Download Weekly: Spark, Dense Air shuffle spectrum

Deal extends Spark's mobile reach

Spark and Dense Air agreed on a spectrum swap in the 2.6GHz band. The deal means the two spectrum owners now both have contiguous 2x35MHz blocks. This arrangement should allow the pair to each make better use of spectrum.

Dense Air is the UK based cellular wholesale operation now active in New Zealand. It aims to offer a Radio Network as a Service to mobile carriers.

Earlier this week testers made the first live calls were on Dense Air's service. They made voice calls and data calls, this included Voice-over-LTE calls, on the 2.6GHz band. The calls integrated directly into Spark's core network.

Last year Spark started 5G trials in Central Otago using Dense Air services.

Renee Mateparae, Spark technology evolution lead Renee says Dense Air gives her company options to extend coverage and capacity in non-traditional ways.

She says: "We continue to evaluate these solutions which could help keep Kiwis better connected in higher density areas like large buildings and high foot traffic locations such as central city districts and shopping malls.”

Rural wireless operators raise data caps

Farmside is to offer its fixed wireless broadband customers unlimited data between midnight and 9am. The Vodafone-owned rural telco ran offered a similar arrangement during the Covid-19 lockdown at not extra cost. This will now extend to July 27. From then customers can pay an extra $29 on top of their existing plans to get unlimited data from midnight to noon.

Meanwhile Spark has moved to increase rural fixed wireless data caps. Those on the 120GB plan will now get 160GB while those on 240GB will have their caps lifted to 300GB. In both cases there are no extra charges.

Radio Spectrum Management reveals 5G spectrum price

Radio Spectrum Management published the prices paid for 3.5GHz spectrum. The original plan was for an auction, instead it directly allocated the spectrum for short-term access. RSM says Dense Air purchased 40MHz for $500,000 while Spark and 2degrees each paid $750,000 for 60MHz of spectrum.

Huawei says Australia suffers gigabit gap

A report commissioned by Huawei and carried out by OMDIA says only 28 percent of Australian premises can connect to gigabit fibre and there are no plans for that number to increase. In comparison around 75 percent of New Zealand homes can get a gigabit. That number will increase to around 85 percent by 2022.

Sky renews Optus satellite for ten years

Sky TV says it has signed a revised satellite contract with Optus. The deal is good for ten years and gives the pay television company cost savings, new functionality and the ability to alter the capacity used. Because of the contract, Optus has committed to new orbit-configurable Ku-band satellite. In the past satellites could only be configured on the ground before launch.

New Zealanders support privacy regulation, want more

A survey conducted by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner found that two-third of New Zealanders want greater regulation of privacy. They want more regulation of what companies can do with personal information. Only 29 percent are happy with things as they stand. Six percent say they want less regulation. The survey comes a week after Parliament passed the 2020 Privacy Act updating the rules drawn up before the internet took off.