Chorus leads as telcos support home learning for all

Chorus moves to bridge digital divide

Chorus is offering to waive wholesale broadband charges for up to 500,000 homes that do not have network access. The move aims to help students now forced to study at home because of Covid–19 pandemic measures.

For six months households identified by the Ministry of Education as needing broadband for educational purposes will get a free connection. This only applies where there is suitable Chorus infrastructure.

The plan is to use the best available broadband. That means fibre where it is already installed, VDSL if fibre is not installed and ADSL if that is not available. Because there are restrictions on installing new fibre connections under the Covid–19 lockdown, Chorus says it expects most of the connections will use the copper technologies: VDSL and ADSL.

Ed Hyde, Chorus chief customer officer says: "I am excited to be able to confirm that the Chorus network can be used to provide access to essential tools for learning to students in homes that do not currently have a broadband connection.

Quick connections are important

It is important to get these homes connected as quickly as possible. Hyde says Chorus will work with internet service providers so that learning can resume from the start of the second school term of the year.

He says; “As a wholesale provider, Chorus can’t deliver the whole solution. We’re now looking to the internet service providers who package up our products for consumers to also support the Ministry of Education, with both financial and operational support.

“Delivering these connections to students in a matter of weeks will present a huge operational challenge for the industry but we know how important this is so we will be working hard to get this done.”

InternetNZ CEO Jordan Carter says he is pleased to see Chorus working with ISPs and the government towards increasing digital inclusion during the lockdown. “Affordable internet access for all New Zealanders is vital to maintaining social cohesion, sharing essential information and maintaining work and education.”

Tuanz CEO Craig Young says he expects the free wholesale price to be passed on in full by retail internet companies. He says: “There is a real need for this collaboration we’re seeing to continue, but also to widen across the industry”.

Enable, Ultrafast Fibre move to serve excluded schoolchildren

Enable says it will offer free wholesale fibre broadband to connected homes in its area where there are schoolchildren unable to access the internet. The company says there are up to 2000 fibre connections not being used at the moment.

Steve Fuller, Enable CEO, says: “I can only imagine how isolated some children are feeling when they can’t connect to their school community or their friends and we want to help as many of them as we can".

Central North Island fibre company Ultrafast Fibre has made a similar move. It says there are around 1,650 households in its area that already have an connection that is not being used. Like Enable, UFF will offer a 200/20 connection.

Chorus network traffic stabilises; seven day weekend

Chorus says data traffic on its network remains steady, while Spark says the new pattern is like a seven day weekend.

The nation’s largest telco says weekday broadband usage patterns now resemble pre-Covid–19 weekend use. Weekend peaks are now higher again.

Spark says the amount of data on its network has doubled since widespread remote working started. Data peaks are about 27 percent higher than before the pandemic arrived.

Peak data traffic up 22 percent

Peak mobile traffic is up 22 percent. The company says it has seen some congestion at times and is working on adding capacity.

An update to the Call of Duty game on the first weekend of the lockdown period caused what Spark technology director Mark Beder describes as a “massive spike”.

Tuesday evening saw traffic peak at 2.70Tbps on the Chorus network. There was an update to the Fortnite game during the evening which may have accounted for the extra traffic. The busiest midday this week was Wednesday with 1.72Tbps. These figures are well within the network’s capacity limits.

Vodafone warns on Covid–19 scams

Vodafone head of cyber security, Colin James, says his team has identified three new scams related to Covid–19. One arrives as a text message directing people to testing facilities. It can install malware on a phone. Another offers safety measures, but the downloads contain malware. Another asks people to fill in personal details, including their password, to get Covid–19 information.

Chorus offers fibre backhaul for mobile carriers

Chorus has developed a mobile cell site backhaul service for carriers. The service provides a 1Gbps point-to-point fibre layer 1 connection for sites outside of the UFB footprint.

Huawei says Chinese factories back in full production

Andrew Bowater, Huawei New Zealand’s deputy managing director says the company’s Chinese factories are now back in full production after closing down when China went into Covid–19 lock-down.

He says; "We are now focused on how we can help our partners around the world weather this storm. Covid–19 has changed the way New Zealanders live, including the ways we work and learn. Communications networks and digital technologies are vital to meeting the challenges we currently face. While ensuring the safety of our New Zealand-based team, we will spare no effort in responding to the challenge of maintaining and strengthening our customers’ communications networks.”

Carriers face mobile roaming revenue hit

A report by Rob O’Neill in Reseller News says Spark could lose up to $37 million a year in roaming revenue if travel restrictions are not lifted.

All mobile carriers face losing almost all of their roaming revenue. A Commerce Commission report says roaming is worth $90 million to the three carriers. They pick up another $23 million when overseas visitors roam in New Zealand.