Download Weekly: Sky picks web blocking fight with RSPs

Sky TV has launched legal action in a bid to force internet service providers to block access to certain streaming and video download websites. As you'd expect, it hasn't gone down well with the industry.

The company plans to seek a High Court injunction that allows it to decide which sites are available to New Zealand web users. Sky says it is targeting illegal pirate sites and they are a threat to local entertainment industries and sporting codes.

At present Sky is aiming its actions against the four largest ISPs: Spark, Vodafone, Vocus Group and 2degrees. These companies account for over 90 percent of the market.

Legitimate streamers have taken off

Sky's timing is curious considering the shift away from piracy thanks to legitimate paid online services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. These offer a wide range of streaming video at a fraction of the price of a Sky TV subscription, but do not include rights to popular sports coverage.

Vocus consumer general manager Taryn Hamilton says his company's stats show visits to The Pirate Bay - a popular file sharing site - is now at 23 percent of its 2013 peak. He says the idea of Sky blacklisting sites is dinosaur behaviour and something you might expect to see in North Korea.

Hamilton says Vocus will fight Sky in court. His company is not alone. Spark says it also aims to fight the injunction. InternetNZ says it is seeking legal advice. Vodafone, which has a close relationship with Sky, says it will comply with any court order. 2degrees has yet to commit.

Sky's move is likely to have lawyers rubbing their hands with glee. Litigation is likely to be expensive. One problem is there is no precedent in New Zealand for this kind of complaint, the Copyright Act stems from a time before video streaming was practical. Until now most service providers have walked away from pitched battles.

Kodi victory: Around the same time Sky sent letters to the ISPs, the company won an interim injunction against Fibre TV which sells the Kodi set top box. Fibre TV sells the set top box along with software designed to make piracy easy. The decision was made in the Christchurch District Court and Sky was awarded costs.

2degrees offers WiFi calling to fill coverage gaps

2degrees introduced a service that allows customers in areas with poor cellular coverage to make calls or send text using a WiFi hotspot.

The WiFi calling service only works with some handsets. At the moment that's recent Samsung models. 2degrees says it will add other phones to the service in the coming months. In use wi-fi calling appears like ordinary phone services.

WiFi calling also works if customers are overseas. It means people can receive incoming calls and texts on their usual phone number.

2degrees chief marketing officer Roy Ong says: “If you’ve got WiFi you’ve got 2degrees cell coverage.”

New Zealanders less likely to complain about telecoms

The New Zealand Telecommunications Forum says consumer complaints about the industry are lower than in other countries.

According to the annual Telecommunications Dispute Resolution annual report the number of complaints in the year to July 2017 was steady following a rise in complaints the previous year.

The TCF says the number is: "substantially lower than the number of contacts received as a percentage of connections by dispute resolution bodies in other comparable sectors, and telecommunications disputes services in other jurisdictions, such as Australia and the UK."

During the year the TDR received 2,252 complaint enquiries from consumers. Only six percent became formal complaints. The TCF says that in most cases service providers were able to resolve issues quickly.

Enable fibre 90 percent done

Enable says it has finished 90 percent of its fibre rollout with the completion of work in Kaiapoi and Rangiora. To date 157,300 customers have fibre access and more than 60,000 have signed, a take-up approaching 40 percent. Enable says its target for 2018 is to get another 30,000 people connected.

Carter takes broader role at InternetNZ

InternetNZ chief executive Jordan Carter is to take a broadened CEO role following an organisational restructure. From early next year InternetNZ and NZRS, the .nz domain name registry will all be combined. The change will see InternetNZ expand its role to include responsibility for .nz policy.

Vocus ASC project hits mid-point

Luke Mackinnon, head of Vocus International, says building work on the Australia Singapore Cable has now passed the halfway point.

ASC links the west coast of Australia with Singapore via Christmas Island, it is likely to become an important route for New Zealand data travelling to large regional datacenters in Asia. The existing cable on the route has been prone to disruption, Vocus will bury ASC under the seabed to make that less of a problem.

Mackinnon says: “The main cable laying doesn’t start until February next year. It will continue through March. We will lay the final spike sometime in April. Then the commissioning begins. That will take place in May and June, giving us a ready-for-service date in July.”