Chorus first half profit fall in line with expectation

While Chorus saw a year-on-year fall in earnings and revenue for the half year to December 31, the company is tracking close to the top of its guidance for the 2018 financial year.

Net profit for the period was $47 million. That is down 29 percent from the previous year's $66 million. Chorus also had higher depreciation and amortisation costs. Ebitda fell 9.7 percent to $329 million in the half compared to $335 million a year ago. Operating revenue was $499 million.

Chorus says annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation will still be near the top of the $625-650 million guidance range. The company's shares rose 1.1 percent after the announcement.

Customer connections fell 7.1 percent to 1.56 million. This was in line with expectations; with 5,000 copper connections in non-Chorus fibre areas transferring to other UFB wholesalers. Chief executive Kate McKenzie said the company has slowed the loss of customers.

She says: “During the half year we continued our campaign to promote better broadband and this, coupled with an expanded field force, helped drive a strong increase in fibre and VDSL uptake while also slowing connection losses to other networks significantly."

McKenzie says improving customer experience will help stem the loss of connections. “In that context, I was pleased to see average lead times for fibre reduce from 22 days to 14 days during the half year, despite record order volumes.

"Further, despite the pressures in the New Zealand construction industry, we’ve kept our fibre rollout costs within plan and we’re maintaining a tight focus on other costs. We will also continue to be an active wholesaler, aiming to stimulate competition amongst retailers in the market."

Sky updates prices, partner Vodafone follows

Sky TV announced $25 a month plans to counter the threat from streaming services like Netflix and Lightbox. It isn't so much as a new plan as a shuffle of existing plans. The company has split its $50 Sky Basic service into two $25 components parts: Starter and Entertainment.

The move came as Sky announced half-year results. While net profit is up 12 percent, the number of subscribers dropped by 37,000. Sky will have lost most of them to cheaper streaming TV services. Shareholders were not impressed by any of the news, the share price dropped 10 percent on the day.

Vodafone, which resells Sky services, says it welcomed the move which it describes as "bold". It says it will adjust the price of its own TV bundles to reflect the new prices.

Handset sales tumble as upgrades slow

IDC says the New Zealand phone handset sales dropped 14.5 percent in unit shipment terms during 2017. This is the first year-on-year decline reported in this country. A total of 1.60 million phones shipped in 2017 compared with 1.87 million in 2016.

Chayse Gorton, IDC NZ market analyst says there are three reasons for the fall: market saturation, changing sales strategies and new features not persuading people to upgrade old phones.

On saturation, IDC says 79 percent of consumers owned a smartphone in 2017. This leaves only a few hanging on to dumb phones - or feature phones in the industry's jargon.

Meanwhile phone companies spent 2017 focusing on profitability. In previous years they were happy to shoot for high volumes and hope everything would be all right later. This change mean the average price of phones from the market leaders: Samsung and Apple, increased 14 percent in the year.

There were no compelling new phone features in 2017. IDC says people only upgrade when they see a significant benefit from doing so. The average time consumers hang on to a phone is around three years.

Meanwhile rival research company Gartner reports international smartphone sales recorded their first ever decline in 2017.

Seven nations put digital rights on the agenda

Digital government leaders from seven nations meeting in Wellington for a summit have set up a digital rights working group. New Zealand is to the lead the work. Digital services and communications minister Clare Curran says: “Changes and shifts in how we operate in the digital environment is creating opportunities, risks and challenges for people online, with significant impacts on societies and economies across the world. I’ll work across my portfolios and with a number of my other colleagues to develop a citizen-centric approach.”

Vodafone extends 4G network to the Moon

Vodafone and Nokia plan to install a 4G mobile network on the Moon next year. It will be part of a privately-funded mission that will see a cellular station launched on a SpaceX rocket. While there's a clear element of marketing behind the project, there's also a practical side: exploration vehicles will communicate with each other and the base using 4G. They will also be able to transmit high-definition video. The two companies say 4G is more energy efficient than alternative radio technologies.

Symbio lands in New Zealand

Symbio Networks has launched a national voice network in New Zealand which is integrated with the company's Australian network. The plan is to offer a full suite of voice services along with integrated billing, provisioning and network management. The move aims to fill a gap in the wholesale market. In New Zealand Symbio is best known as the buyer of TNZI, which was formerly Telecom NZ's international voice business.

Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+ arrive

Samsung has updated its Galaxy S phone range with S9 and S9+ models. The phones resemble the S8 models they replace but now feature a dual aperture camera lens. This improved their low light performance. Other updates include slow motion video and personalised emoji. The phones will be on sale from March 16. Prices start at $1400 for the S9 and $1600 for the larger S9+.

Submarine cable art

Radio New Zealand reports on an art exhibition at Wellington's City Gallery featuring the Southern Cross Cable. Bronwyn Holloway-Smith says: “Internet infrastructure tends to be quite technical and dry. You hear about capacity and latency and bandwidth and for me, and I suppose a few other people, it does go over their heads." She goes on to say the scale and “incredible engineering feat” of laying 30,000km of cable on the ocean floor “sublime, something quite romantic”.