Air New Zealand extends brand into telecoms

Mobile service with travel eSim plans

Air New Zealand has launched a mobile service offering travel eSim plans for international visitors and New Zealanders travelling overseas. It will also offer a monthly mobile plan for domestic customers, using One NZ’s network.

The move extends the airline’s brand into telecommunications, with Air New Zealand selling mobile services alongside flights. The travel eSims cover more than 140 destinations and let customers choose plans for their destinations and travel dates, including transit stops.

Air New Zealand has an established relationship with New Zealanders who travel overseas, as well as inbound visitors. That gives it a potential sales channel for mobile services aimed at both travellers and customers at home. The company says global revenue from travel eSims is expected to grow almost five-fold by 2030.

Revenue opportunity

Chief customer and digital officer Jeremy O’Brien said the service would give the airline another way to serve customers beyond their flights and create a new revenue opportunity.

Travellers choose a prepaid data eSim based on their destination and how long they will be away. The plans vary in data allowance, coverage and price and are data-only. Customers can make calls and send messages through internet-based apps.

The service is available from 12 November. Travel eSim plans and details of the domestic monthly plan are available at Air New Zealand Mobile.

Wholesale expansion

The partnership is part of One NZ’s effort to build a wider portfolio of branded mobile services.

One NZ is also expanding its wholesale business, enabling other brands to sell mobile services over its network. Under a 10-year agreement with Advantai, the group’s Prvidr NZ business will provide the platform and operations for MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators), with Boost Mobile named as the first brand.

RanCo rebuts third-party merger submissions

A cross-submission from the RanCo partners on the planned joint venture argues the deal is an infrastructure-sharing model and not a merger of two mobile operators.

One New Zealand and 2degrees say that sharing radio access network (Ran) infrastructure means reducing duplicated investment and operating costs. They say the arrangement will improve coverage, capacity and resilience, while leaving the two companies to compete independently.

The cross-submission offers a point-by-point rebuttal of third-party concerns rather than a refreshed explanation of the deal.

The main arguments:

Competition will remain: Because both companies retain their own spectrum, core networks, pricing, products, brands, customer relationships and wholesale strategies, the two will continue to compete with each other as well as with Spark.

More investment: They say sharing infrastructure should make further 5G network expansion and the future move to 6G more affordable. This also applies to greater rural coverage.

Spark will remain a strong competitor: The joint venture partners say Spark will still have incentives to invest and compete.

Risks are manageable: The companies point to information barriers, clean-team protocols and independent management of RanCo.

Network resilience should improve: They argue a single shared network may be easier to restore after an outage and allow more investment in backup power and other resilience measures.

Tower companies should not be harmed: Existing long-term agreements with Connexa and Fortysouth, along with their position as the two main tower suppliers, are cited as safeguards.

It works overseas: The applicants say examples in Canada, the UK, Belgium, Iceland and Australia show that active network sharing can coexist with competition.

Security clearance and ownership

The most significant new fact to emerge from the cross-submission is that the GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) reached the conclusion that the planned joint venture:

“...does not raise a network security risk and there is no impediment to implementing or giving effect to your proposal.”

While this is important, it does not automatically imply Commerce Commission clearance. The GCSB’s remit is to address the network security aspect of the project: the Commerce Commission must rule on its competitive effects.

RanCo’s cross-submission revealed the ownership of the planned joint venture where 2degrees and One NZ each own 49.9 percent of the business. The information about the remaining 0.2 percent shareholding is redacted in the public copy of the submission.

The shareholding companies will have equal board representation and directors are to act in the interest of RanCo, not the shareholding company that appoints them. The submission also says RanCo will have independent day-to-day management.

Spark says satellite complements, not replaces, mobile

Figures revealed by CEO Jolie Hodson during Spark’s annual meeting indicate customers treat Spark Satellite as a safety net rather than as a primary network replacement. As industry research by Ookla and Juniper shows, this matches how telcos worldwide position their direct-to-cell satellite services.

Hodson says that in the first six months after launch Spark saw more than 237,000 customers connect to the service. Customers used more than 7.1 terabytes of satellite data and sent more than 323,000 satellite text messages.

Data consumption seems modest by terrestrial standards. We estimate that averages about 30 MB and 1.36 messages per connected customer over six months. However, satellite mobile data is intended for low-bandwidth tasks (maps, messaging, telemetry), not heavy streaming.

Hodson says the telco launched Spark Satellite in the 2026 financial year:

“Our terrestrial network reaches 99 percent of New Zealanders across 4G and 5G. Satellite extends that reach to the edge, into remote areas, black spots, maritime corridors and places where traditional mobile coverage is limited or unavailable.

“For Spark, satellite plays a complementary role, with our mobile network continuing to offer capability and functionality beyond what is possible with satellite alone. The mobile network provides the customer density, indoor performance and throughput required for everyday use, while satellite adds an additional layer of coverage and resilience.”

