Download Weekly: Spark upgrades to self-healing Optical Transport Network

Data traffic up 700 percent since 2016

Spark says the first stage of its new Optical Transport Network, OTN 2, is live. The link connecting Glenfield and Papakura is now operating at 800Gbps.

The telco says OTN 2 will be the first fibre network of its kind in New Zealand to be capable of self healing. That is, it will be able to automatically restore services after a natural disaster or other outages. 

Campbell Fraser, who leads Spark’s Technology Tribe, says OTN 2 will increase resilience. He says this means the company can respond and restore service faster after incidents such as the Kaikoura earthquakes.

Until now, if a fibre cable was cut, engineers would need to use manual processes to fix the break. 

Manual restoration unmanageable

Fraser says the sharp growth in network traffic means manual restoration is becoming unmanageable. With a self-healing fibre network, the technology automatically reroutes light signals after a cut. 

The new OTN will increase data capacity on Spark's network by a factor of up to eight. That's important. Fraser says Spark's data traffic is growing fast: it is up 700 percent since 2016. 

Fraser expects the roll out of 5G mobile networks to drive data consumption higher again. 

He says: “It’s common for business customers to ask for a 100Gbps connection, whereas even five years ago 10Gbps connections were standard. The up to eight-fold capacity increase we’ll get with the OTN 2 network is key to meeting this huge demand for data capacity.”

Spark's OTN is the company's fibre backbone network connecting cities and towns back to a central hub. It handles mobile, broadband, landline and business customer traffic. Spark also uses the network to connect to other service providers and to international networks.

Spark is using the same Ciena's WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optics system that featured in a similar announcement made by Vodafone last week. Like Vodafone, Spark says the new technology will mean reductions in power use. 

The OTN 2 roll out will take two years to complete. It started in Auckland and will then extend to Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

ComCom reopens fibre price regime question

The Commerce Commission has published a new input methodologies draft proposal. This is the document setting out the future rules for the UFB fibre network. It will affect the wholesale price fibre companies can charge for access to their networks. The regime is due to come into effect from 2022. 

A separate document from the Commerce Commission calls for submissions on planned changes to the way it values historic financial losses for fibre companies. It will publish a consultation paper next month and plans to make a final decision in November. 

InternetNZ considers .nz change

A report from InternetNZ puts forward options for changing the policies governing the .nz domain name. This includes ideas like restricting .nz domains to people in New Zealand, at present anyone from any country can buy one. The organisation wants feedback from the public, you have until August 14 to make a submission via the InternetNZ website. 

Squawk Squad turns to Chorus for classroom reach

Environmental social enterprise Squawk Squad says it will use its partnership with Chorus to reach more New Zealand classrooms. Squawk Squad distributes free digital environmental educational resources to teachers around the country. In the past the demand from teachers for the material was greater than the organisation's ability to deliver. Partnering with Chorus and using fibre means it can reach many more students.

Telcowatch shows steady mobile market

New Zealand's mobile market remained steady through the second quarter of 2020. A period that covered much of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Vodafone remained the leader with a 37 percent market share. That's the same as the first quarter. Spark retains its second spot with 34 percent. While Spark's market share dropped a little, its Skinny subsidiary grew. It now has 7 percent of the market. 2degrees share is 23 percent.