Download Weekly — Vocus NZ outperforms Australian parent

New Zealand business a highlight

Vocus New Zealand revenue was up five percent in the 2020 financial year while the Australia telco's group revenue dropped six percent.

The local operation has now shown growth for five years in a row. New Zealand revenue for the year was NZ$398.8 million. EBITDA, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, was up four per cent.

Vocus says the local business reduced overheads by four percent and increased UFB market share to 15 percent. It now has 226,000 broadband connections, 41,000 mobile connections and 33,000 energy customers.

Organic growth, acquisitions

The company says it will continue to focus on organic growth and look for acquisition opportunities.

Talking about the New Zealand business, Vocus Group managing director and CEO Kevin Russell says: “Key highlights for the year were growth in wholesale and continued increases in consumer and SMB driven by broadband and energy customers, with the acquisition of Stuff Fibre increasing our broadband subscriber base by 10 percent".

Other positives include growth in wholesale as Vocus signed new partners and an increased demand for bandwidth during the pandemic lockdown. On the negative side of the ledger the company saw a decline in its enterprise business.

The group did not perform as well. Group revenue went down from $A$1.89 billion to A$1.78 billion. Group net after tax profit fell from a positive A$34 million to a loss of A$178.2 million.

Fibre Max performance drops

Testing by SamKnows for the Commerce Commission Measuring Broadband report shows a 10 percent peak time speed drop for the fastest plans. Otherwise the report says overall performance has been stable despite changes in use due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Telecommunications Commissioner Tristan Gilbertson says the speed drop is visible across all fibre retailers and wholesalers. It is variable. He says Fibre Max connections in the South Island are 200mbps slower than in the North Island.

More fibre for West Coast and Southland

Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones says Chorus has started work on two regional fibre links paid for by the Provincial Growth Fund.

One link will run between Fox Glacier and Lake Hawea following State Highway 6. It will also connect Haast township to the UFB. The other will connect Te Anau to Milford Sound.

Jones says the links will improve resilience if there is network damage. The Fox Glacier fibre will provide an alternative route to the links running down the South Island's east coast.

Chorus is working with the Rural Connectivity Group. Both fibres can be used to connect mobile blackspot sites along their routes.

Spark, 2degrees put fixed wireless data caps on hold during Auckland lockdown

Spark and Vodafone say residential and small business customers will not be subject to data caps while Auckland remains at level 3 lockdown. While the lockdown is Auckland-only, data caps are on hold nationwide. Vodafone is not waiving data caps, but says it will work with customers who experience difficulties during the lockdown.

Spark Sport to test pay-per-view option

Spark Sport will venture into premium pay-per-view boxing this weekend with the highly anticipated fight between current WBC interim heavyweight title holder, Dillian Whyte and Russian heavyweight and former world champion Alexander Povetkin streaming exclusively to New Zealand on Spark Sport.

Jeff Latch, who heads Spark Sport says: “This is our first foray into premium pay-per-view boxing and we’re expecting a large number of viewers due to it being such a high-profile fight.

“In a unique proposition, boxing fans wanting to stream the fight won’t have to subscribe to a Spark Sport monthly subscription and can simply register and pay a one off $29.99.