Spark fills final link in South Island optical backbone upgrade

Spark has completed the upgrade of its core optical transport on the South Island. The last stage was the loop from Invercargill to Christchurch via Queenstown. It now has a capacity of 200Gbps per wavelength. 

This follows Sparks first 200Gbps link installed last year between Takapuna and a core router in Papakura. 

Spark says the new South Island link also provides resilience. The extra connection can help in the event of a natural disaster.

Slingshot power deal scores during soft launch

General manager Taryn Hamilton says Slingshot's power sales soft launch exceeded expectations. After selling only to the company's broadband customers, Slingshot now offers power to all-comers nationwide.  

He says: "We’ve priced our power rates aggressively, and apply a prompt payment discount to both your broadband and power bill when you pay on time, and wrap it all up on a simple single bill." 

Slingshot parent company Vocus Communications acquired Switch Utilities, a power retailer last year. Customers of other Vocus broadband brands will get similar offers later. 

Communications services top New Zealand tech spending

Gartner has released its technology spending forecast for New Zealand.  The total spend will reach NZ$11.8 in 2017, up 2.7 percent from 2016. The total is forecast to pass $12 billion in 2018.

Communications services is the top technology category in New Zealand. Customers will spend a total of NZ$4.4 billion this year. Growth is negligible in the sector. The category includes consumer fixed and mobile voice and data services, enterprise fixed and mobile voice and data services.

The local numbers compare with a total IT spend of A$83 billion in Australia, almost eight times the amount spent here. Australia’s communications services sector is around six times the size of New Zealand’s at A$26.8 billion.  

New Zealand: IT Spending Forecast (Millions of NZ$)

Hawaiki keeps landing station build in Northland

Hawaiki has picked a local company to build the Mangawhai Heads landing station for its trans-Pacific cable. Northland-based McKay Limited will design and construct the landing station. It will also handle the electrical systems including standby power. 

Harera gets CBD Wifi

The Taranaki Daily News reports Hawera now has a free Wifi network. It runs along the shops on the town's main drag. The Wifi was installed by Primo Wireless. It's simple to use, there is no need to log-on and there are no set limits on use. Although organisers warn if people overuse the service they'll be kicked off. 

Digital Evolution kudos 

New Zealand is one of three stand out countries in the Digital Evolution Index. The index measures country performance switching to digital technologies. 

Stand out countries are "highly digitally advanced and exhibit high momentum". The other two stand outs are Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Estonia, Hong Kong, Japan and Israel are in the next band

Netflix hits subscriber milestone

Streaming-video provider Netflix had a record second quarter. It now has almost 104 million subscribers.

During the period its international audience climbed past the domestic US audience for the first time. The company says by the end of the year more than one-in-five broadband users in its top five markets will be customers. 

In the long term Netflix aims for more than 80 percent of subscribers to come from outside the US.

Despite the surge in customer numbers, Netflix won't turn a profit any time soon. That's because it plans to spend more than US$6 billion producing its own shows. During the second quarter, it released 50 new programmes including drama series, films and documentaries. 

Meanwhile Netflix teased the New Zealand Herald with a hint there could be New Zealand specific content on the way.