NZ climbs Akamai speed table as fibre uptake soars

Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report clocks New Zealand’s average connection speed at 14.7Mbps. That’s up from 12.9Mbps in the previous quarter and a rise of 40 percent in twelve months. The speed jump is enough to bump New Zealand seven places from 34 in the global speed table to 27. 

The numbers are from the survey for the first quarter of 2017. Akamai has measured and compared national broadband performance this way for a decade.

Akamai measure speeds of traffic between end user devices and its servers. The figure includes dial-up lines as well as ADSL, VDSL and fibre. It also includes traffic using WiFi connections. 

Fibre making a difference

Even so, the speed jump is impressive.  Akamai says: “In New Zealand, the expansion of its state-owned UFB (Ultra-Fast Broadband) network is estimated to reach 200,000 homes in an additional 151 towns, increasing coverage from 75 percent of the population up to 85 percent by 2020. The UFB is a FTTH project providing minimum speeds of 100 Mbps, and its expansion is estimated to cost the government an additional NZ$300 million.

Akamai also measures mobile connections. The company found the average mobile connection speed is 13Mbps up from 12.5Mbps in the previous quarter. 

Australia: New Zealand has pulled away from Australia in the fixed-line table after the two countries were neck and neck for years. In the most recent quarter Australia had average speeds of 11.1Mbps which leaves the country at 50 in the table from 241 countries. 

The stark difference between the two results did not go unnoticed by Australia’s media. At News.com.au Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson writes: “Australia continues to deliver slow internet connections, ranking far behind New Zealand, Thailand, and Kenya.” She goes on to say: “nearest neighbour New Zealand put the country to shame”. ARNnet reports “Aussie internet continues to drag behind Kiwi connectivity” while at Gizmodo the story is “Australia's Internet Speeds Are A Global Embarrassment” (no longer online).

Vocus bid means Orcon could have six owners in four years

On Tuesday Vocus told the ASX it had a $2.1 billion bid from US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. According to the Australian Financial Review, other potential buyers are also looking at the company. 

 One of the advisors appointed to help Vocus deal with the KKR and other bids is Credit Suisse. Earlier the financial services group issued a report suggesting a private equity buyer could get a better return if it sold Vocus’ non-core assets. Credit Suisse identified the saleable non-core assets. The list includes New Zealand’s third largest telco: CallPlus.  

The CallPlus group includes the Slingshot and Orcon internet brands along with FX Networks. CallPlus founders Malcolm Dick and Annette Presley sold the CallPlus business to another Australian telco, M2, in 2015. Soon after that acquisition was completed Vocus merged with M2. The company picked-up Orcon from Semple Investments in a 2014 firesale. Semple acquired Orcon from Kordia a year earlier.   

So that’s Kordia, Semple, CallPlus, M2 and Vocus in four years. Another buyer would make owner number six. 

Industry news:

Stephen Gale reappointed as Telecommunications Commissioner

Communications Minister Simon Bridges has reappointed Dr Stephen Gale as Telecommunications Commissioner for another three years. Bridges says Gale brings stability and continuity at a time when the industry is changing thanks to the review of the Telecommunications Act. He says: “The role of the Commissioner continues to be of vital importance as unique issues may emerge that require specialist understanding of the sector”.

Farmside now a Vodafone business

Vodafone completed its Farmside acquisition last week. The telco will pay TeamTalk $10 million in cash for 70 percent of in BayCity Communications. BayCity is the business behind the Farmside brand. It is a subsidiary of TeamTalk. 

TeamTalk shareholders nodded the deal through at a special meeting in April. Spark NZ made an earlier offer to buy TeamTalk, but the company rejected the offer as too low. 

MyRepublic takes Gigatown blueprint to the Gong

MyRepublic plans to establish Wollongong as Australia's first Gigatown. The service provider says it will supply residents with subsidised gigabit internet. 

While MyRepublic says it wants to showcase fast fibre's benefits, it won't do the brand any harm. It also aims to test Australian demand for well-priced premium fibre products. 

There's politics involved. NBN CEO Bill Morrow has said there is no demand for gigabit plans. 

MyRepublic borrowed many of the Gigatown ideas from the New Zealand Chorus campaign. It asked consumers to nominate a town. The winners get Gigabit speeds at normal plan prices.

In Australia MyRepublic has positioned itself as the high-speed service provider. 

Software life after hardware death for BlackBerry

The BlackBerry brand is back, but this time it’s on software not phones. The company says it is selling its AdHoc secure communications software through its partner Mobile Mentor. The partnership has already scored the Bank of New Zealand as a customer. 

BlackBerry describes AtHoc as a secure platform for crisis communications. It says AdHocvcan deliver accurate information in real-time through an encrypted network. It can send to a target audience or to large numbers both inside and outside an organisation.  

BNZ says it turned to AdHoc after dealing with serious earthquakes in 2013 and 2016. It keeps communications channels open and means services can stay running when there’s a crisis. 

Samsung regains NZ phone crown

After a brief fling with Apple, New Zealand phone buyers have returned to Samsung. The company is once again the nation's top phone brand. 

 In the first quarter of 2017 Samsung had a 40 percent market share up from 26 percent in the last quarter of 2016. In that period, Apple was the top phone brand. Apple's quarter-on-quarter share also increased, from 31 percent to 38 percent. 

 Samsung's poor showing in late 2016 was due to exploding battery problems with the Note 7 model. Consumers seem to have forgiven or forgotten this. 

Both Huawei and Vodafone lost share. Huawei fell from 21 percent to 11 percent. Vodafone dropped back from 11 percent to 4 percent.

 New Zealand phone sales have fallen in the last year.