NZ Comms sector left behind as IT spending surges

Gartner’s latest forecast says spending on New Zealand information technology will grow 6.7 per cent next year. The forecast growth will be uneven. Gartner forecasts spending on enterprise software and devices will grow over 10 per cent. Meanwhile spending on communications services will be flat; growing 1 per cent. Next year Gartner forecasts the total IT spend to rise to $14.7 billion. That’s up from $13.8 billion in 2021.

Sideways

Spending on communications services will move sideways from $4.16 billion in 2021 to $4.2 billion. This is the largest segment. All the other segments will grow. Spending on data centre systems will climb 5.2 per cent from $362 million to $381 million.

Gartner says this reflects the shift from on premise computing to the cloud. IT services spending will grow 6 per cent from $4.1 billion to $4.4 billion. This will take it past spending on communications services for the first time. This category includes managed services, consulting, and cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS).

Enterprise software

Enterprise software continues to see rapid progress. Last year it grew 13.1 per cent from $2.7 billion to a shade under $3 billion. This year Gartner forecasts 10.8 per cent growth to a little under $3.5 billion. In 2021 spending on devices, for the most part that’s PCs and tablets, was up 6.1 per cent.

Remote work and learning drive growth. Gartner sees that continuing over the next year. Enterprises will upgrade devices and spend on new hardware to help employees with remote or hybrid working. The total installed base of PCs in New Zealand grew by 30% in 2020 and a further 18% growth is forecast for this year.

Vodafone relaunches wholesale unit as VIP

Vodafone has relaunched its wholesale division. Now branded as Vodafone Infrastructure Partners or VIP the unit will sell fixed and mobile services along with a range of specialist products and services. This will include options for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and the Internet of Things (IoT)

Tony Baird, the company’s wholesale and infrastructure director says Vodafone already works with more than 100 partners including “international carriers, hyperscale operators, managed service providers (MSPs), greenfield property developers and iwi businesses”.

There’s a clear emphasis on iwi partnerships. Baird says: “As part of Whārikihia, our business-wide Māori development strategy, we want to partner with Māori business and iwi on customised infrastructure solutions and collaborate to create long-term value. Our approach is summed up in our tagline, Tūhono ki te Paerangi, which means connecting to the horizon.”

He says the company sees a lot of opportunity for growth,

Murray Osborne, a ten year Vodafone veteran, who in the past lead the public sector team will head VIP.

Opensignal flags Vodafone as fastest 5G

While there’s little between them in five out six 5G experience categories, downloads are faster on Vodafone’s network. The 2021 5G Experience Report from Opensignal clocks downloads on Vodafone’s network at 275.6Mbps. Users on Spark’s 5G network see download speeds of 157Mbps. Upload speeds are the same, 18.9–21.3Mbps on both networks.

These speeds put New Zealand in the top 15 countries around the world for 5G speed. We are one place behind Australia. Opensignal says there is “no significant difference in users’ experience” when playing videos, gaming or using voice applications. Likewise there is nothing between the two when it comes to network availability. The company’s researchers made measurements over 90 days from the start of July 2021.

Chorus: NZ in broadband top 10 next year

Chorus says its planned upgrade will propel New Zealand into the top ten countries for broadband speed by early next year. The wholesale fibre company is offering to upgrade 100Mbps consumer connections to 300Mbps. Upload speeds will climb from 20Mbps to 100Mbps. Some business fibre plans will move to 500Mbps up and down. Modelling shows the average download speed after the upgrade will be around 230Mbps. It’s up to broadband retailers how they handle the speed upgrades. Chorus says it hopes most customers will see the benefit before the end of the year.

Chorus goal: 1 million fibre connections in ’22

CEO JB Rousselot says Chorus aims to have a million fibre connections on its network by the end of 2022. In a presentation at the annual general meeting on Wednesday Rousselot says Chorus hit 900,000 connections earlier in the week. Uptake in fibre areas is 66 per cent. The company added 23,000 connections in the recent quarter despite Covid restrictions. Since then fibre connection activity has returned to pre-lockdown levels.

Small business under attack as security breaches double in three years

Research carried out for HP says more than half (54 per cent) of New Zealand small businesses saw online crime in 2021. Attacks are now at twice the level reported in the previous 2018 survey. HP says the average cost of an attack is $159,000. With a large number of employees working from home there are new vulnerabilities. Half (49 perc ent) of the respondents say outdated software is a significant security threat. Almost as many put the blame on their workers: 44 per cent of respondents identified employee carelessness as a threat. HP doesn’t say so, but this suggests companies need more security training.

In other news…

Australia’s Telstra plans to buy Digicel Pacific for US$1.6 billion. The deal os backed by the Australian government. China Mobile was a potential buyer for the regional mobile operator. The move is as much political as commercial.

At Reseller News, Rob O’Neill reports Spark-owned distributor Telegistics has a new brand. From today it is Entelar.

CommsDay reports Sydney and Auckland are among the most expensive datacentrelocations. Auckland is cheaper than Sydney but both are a long way behind cities like Singapore.

At The Register Simon Sharwood writes: China Telecom booted out of USA as Feds worry it could disrupt or spy on local networks. He says: The FCC now believes – partly based on classified advice from national security agencies – that China Telecom can “access, store, disrupt, and/or misroute US communications, which in turn allow them to engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States.”