New Zealand - The Telecoms Market Moving Into 2015

Synopsis

Into early 2015 there has been considerable progress with the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) network. A large number of connections have been made to schools, businesses and residential areas. By September 2014, 55,000 of the 536,000 premises within the fibre footprint were using the new network. With relatively high-take-up rates these premises, once migrated to the new fibre platform, have been able to make greater use of IP-delivered content and services.

Mobil broadband is also developing rapidly, with both Vodafone NZ and Spark having launched LTE services. By October 2014 Vodafone NZ reported that more than 500,000 subscribers were on its LTE-enabled plans, and that LTE-capable devices accounted for a third of all device sales during the previous 12 months. For its part, in November 2014 Spark signed an MoU with Huawei, expanding its existing partnership dating to the 2013 Joint Innovation Program which saw Spark trial LTE in the 700MHz band. 2degrees also began building its LTE infrastructure early in 2014, having secured a $165 million banking facility with the Bank of New Zealand. LTE services were launched in Auckland in mid-2014, with subsequent launches in Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

These two sectors – broadband and mobile – will provide advanced communication services for consumers and businesses in coming years, and deliver opportunities for new industries and players.

The UFB network and Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) are providing high-speed broadband connections across the country, slowly allowing innovative services to develop and provide access to the global marketplace.

This report provides an overview of the telecoms market as its moves into 2015, with commentary and analysis on a range of market developments.

Key developments:

Fibre-to-the-Node (FttN), UFB, RBI, mobile broadband, spectrum, big data. M2M, using crowd sourced data, the internet of things (IoT), consumer pricing, broadband, local loop unbundling (LLU), recent market developments.

Companies covered in this report include:

CallPlus, 2degrees, TelstraClear, Telecom New Zealand, Chorus, Vodafone.