Download Weekly: How would NZ telecoms cope with another cyclone?

Telco sector strengthens resilience with upgrades but power remains the weak spot

New Zealand’s telecommunications companies have made strides in their ability to cope with future extreme weather events like Cyclone Gabrielle. Yet the sector’s dependence on the mains electricity supply limits it’s options when its comes to preventing future network outages.

TCF CEO Paul Brislen says most of the issues faced in recent extreme weather events were related either to fibre cuts or power outages.

Only so much can be done

He says: “Unfortunately there’s only so much the telco sector can do about the mains supply. We have, however, spent money on upgrading batteries and buying generators of various sizes.”

Batteries are used for short-term emergency back-up power during electricity network outages. Generators can supply power for longer, but need continual refuelling.

Brislen says: “We’ve also updated software and control systems to allow for automatic power switching for those difficult-to-access sites so if they go down we can turn them on to generators remotely.

Granular control

“In addition some of the operators have rolled out an upgraded management suite that allows more granular control over network traffic. This means in the event of an outage we can restrict traffic on a site to voice and TXT only, so as to extend battery life for that particular site.”

The problem is that batteries are only a short-term fix. They cope well with everyday incidents. But telcos can only build them to a certain size because of the National Environmental Standards for Telecommunications Facilities (NESTF) which limits what can be built without applying for resource consent.

Network backhaul

Brislen says: “Fibre is still being re-deployed in the Hawke’s Bay because we have to wait for the roads to be laid and bridges fully rebuilt before we can add on power and fibre. Some parts of the Chorus network in Hawke’s Bay remain very fragile even today.

“However, Chorus has spent money on river crossings to minimise the risk of future outages. Instead of crossing rivers at a bridge they’ve moved the fibre upstream and raised it up on poles. This will help avoid the problem of slash destroying a bridge and taking out the fibre.

“We have talked to government about adding fibre to the national grid electrical pylons, however this would require a lot of legislative re-writes and renegotiations around land access and so forth”.

Landowners would expect to be paid again if existing power pylons were used for fibre.

Network capacity

“The three mobile network operators are shutting down 3G and re-purposing the spectrum for 4G and 5G use. Both offer significant advantages over 3G in terms of power consumption and will reduce the draw on batteries and generators during any future crisis.

“The biggest change since the cyclone in this space, however, is the introduction of LEO satellites and the ability to bounce TXT messages off those. Ultimately they will provide “network in the sky” coverage that won’t be reliant on earth based infrastructure and provide a huge lift in terms of resilience. That’s a major focus for the three MNOs currently.

Response initiatives

“The three MNOs are discussing automated roaming on to each others’ networks during times of emergency response so as to ensure customers can call for help regardless of which network is operational. This already happens for emergency calling - we hope to extend it to non-emergency calls and TXTs as well.

“We are working with the National Emergency Management Agency and associated agencies on building a common operating picture (COP) model that will provide participants with a view of network operators’ status.

“We should be able to see what electricity and roading issues are likely to impact on our networks, and vice versa. This is a major piece of work and is still being developed.

Improved emergency communications

“We are also working with Hourua (a joint venture between Spark and One NZ) on the next generation communication system for mobile. This will enable police and other emergency services to make better use of mobile devices during a crisis.

“We are deploying more COWs (Cellsites on Wheels) across the country. Chorus now has two MEOWs (mobile exchanges on wheels) which can support up to 25,000 landlines at a time. These are replacements for damaged or destroyed facilities such as exchanges.

“We are also building out a new response plan (the Telecommunications Emergency Management Plan) that will codify all the various processes and protocols we deploy today into one model. This will help us better coordinate activity with other Sector Coordinating Entities and with NEMA and other bodies.

“We have taken part in a number of regional and national exercises since the Cyclone and I believe some of the issues we struggled with during the Cyclone (particularly around prioritisation of telco assets) are now better understood and shouldn’t be a problem in any future event.

Chorus aims for 80 percent fibre uptake by 2030, targets digital equity

Speaking at a company event in Wellington on Wednesday, Chorus CEO Mark Aue says his goal is to reach 80 percent fibre uptake by 2030.

That may not sound ambitious—fibre uptake I already at 72 percent. Yet from here on in, each additional percentage point becomes that much harder to achieve.

Aue says the task involves convincing customers of the fibre’s superiority over other broadband technologies.

Closing the digital divide

Aue’s second goal is to bridge the online equity gap. He says Chorus plans to make sure no-one is left behind in the digital world.

One in five New Zealanders are affected: “That equates to roughly 10 percent of households, which is a staggering statistic. Even more so when you consider that core services from government, retail, banking and healthcare, are becoming increasingly digitised and more likely to increase digital exclusion.”

Some demographics are disproportionately affected: Seniors, low-income families, Māori and Pasifika, people with disabilities.

Aue says Chorus’ partnerships are helping to bridge the digital divide. “We're working at pace to provide affordable connectivity options for vulnerable and low income households. This is currently not a government backed initiative, although I'm open.”

Tū Ātea, Mavenir partner to launch Māori-led 5G networks

Tū Ātea, the Māori-led telecommunications organisation, is teaming up with infrastructure provider Mavenir to deliver a series of private 4G and 5G networks using Māori-owned spectrum.

The initiative will focus on deploying small cell networks to underserved communities, providing network operators with shared, cost-effective infrastructure options.

This project fits with Tū Ātea’s goal to provide training and employment in advanced wireless technologies for Māori.

Tū Ātea was previously known as the Interim Māori Spectrum Commission. It was established in 2020 by the Māori Spectrum Working Group to hold the long-term rights to iwi-owned telecommunications spectrum.

Last year Tū Ātea acquired the Broadtech Group See Download Weekly December 22 2023. This business, now renamed Tū Ātea Network Services is building a carrier-grade, open-standard, software-defined private network for mobile services, extending critical coverage.

Antony Royal, Tū Ātea chief executive says the company is working with the carriers to provide infrastructure so so they can reach, often rural, areas, not otherwise covered.

Two data surges in a Fortnite

Netflix says worldwide traffic for the live stream boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson peaked at 65 million streams worldwide.

Writing on LinkedIn, Chorus network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers says the match must have been popular in New Zealand. As the graph shows, there was a huge Saturday afternoon traffic surge on the Chorus fibre network peaking at 4.1 Tbps.

Netflix’s network struggled with the load during the fight, with 90,000 customers reporting problems, but there were no hiccups on the Chorus network.

The previous week saw traffic on Chorus’ network reach a new record peak of 5.2 Tbps when the latest Fortnite Remix game became available at 7pm just in time for Saturday evening peak video streaming.

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