Download Weekly: Mobile experience winners

Vodafone fastest, 2degrees most consistent

International mobile infrastructure measuring company Tutela says Vodafone has New Zealand's fastest mobile data. The company beats its rivals at both downloads and uploads.

Elsewhere 2degrees has the highest consistent quality and the best latency.

Tutela describes its methodology as "crowdsourced data". It has a panel of 300 million phone users worldwide. In New Zealand it took 3.89 billion network quality measurements including 1.36 million speed tests.

Testing took place between March and May of this year. As New Zealand was in lockdown for much of this time the numbers may not reflect everyday mobile performance. The tests only took place in areas where all three carriers operate.

Vodafone wins on raw speed

When it comes to raw mobile speed Vodafone is well in front of Spark and 2degrees. Its median download speed is 23.9 Mbps. Uploads come in at 9.2 Mbps.

Spark trails with a median download speed of 20 Mbps. That's not far behind Vodafone, yet it has the slowest upload speed at 7.7 Mbps.

While 2degrees has the slowest median download speed at 19.5 Mbps, that is only 4.4 Mbps behind the leader. The company is second when it comes to upload speeds with a median of 8.1 Mbps.

Consistent quality

Tutela says the 2degrees network is good enough for applications like high definition video calls, streaming video and mobile gaming for 85.6 percent of the time. It calls this measure "consistent quality".

Spark follows a fraction behind meeting the standard for 84.9 percent of the time.

Vodafone brings up the rear on that measure, reaching the required level 81.9 percent of the time.

2degrees had the best one-way latency result at 24.5 ms. It was followed by Vodafone at 25.9 ms. Spark in third for a median one-way latency of 29.4 ms.

Core Ethernet routers at heart of Chorus $50m network upgrade

Two new core Ethernet switches are the most recent part of Chorus' $50 million network capacity upgrade. The Nokia 7750 SR 14s switches are in place in Auckland to help retail service providers keep ahead of traffic demand. Chorus says the routers increase capacity in Auckland by more than 200 percent wth 240 100Gbps ports available. Further increases are in the pipeline with 400 Gbps and 1 Tbps ports.

The new routers immediately serve to increase core capacity in Auckland by more than 200 percent, with 240 100 Gbps ports available. Further increases in capacity will follow with new faster 400 Gbps and 1 Tbps interfaces.

Spark Sport signs English cricket

Spark Sport has signed the New Zealand rights to English cricket. The deal includes all international and domestic cricket matches played in England for the next four years. It covers men's cricket and women's cricket. Streaming is already underway with the West Indies tour.

Whisper to produce domestic cricket for Spark Sport

UK-based Whisper is Spark Sport's cricket production partner. It has signed a contract to cover all cricket played in New Zealand for the next six years.

Mooney fills Vodafone chief strategy officer role

Vodafone NZ has appointed its first chief strategy officer: Richard Mooney. It's a new role at the company. Mooney's job will be to guide the company through its digital transformation. He has previously worked in strategy roles at Vodafone in the UK and was at Liberty Global during its merger with O2.

Amazon at heart of Vodafone Connect contact centre

Vodafone has launched a cloud-based contact centre system based on AWS's Amazon Connect. The company is selling it on a demand-based price basis. It says customers can save more than 50 percent of the cost of a traditional contact centre.