New Zealand says it will
stay at Smales Farm on the North Shore until the move in
late 2025.
Shaping Business Study hints at future
growth
Research paid for by 2degrees suggests New
Zealand businesses sense they will soon turn a
corner.
The Shaping Business Study surveyed “over
700 employing business decision-makers around
Aotearoa”.
It found the number of businesses that
are “thriving” has increased in the last year and there
are signs of increasing optimism.
2degrees chief
business officer Andrew Fairgray says: “We are seeing that
businesses are feeling the rise of operational costs, but
instead of sitting still, they are looking to move forward.
The businesses managing to thrive are those that are finding
innovative ways to increase productivity, rethinking cost
savings and investing in digital
skills.”
Questioning hybrid working
Business
leaders are divided on the idea of remote and hybrid
working. The survey reports: “Among businesses with a
hybrid model, 51 per cent of leaders view it as a
productivity booster, while 49 per cent believe it either
detracts from productivity or has no effect.”
That
aside, companies recognise that offering flexible work is
essential when it comes to attracting and keeping talent. A
little over one third (37 per cent) of business leaders say
they have introduced flexible working as a means to attract
talent.
The study talks of a “hybrid hangover” and
says only 17 per cent of businesses with a hybrid model have
increased the amount of time their staff are required to
spend in the office. More than twice as many (39 per cent)
have decreased remote working time.
2degrees
“fighting for fair” campaign strikes a
chord
2degrees is the only telecommunications company
to make it into this year’s Kantar
Corporate Reputation Index.
The company improved
on last year’s ranking and is now listed at 19 on the
index which is topped by Toyota. Other interesting companies
on the list are TVNZ which sits at eight in the index and
phone maker Samsung which is at 12.
The Reputation
Index aims to benchmark the relative reputational strengths
and weaknesses of companies operating in New Zealand. It
looks at four areas: trust, responsibility, leadership and
fairness.
In its report on the index, Kantor says
fairness has taken on more importance in recent years.
That’s the word 2degrees has used in much of its recent
marketing where it often repeats the slogan: “fighting for
fair”. It seems the message has reached the members of the
public surveyed for this year’s report.
Digital
holds key to agriculture future
A recent Westpac
economic bulletin looking at the productivity of New
Zealand agriculture underlines the importance of pushing
fast broadband networks into rural areas.
Westpac says
agricultural productivity growth has slowed as farmers edge
closer to the ecological limits of the available land in New
Zealand. Despite challenges in adoption and integration,
digital technology holds the key to squeezing more out of
existing resources and doing so sustainably.
This
includes using big data, cloud computing and advanced data
analytics to predict and prescribe future farming
activities.
In other news..
Samsung is
preparing a major product launch which may or may not
include new Galaxy Fold phones and will
almost certainly feature AI. Mango, Samsung’s New Zealand
PR firm, sent out event invites to New Zealand journalists
this week. To take part you’d need to sign a restrictive
non-disclosure agreement and something called a “security
pledge”. In case you’re wondering, I never sign these
papers for media events.
Spark customers face
price rises, other shoe yet to drop
At the NZ Herald,
Chris Keall writes:
Spark is the latest
service provider to increase
prices.
The telco’s
broadband and mobile customers will pay between $2 and $8
per month more from August, depending on their
plan.
The story goes on to look at the
price rises that may be coming from other telcos. While
Spark offered Keall an almost apologetic justification for
the price rise, the language used contrasts with the way the
company talks about its ability to increase prices in its
shareholder reporting.
Datacom enjoys increased
profits as Australian business thrives
While we are
looking at financial reporting, Reseller News’ Rob
O’Neill covers Datacom’s
result.
Datacom Group today reported
revenue of $1.47 billion in the year to 31 March, down one
per cent from $1.49 billion in 2023, however, profit before
tax lifted to $41 million, up from $8
million.
Group EBITDA for the
year was $152 million, up 11 per cent, the company said in a
press release.
It’s a solid result
despite flat-ish revenue at a time many of Datacom’s
customers are struggling.
Starlink stuffs the
internet into a backpack by invitation only
The
Register’s Dan Robinson:
SpaceX is
inviting some customers to buy a new Starlink Mini receiver
for its satellite broadband service offered as a portable
option, with an introductory price tag of $599 in the
US.
Customer emails sent by
the space company this week invited select customers to buy
its latest antenna, described as a “compact, portable kit
that can easily fit in a backpack, designed to provide
high-speed, low-latency internet on the
go.”
SpaceX will soon start selling “Starlink
Mini” a smaller version of its antennae for satellite
broadband customers. The company says it is about the size
of a laptop, has a WiFi router, can fit easily in a backpack
and works with USB power supplies. ON paper the Mini can get
100 Mbps.
IDC: 62 per cent of Communication Service
Providers Reallocate Budgets to Generative AI Initiatives in
Asia/Pacific
IDC says the majority of Asia-Pacific
telecoms companies are investing in generative
AIprojects. Among other applications they are
looking at network optimisation and using AI chatbots, but
IDC says the technology is turning up everywhere.
Big
tech companies were open to online safety regulation – why
did NZ’s government scrap the idea?
Academics Fiona
Sing and Antonia Lyons from Auckland University think the
government has missed an opportunity:
The
coalition government has scrapped efforts to modernise New
Zealand’s out-of-date online safety rules, despite
qualified support for change from social media and tech
giants.”
Abandoning this now will make
any future attempts at safety regulation that much harder to
get off the ground. Perhaps that was deliberate?
Why
are we subsidising game
developers?
Despite being the biggest
earner in the entertainment sector globally, gaming in
Aotearoa has been struggling to keep up with overseas
competitors.
Zoe Hobson is
the CEO of Runaway Play, a Dunedin-based mobile game
developer.
“It’s been a
bit of a funny few years in the gaming market,” she
says.
“If you step back a
couple of years, the New Zealand gaming industry had been
growing really strongly, with very little or not really any
significant support. If we look back a few years, it was
growing at an average of 26 per cent [of revenue] year on
year and we had growth of 47 per cent in
2022.”
This success started to unravel
as other countries, and most notably some Australian states,
began offering games developers huge tax rebates. The offer
was so lucrative that a number moved operations across the
Tasman. That has triggered a race to the bottom with the New
Zealand government offering its own
rebates.
Batteries to the rescue for when the mains
grid fails
The collapse of a Kaipara Hills
electricity pylon left Northland without power for hours.
Juha Saarinen may have an answer. He writes at
Interest.co.nz:
Even if times are tough
economically, losing power catastrophically as happened
yesterday is costing everyone. If adding battery backup to
the grid is workable technically, and doable fast, now might
be a good time to get cracking with it.
A recent report
by Bloomberg suggests Chinese battery makers are producing
several times the marketable capacity needed in the world.
They might just be open to deals to clear
inventory.
Spark 5G shines on ComCom broadband
scorecard was first posted at
billbennett.co.nz.
Freelance journalist.
Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
His emphasis is on telecommunications, but he also covers other aspects of technology and business. You can find his features in the New Zealand Herald and hear him regularly on RNZ Nine to Noon and the NZ Tech Podcast.
Bennett’s The Download Weekly newsletter is published every Friday. You can sign up for it here.
If you want to support his work, you can make a donation to his PressPatron account.
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