Spark has now also launched satellite services for the Internet of Things.

TCF seeks fraud hold on number transfers

The New Zealand Telecommunications Forum is proposing that phone number ports suspected of fraud could be temporarily suspended for up to 30 days.

The proposal was made in a submission to the Commerce Commission’s draft determination on local and mobile number portability. These are recommendations from the industry body, not decisions by the Commission.

In its submission, the TCF says a suspension should end as soon as the reasons for it no longer apply. It argues that requiring providers to review suspensions every business day would create unnecessary administrative work. It proposes setting broad safeguards in the rules while keeping detailed fraud procedures in an updatable industry manual.

The submission also asks the Commission to extend the response time for simple local number ports from four to eight working hours where reseller involvement or another documented complication makes the standard timeframe impractical.

Tait and Tū Ātea team on 5G critical comms

Christchurch-based Tait Communications has signed a teaming agreement with Māori-led telecommunications organisation Tū Ātea to develop and validate next-generation LTE and 5G technologies.

The partnership combines Tait’s critical communications expertise with Tū Ātea’s national infrastructure and 5G spectrum assets. Tū Ātea will provide Tait access to 40 MHz in the n78 5G band and 25 MHz in band 40 LTE for testing.

Together, the two aim to advance public safety, transportation and enterprise communications, while creating pathways for Māori participation in the telecommunications industry.

Paul Goldsmith loses parliamentary seat

Media and communications minister Paul Goldsmith was among several National Party MPs who were not re-elected in the 2026 general election. His defeat was part of a broader trend affecting the party.

Goldsmith’s clearest practical impact on the communications sector was supporting the strengthening of mobile-network resilience. In 2025, he backed redirecting NZ$6.4 million to improve battery backup at about 200–250 cellular sites, aiming for them to keep operating for at least 24 hours during power outages.

He also co-led a review of telecommunications regulation, which produced 22 recommendations to simplify rules for areas including fibre, service obligations and industry levies. Cabinet approved the recommendations in February 2026, but many still required further decisions or legislative changes, so the review’s projected benefits were not yet fully delivered.

A separate amendment bill under his charge sought to ensure that overseas providers serving New Zealand consumers are covered by relevant local telecommunications rules.

In other news...

• New Spark chairman in annual meeting hot seat — NZ Herald (paywall)
  Vince Hawksworth says telco has more to do to restore earnings growth.
• Fibre outages as thieves hunt for copper — RNZ
  Copper thieves are cutting live fibre cables in search of scrap metal.
• Starlink embraces dynamic pricing — Techdirt
  Satellite broadband prices are likely to climb until competition arrives.

Handset problems are commonplace

Research commissioned by One New Zealand shows nearly half (49 percent) of New Zealanders are using a mobile phone with at least one issue.

Conducted by research agency Ideally across a nationally representative sample of 933 adults, the survey found battery degradation is the most common problem, with 22 percent of respondents stating their device cannot reliably last a full day.

Other widespread issues include cracked screens, running out of storage and noticeably slow performance. Each of these was reported by 12 percent of respondents. Seven percent reported unreliable charging ports.

Problematic handsets are particularly common among younger adults. 60 percent of 18–34-year-olds reported at least one issue, compared with 43 percent of those aged 35–70.

Additionally, 30 percent of respondents have owned their current main phone for three years or longer, including 14 percent who have kept theirs for four years or more.

Spark adds Disney+ to new mobile plans

Spark has added Disney+ to new mobile plans that include a monthly allowance for subscriptions. The Access Pay Monthly plans cost $85, $99 or $110 a month, with allowances of $10, $20 or $30. The allowance also covers Spotify, Neon, Xbox Game Pass, McAfee and Xtra Mail. The plans are available from 12 November.

This time last year 2degrees talked sovereign satellites

2degrees partnered with AST SpaceMobile to launch a local direct-to-cell satellite service that works without proprietary hardware such as Starlink dishes. At the same time, the telco says with its network the data never leaves New Zealand. All network operations are handled by an NZ-based team and traffic goes from satellites, through 2degrees’ ground station to the company’s core network.

Five years ago the Commerce Commission called for a marketing code
The Commerce Commission said its planned marketing code will give customers all the information they need to make informed buying decisions. It issued a set of marketing guidelines and told the Telecommunications Forum (TCF), the industry body, it had 60 working days to turn these into a retail service quality code.

The Download Weekly is a New Zealand telecommunications industry newsletter written by Bill Bennett. You are welcome to pass it on to your friends and colleagues. While the newsletter is free, reader support helps enormously. If you are reading this for work, donations are tax-free. A banner at the top of the page will take you to the support site.

Have your say. Sign up as a subscriber, it is free, to comment on any of the stories on this site. We don’t collect any personal data other than an email address.

Bill Bennett has covered New Zealand telecommunications for nearly 40 years and was named Tuanz Journalist of the Year 2025.