Starlink direct-to-mobile passes US regulatory hurdle

FCC conditional approval means One NZ’s Starlink service nears

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted conditional authorisation for Starlink to provide direct-to-mobile services in the United States. This removes a hurdle One New Zealand faced as it readies its direct-to-mobile text service.

The US decision formalises earlier permissions granted for disaster relief efforts following Hurricanes Helene and Milton in Florida and North Carolina.

Under the licence, Starlink can operate up to 7,500 second-generation satellites through the Supplemental Coverage from Space programme. In the US, it means Starlink will use its spectrum to deliver services directly to unmodified phone handsets.

A similar service in New Zealand should be able to start at around the same time.

Text and emergency messaging

Currently, Starlink operates around 2,600 second-generation satellites. Of these, 320 are capable of direct to mobile services, though they are currently limited to text and emergency messaging.

The FCC deferred Starlink’s request to increase signal power levels for higher-bandwidth services like voice and video, citing interference concerns from US stakeholders, including AT&T. This could potentially be a problem in other markets.

Starlink’s licence also permits satellite deployment at lower altitudes of 340–360 km, compared to the current 525–535 km range. This has sparked interference concerns from EchoStar, Omnispace and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.

For now One New Zealand has an exclusive deal with Starlink. That’s time limited, but One NZ has an option to extend it. Rivals Spark and 2degrees have non-exclusive agreements with another satellite company Lynk.

Google plans increased Australian submarine cable capacity

Google says it will work with partners including Vocus, SODA and NextDC to build Australia Connect, a 42,500 km submarine cable network. The search giant says its project will deliver unprecedented capacity between the US, Southeast Asia and Australia.

There will be two systems: the Bosun cable will link Darwin, Christmas Island and Singapore. An interlink from here will connect Melbourne and Perth. Melbourne will also serve as a junction to the Honomoana cable for a direct connection to the US.

Google made no mention of New Zealand during the announcement and there is no pressing need for a significant capacity upgrade here at present.

Devoli tops Deloitte’s Masters of Growth 2024

Turnkey telecommunications provider Devoli took out top spot in
Deloitte’s Masters of Growth awards for 2024. The business’s revenue has grown 478 percent in five years.

Part of Deloitte’s annual Fast 50 programme, the Masters of Growth recognises companies transitioning from start-ups to established businesses, with a focus on sustained growth and strategic excellence

Devoli has previously placed in both the Fast 50 and Master of Growth indices.

The company’s secret sauce is its focus on automation. This allows it to simplify and scale the wholesale telecommunications services it provides. Many high profile broadband brands are Devoli customers.

Growing phone sales after two years of decline,

IDC forecasts worldwide phone shipments will grow 6.2 percent year-on-year in 2024. It expects the total to hit 1.24 billion units. The research company says phone shipments will slow again from 2025 onwards

This year’s growth follows two fallow year and IDC says there is a pent-up demand for upgrades.

Phone makers have made much noise about adding AI features to phones over the last year. IDC says AI is a priority for phone makers, but “had yet to impact demand significantly and drive early upgrades”. That could change if a must-have AI powered application emerges.

Android sales are growing fast this year. IDC says they are up 7.6 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile iPhone sales are only expected to grow 0.4 percent. IDC forecasts this will switch around next year with Apple outpacing Android.

Foldable phones have yet to capture customers’ imagination. IDC sales shipments dropped 7.4 percent in the third quarter of 2024.

Oppo’s new flagship Android: Find X8 Pro

OPPO New Zealand left it perilously close to Christmas to launch the Find X8 Pro at a swanky party in central Auckland on Wednesday.

It’s a high-end $2,299 Android device which appears to be more camera than phone. The Find X8 Pro also includes the AI technology that is considered obligatory on premium phones.

The Hasselblad Master Camera System was almost the only phone feature mentioned in the launch presentation with a professional photographer on hand to show its capability.

Holiday reading: The end of telecoms history

William Webb makes a good point in his book The end of telecoms history.

Boiled down his argument is that there are no new telecommunications applications requiring higher performance than today’s networks. We don’t need or can’t use greater bandwidth or lower latency.

He says instead we should consolidate existing technologies and extend networks so everyone has decent connectivity, but otherwise the telecommunications job is done.

A familiar story

It sounds fair enough. Yet older readers may remember we’ve been here before, many times.

In 1992 American political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote The End of History and the Last Man after the fall of the Berlin Wall. There has been a lot of history since.

An early example is 150 years ago scientists thought Physics had reached its conclusion. That was a generation before quantum physics and the theory of relativity kicked started the discipline.

Nothing on the horizon

There are no applications on the horizon that chew through more bandwidth and require lower latency that high resolution virtual reality.

It may well be that virtual reality technology fails to take off at the same scale as say, video streaming. Remember how 3D television flopped?

Yet that doesn’t mean no new high demand applications will emerge.

In other news...

The details of One NZ's Starlink-based mobile service
At Interest, Juha Saarinen offers background on One NZ’s soon-to-be-available satellite to mobile texting service.

While the One NZ service won't work in places where the satellite signal (which is boosted compared to what the terrestrial networks provide) can't penetrate like inside buildings, it should work in cars. One NZ is eyeing up the logistics market and IoT service subscriptions for areas that are difficult to reach with normal cellular service from land-based towers.

‌The great satellite switcharoo - what TV viewers need to know
Peter Griffin’s story for The Listener is behind a paywall. If you can get past it, he explains the changes coming for satellite TV viewers.

‌Looming 3G shutdown in NZ weighs on Eroad result - but full-year guidance on track
At the NZ Herald Chris Keall looks at potential problems for fleet management specialist Eroad:

Asked about customers working through the 3G shutdown, One NZ head of sustainability and corporate affairs Nicky Preston told the Herald, “The biggest one for us is Eroad.” There was no possibility of an extension beyond December next year. “The more we delay it, the harder it becomes to innovate on the network. At some point we’ve just got to make it happen,” Preston said. The telco had been engaging with Eroad on its 4G upgrade for more than two years.

Navigating the Politics of Private Involvement in Public Assets
The link takes you to a PDF.
Infrastructure New Zealand CEO Nick Leggett writes:

he wholesale privatisation of state-owned assets in the 1980s and 1990s left a legacy of public distrust in New Zealand and has made subsequent conversations about private sector involvement in public assets fraught.
However, with so much public infrastructure no longer fit-for-purpose or in desperate need of renewal or replacement, my sense is that the mood is shifting. There is now a far better understanding of the limitations of the public sector to fund and manage infrastructure as well as the capacity of the private sector to step in and assist

‌China has utterly pwned 'thousands and thousands' of devices at US telcos
From the department of don’t think it can’t happen here. Simon Sharwood reports for The Register:

Details of the extent of China's attacks came from senator Mark R Warner, who on Thursday gave both The Washington Post and The New York Times insights into info he's learned in his role as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Warner told the Post, "my hair is on fire," given the severity of China's attacks on US telcos. The attacks, which started well before the US election, have seen Middle Kingdom operatives establish a persistent presence – and may require the replacement of "literally thousands and thousands and thousands" of switches and routers.

The senator added that China's activities make Russia-linked incidents like the SolarWinds supply chain incident and the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline look like "child’s play."