Mobile in frame as ComCom issues snapshot report

This week saw the Commerce Commission release its market development snapshot report. It's a compact, state-of-the-industry report. It looks back at developments in 2017 and has a heavy focus on the mobile sector. That's appropriate with a mobile market study now underway.

Much of the report is positive. The commission notes that mobile data bundles have grown. All the carriers now have plans with at least 15GB of data. While there are plans that are marketed as unlimited, they have gotchas, such as automatically winding back download speeds once customers pass a threshold.

The Commerce Commission acknowledges the role of streaming video on mobile phones and the trend towards people using more data intensive options with social media.

Fixed wireless broadband

There's been considerable growth in fixed wireless broadband and mention of some of the aggressive sales in this area.

Also of note is the rise of competing Internet of Things networks. New Zealand has five companies either offering or planning to offer nationwide IoT coverage. But with some service providers offering more than one network, there's a lot of activity.

The Commission notes the value of these networks is still unknown and much of their target market is already covered by today's mobile networks.

Another notable trend is that watching TV over the internet is now mainstream. That's not just Netflix, but also Lightbox and Vodafone TV.

It says:

"In mid-2017, TVNZ publicly stated that TVNZ OnDemand had an average weekly reach of 240,000 viewers and 1.5 million streams. In August, telecommunications research firm IDC New Zealand reported that New Zealand ranks very highly for those who use streaming as their primary method of watching video. According to IDC, 22 percent of New Zealand consumers said that streaming was their primary method of programme viewing. This was equal to the US and well above the worldwide average of 14 percent."

Further down the list, the Commerce Commission notes that New Zealand is no longer dependent on a single international cable service provider.

Elsewhere there's a recognition of the trend towards companies like Vocus offering electricity with broadband and other telecommunications products. The Commerce Commission also notes passing of an important milestone with fibre connections now outnumbering copper connections.

Emergency caller location now on iOS

New Zealand's Emergency Caller Location Information (ECLI) service is now available on Apple iPhones and iPads. The necessary enabling technology was added to Apple's iOS operating system in the most recent update.

ECLI automatically gives an emergency service the probable location of a caller when they dial 111 from a suitably equipped mobile phone. This helps them move faster. The data is high precision. It is already available on some Android phones.

In the past emergency services could locate a call when it was made from a landline. But with more than four out of five 111 calls coming from a mobile phone a new approach was needed.

MBIE says more than 400,000 111 calls were made in the first six-months of ECLI. Of these, about a third included the location data.

Emergency services say ECLI has cut the time taken to check a caller's location. And that reduces dispatch time. In the past where there have been difficulties finding someone the emergency services would need to contact a network provider to find a caller's location.

Spark increases wireless broadband data cap

Spark says it is increasing the broadband cap on some fixed wireless broadband plans to 240GB. The same cap will apply to some Skinny customers too.

The higher plan is not available for all customers. Spark says it will only apply to those customers in urban broadband areas who have better mobile coverage.

Dunedin city-wide WiFi complete

With the opening of the site at Macandrew Bay, Dunedin's free city-wide Wi-Fi network is complete. The network operates 15 sites across the city. Spark built the network which was established by the Dunedin City Council. The company says 50,000 people use the network each month. They have 900,000 sessions and download more than 5000GB.

Spark offers TaaS-style security for business customers

Spark says it is offering managed security to business along similar lines to the Telecommunications as a Service programmes it sells to government.

The company's menu of services include Secure Internet, Secure Application Publishing, Secure Managed Firewall, Secure Messaging and remote access. Spark says it can also give business customers full oversight of security with Security Management Services, which includes Security Incident and Event Management as well as Incident Response as a service.

Mobile Mentor adds Microsoft 365 protection to TaaS

Mobile Mentor now offers two new security services for government agencies who use Microsoft 365 on mobile devices. The company's Microsoft Intune Management and Intune App Protection Policies are now in the government’s Telecommunications as a Service catalogue. The two services protect mobile devices, apps and data held in Microsoft 365 apps.

Lobby group wants all-of-government contracts ended

The NBR reports (no longer online) on a call by lobby group NZ Rise to scrap the all-of-government supplier panels. The group also wants the government to double the business it does with local technology firms. NZ Rise speaks for locally owned and operated technology companies.

NZ Rise co-founder Don Christie, who is a director of Catalyst IT has long argued that multinational technology firms operating in New Zealand have an unfair financial advantage as they often shift revenue overseas.

This time around his focus is on the government's target of making information technology the economy’s second-largest sector by 2025.

There are obvious benefits from local spending, but the NBR reports Christie saying 41 cents of every government dollar spent on local technology companies gets returned to the Crown through various taxes. Meanwhile multinationals tend to send most of their revenue to subsidiaries in lower tax countries.