Spark shuffles leadership

Spark announced it is shuffling its leadership ranks in a release to the financial markets. The company says the move is part of a broader business transformation that will see it adopt agile work practices.

The change also reflects the departure of Jason Paris who was chief executive of the company's home, mobile and business division.

From July 1 the leadership team will include general manager Simon Moutter, CFO David Chalmers and HR director Joe McCollum. All three will keep their current roles. Spark Digital CEO Jolie Hodson moves to a new role as customer director. Meanwhile platforms chief digital officer Claire Barber becomes product director and connect COO Mark Beder, becomes technology director. The company will recruit a new marketing director.

Spark Ventures CEO Ed Hyde will leave the company.

Grant McBeath, who replaced Paris as interim CEO of the Home, Mobile and Business (HMB) unit from Jason Paris earlier this year, stays the job until July. Then he returns to his old job running Spark’s consumer and SME sales and service channels.

The release quotes Spark managing director Simon Moutter saying the change will see a less hierarchical structure and small self-managing teams.

Agile is a term that is usually applied to software development. Some of its ideas come from the Japanese Kanban approach. Among other things it uses cross functional teams who often co-operate more closely with customers. It looks to bring continual improvement and a flexible response to constant change.

2degrees switches off 2G network

After giving its customers months of notice, 2degrees says it will switch off its 2G cellular network this week. The company says many customers still using 2G handsets have moved to newer devices, but some have not.

The non-movers number in the thousands although many of these phones are likely to be back-up devices. The switch-off means old 2G handsets will no longer work. This also affects some eftpos terminals and GPS devices.

Vodafone plans to keep its 2G network running for the foreseeable future. Spark never had a 2G network, Telecom NZ used the rival technology CDMA. It closed that after its 2009 move to the XT network.

Switching off 2G means 2degrees can repurpose the bandwidth for its 4G, and maybe later 5G, networks. It also allows engineers and other staff to focus on servicing the newer technologies.

Vodafone opens new accelerator round

Vodafone is looking for eight more technology start-ups to join its xone accelerator programme. The programme gives companies seed-funding and six-months of mentoring. Vodafone also introduces successful companies to other subsidiaries of its world-wide organisation. This year Vodafone is looking for companies in the AI, IoT and data analytics sectors.

Spark signs first LoRaWAN customer

Spark says it has signed agri-tech firm Levno as its first LoRaWAN customer. The signing comes ahead of the network's formal launch later this month.

LoRaWAN or Low-Power Wide-Area Network is a wireless technology used to connect internet of things sensors. Levno plans to use LoRaWAN to monitor agricultural fuel tanks. It uses sensors to report real time changes to fuel suppliers so they can make timely deliveries.

Levno has used cellular network for the job in the past, but says this hasn't been ideal.

Ray Connor, Levno CEO says LoRaWAN lowers the cost of infrastructure. He says it means he can focus more on things that directly impact customers.

Lower power means batteries last longer, up to ten years instead of the current five years. Connor also says the LoRaWAN network can reach a wider area. This means Levno can extend its service into areas it can't reach using cellular technology.

Datacom adds trans-Tasman data centre link

Datacom will connect its New Zealand and Australian data centres using new AirTrunk facilities in Sydney and Melbourne. Greg Davidson, Datacom’s group CEO says this will give government and enterprise customers secure, direct access to multiple public cloud services. It will also enable other hosting and co-location services.