One NZ moves HQ back to town

Wynyard Quarter to house One NZ's Auckland Support Office

Around 1200 One New Zealand employees will be based in the company’s new Wynyard Quarter home that officially opened this week. One NZ calls it the Auckland Support Office.

One NZ will occupy three floors of the building at 30 Daldy Street. It is just 450m from the building Vodafone left in 2018. The space is around 60 percent of the size of One NZ’s recent home at Smales Farm on Auckland’s North Shore.

To make the space work, the company will use hot-desking and offer a flexible work policy with employees spending at least three days in the office. Teams will be allocated ‘connection days’.

One NZ says its new space “includes open, flexible areas for teamwork, focus zones for quiet work and inviting social spaces that bring people together.” There is also a cafe with views of the Harbour Bridge. The 45 meeting rooms include “hybrid-enabled rooms, lounge settings and learning spaces”.

It’s a green building, the developers have aimed to meet the 6 Green Star design rating and Platinum WELL certification. NABERSNZ will track building performance. The goal is a 5-star energy efficiency rating, with solar panels and smart energy monitoring to reduce energy use. There will be rainwater harvesting, EV and bike charging stations and 197 bike parks.

The office opened with a dawn pōwhiri and blessing led by local iwi Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei as tangata whenua.

ComCom recommends dropping mobile termination rate regulation

A draft Commerce Commission recommendation on Mobile Termination Access Service (MTAS) regulation concludes that intervention may no longer be necessary.

MTAS regulation covers mobile to mobile and fixed line to mobile voice call regulation along with terminating SMS messages between mobile networks.

The regulation was introduced in September 2010 after a recommendation from the Commerce Commission to the then communication minister Steven Joyce.

Changed market dynamics

Gradually this changed the market dynamics. On-net traffic went from 86 percent in 2008/09 to 57 percent by 2023/24.

As a result of MTAS the two big mobile carriers at the time, Telecom NZ and Vodafone stopped aggressively discounting on-net traffic and penalising calls between networks. This opened the way for 2degrees to compete effectively with the incumbent carriers. Traffic between the three players became almost symmetric.

Consumers benefitted by the move to plans with unlimited call minutes and txt messages. Ultimately it pushed down mobile phone costs.

No longer needed

In its recent review of MTAS, the Commerce Commission decided the original regulation achieved its intended purpose of opening up the market and that continued regulation is no longer necessary given the matured, stable market structure.

Industry submissions included a counter view from Symbio and Pivotel. They say New Zealand’s mobile carriers charge more for application-to-person SMS traffic than carriers elsewhere in the world and this should be regulated. While this is outside the scope of the MTAS investigation, the Commission is conducting a separate Commerce Act enquiry into A2P SMS.

The recommendation is a draft. Submissions are due by December 3. The minister, Paul Goldsmith, will then accept, reject or call for clarification.

Mixed submissions on deregulating mobile co-location

Three submissions on the Commerce Commission’s review of cellular mobile transmission co-location regulation show a range of views.

One New Zealand is strongly in favour of deregulation. The telco argues regulation is now redundant and should be removed. It says the tower companies, Connexa and FortySouth, have an incentive to maximise tower use and no reason to deny access. It says extending regulation to tower companies would risk re-regulating a market that is already working commercially

Not surprisingly, Connexa’s own submission is also in favour of deregulation. The tower company that was spun out of Spark says the independent tower company model makes regulation unnecessary. It also notes the strong incentive for tower companies to enable co-location. Connexa says it has successfully worked on 73 co-location projects in the last year without needing a regulatory framework.

While acknowledging the industry changes, 2degrees is more cautious about deregulation saying the mobile co-location service has been an important regulatory backstop for its commercial negotiations. Much of the company’s submission is redacted.

Cross submissions on the review are due by November 14.

New regulations clarify wireless jamming equipment ban

MBIE’s Radio Spectrum Management group has issued a regulations notice prohibiting wireless electronic counter measure equipment. It replaces the earlier Radio Jammer Prohibition Notice, which is no longer in effect.

Wireless electronic counter measure (WECM) devices, commonly known as jammers, are used to block or interfere with radio, mobile or GPS signals.

While jammers have been used to stop people using mobile phones, they can disrupt emergency communications and interfere with critical national infrastructure.

In New Zealand it is illegal to manufacture, import, sell, supply, or use WECM equipment unless the individual or organisation is recognised as a permitted person. Penalties can include fines and prison sentences.

The updated notice makes the rules and definition of the devices clearer.

In other news...

• Virtual fencing pays off for farmers — Farmers Weekly.
• Forsyth Barr analysts down on Spark, up on One NZ — NZ Herald (Paywall).
• Google wants to put data centres in orbit — The Guardian.

Kordia sells managed IT unit

Government-owned Kordia has sold its managed IT business unit to Fusion5 which specialises in business applications and ERP. Kordia Group CEO Neil Livingston says the deal means the company can focus on its core businesses including communications services, cyber security, connectivity and cloud.

EonFibre partners with Datacentre220

EonFibre says a deal it has signed with Datacentre220 addresses the surging demand in traffic between data centres triggered by increased AI and cloud computing adoption. The deal uses EonFibre’s recently launched DC Direct service.

End of the line for Iconz

A message from Atturra warns customers that the Iconz email service will close on December 31. The company has told customers they will need to find a new email service provider.

Older readers will remember Iconz from the 1990s when it was a pioneering locally run ISP. Over the years the brand has changed hands. In 2016 it was acquired by Plan B. Last year Plan B was sold to Atturra, a Sydney, Australia-based enterprise IT firm.

This time last year Spark was talking up premium mobile bundles

While the company was already trimming its guidance for its 2025 annual result, Spark was positive about its premium mobile bundles. As now, Spark's mobile business was the bright spot.

Five years ago Chorus was unhappy about the Commerce Commission's final decision on the Initial Value of Financial Losses (IVFL).  The figure is used to determine how much the company can charge for wholesale access to its fibre network.

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