Mobile boosts Spark revenue, Vocus winning broadband share

Spark revenue increased 1.6 percent in the six months to December 31 to a total of $1.82 billion. Mobile revenue grew almost nine percent to $635. Mobile now accounts for a third of the company's revenue and remains the largest component. Broadband took $341 million in the same period. Spark's cloud business was a bright spot with sales up 17.5 percent to $181 million.

Despite revenue growth, EBITDA was down 1.7 percent and net earnings fell 3.4 percent compared to a year earlier.

Spark now has 2.44 million mobile connections. That's a rise of 3.6 percent in the half year and, in effect, puts the company on a level footing with Vodafone for the first time in decades. The all-important average revenue per user (ARPU) was up 1.8 percent at $22.28. Spark says this was due to customers moving to higher cost unlimited data plans. It said the Skinny brand also saw growth.

Vocus Group

Vocus Group's New Zealand business reports a faster revenue rise of 4.1 percent to $182.6 million over the same half year period. The company's enterprise and wholesale operation saw its sales climb 10 percent, consumer revenue was down 1.1 percent. The company's New Zealand business is up for sale with an agreement likely to be reached in the next six months.

The highlight for Vocus was a 1.5 increase in broadband customers and a 63 jump in fibre customers, although copper service users dropped 14 percent. Vocus says it now has a 13 percent share of the UFB market, that's up on last year's 12 percent and marks real progress in an area which shifts often take place at a glacial pace.

Like Spark, the company saw its base EBITDA fall. However, Vocus wanted other costs taken into account, which means a rise in EBITDA of 2.1 percent.

Lightbox upgrades

Spark says it is upgrading its Lightbox video streaming service. The company says it will launch Lightbox Movies and offer and Premium TV subscription option. Both of these changes will happen in April.

Lightbox Movies will be an on-demand pay-per-view movie service, similar in some respects to Stuff Pix. It won't be restricted to Spark or existing Lightbox customers. Casual users will be able to download movies without a subscription.

The premium TV option will allow subscribers to temporarily download material — as opposed to streaming. Downloaded material will play on mobile devices. Lightbox also says customers will see higher quality images with lower broadband requirements.

While Spark broadband customers will continue to get Lightbox standard as part of their plan, there will be an extra charge for the premium service. All Lightbox customers will be able to use a special kids TV service which is designed to keep children away from adult content.

Gita blows in

Although ex-tropical cyclone Gita caused havoc in parts of the country, the national telecommunications networks survived largely intact. On Thursday Chorus said its copper and fibre networks were mainly operating as normal. There were some issues in places where there were power outages.

Taranaki caught the worst of the storm on the North Island with power outages affecting the network. In the South Island there were similar problems on the West Coast and in the Nelson region. These have been made worse because of road closures. In some places the only access is by air. In total about 1000 homes lost broadband and phone services.

Spark responded to the storm by making its nationwide wi-fi hotspot network free to all-comers. Vodafone gave free call diversion from home to mobile for customers who were evacuated during the storm. It also offers free mobile data for people who had both broadband and mobile accounts with the company.

TeamTalk profitable after Farmside sale

TeamTalk saw first profits rise 60 percent after it sold the unprofitable Farmside rural broadband service provider. The company had a net profit of $2.1 million compared with $1.3 million a year earlier. Revenue fell slightly during the period. In 2017 TeamTalk sold 70 percent of BayCity Communications, Farmside's parent company, to Vodafone for $10 million. There's an option to sell the remainder for a further $3 million.

Telecommunications Relay Service

Contracts for providing telecommunications rely services for hearing and vision impaired people are due to expire by June 2019. The government has started consultation to pave the way to keep services running beyond that date.

The existing relay service started in 2004 as part of the Telecommunications Service Obligation. At the moment services are handled by Sprint International New Zealand from a contact centre in Auckland, managed by Communication Services for the Deaf. The organisation also has a separate sign language service.

AgriTrack, TracPlus team up to help Australian Firefighters

Dunedin companies AgriTrack and TracPlus are working together to help Australian firefighters improve their response to bushfires. AgriTrack has agreed to send data gathered by its apps to TracPlus’ global tracking and messaging service used by Australian firefighters and co-ordinating agencies. The deal will also help AgriTrack's agricultural products work outside conventional coverage area. In some places this will mean using TrackPlus equipment like the RockAir satellite and cellular tracker.