New Zealand

Huawei gets cozy with the Kiwis

Huawei has formalised its investment plans in New Zealand after a meeting between CEO Ren Zhengfei and the country’s Prime Minister Bill English.

New Zealand activates LTE700 networks

The 700MHz radio frequency is finding favour among New Zealand mobile operators with Vodafone this week switching on its commercial 700MHz LTE network, marking the activation of one of the first Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) 700 MHz networks in the world.

Telecoms New Zealand to launch LTE 700MHz in August

Incumbent carrier Telecom New Zealand, in the midst of changing its name to Spark, said Tuesday it intends to launch 4G LTE services in late August using the recently acquired licence for the 700MHz spectrum band. The move will supplement existing 4G services on offer in limited regions using the 1800MHz band.

Telecom New Zealand adds more cloud to arsenal

Telecom New Zealand on Wednesday announced that it has agreed to acquire business cloud services specialist Appserv, building on other recent acquisitions in the space and giving Telecom NZ greater leverage in the enterprise sector.

New Zealand operators block stolen phones

Mobile operators in New Zealand have joined forces to clamp down on the use of stolen handsets in the country. Vodafone, Telecom and 2degrees have worked together over the past year to develop a blacklisting system, which gives each operator the ability to block the IMEI number of a mobile device that has been reported as stolen across all three networks, usually within 24 hours.

Uncertainty and risk: the results of spectrum renewal by auction

The use of auctions for spectrum renewal seems pointless and likely only to create uncertainty and risk for operators, says Graham Friend, managing director at Coleago Consulting. New entrants know they are likely to be outbid by incumbents and the uncertainty generated dampens the desire of those incumbents to invest and innovate, which is not good at a time when governments want to see a rapid and extensive roll-out of LTE.

Huawei CEO refutes US criticism during NZ visit

The CEO of Chinese vendor Huawei has spoken to the media for the first time at a press event in New Zealand. During his visit Ren Zhengfei pledged Huawei’s commitment to contributing to New Zealand’s digital economy. He also addressed comments from the US House Intelligence Committee claiming that the vendor is not to be trusted.

New Zealand’s Telecom trials LTE

New Zealand operator Telecom has begun trialling its LTE network in parts of Wellington and Auckland. The firm said it is aiming to launch the new network late in 2013 or early in 2014. The first phase of the trial will run until mid-February 2013.

Vodafone acquires New Zealand’s TelstraClear

Operator group Vodafone has agreed to acquire Telstra’s New Zealand arm TelstraClear, for a sum of NZ$840m ($663m). The acquisition strengthens Vodafone position in New Zealand, where it is already the country’s largest mobile operator in terms of subscriber base, with 2.4 million customers; 66 per cent of whom are on prepaid contract, and 1.035m customers on 3G, according to Informa’s WCIS.

Vodafone in talks with Telstra over NZ arm

Vodafone has announced that it is in discussions with Australian operator Telstra over the potential acquisition of its New Zealand subsidiary, TelstraClear. “Discussions are continuing and there is no certainty as to whether an agreement will be reached. A further announcement will be made in due course, if appropriate,” Vodafone said in a statement.

Vodafone fined $400k for misleading NZ users

Vodafone’s operation in New Zealand has been fined just over NZ$400,000 (US$330,000) by the Auckland District Court after pleading guilty to a breach of the country’s Fair Trading Act. The breach related to advertising and marketing collateral for the firm’s Live! mobile portal, which led users to believe that mobile internet services would be free of charge. In fact only content and services within the Live! walled garden were free to use.

iPhone App Store goes live

The world’s first iPhone 3G will go on sale in New Zealand in a matter of hours, and to be ready Apple has already launched the much anticipated App Store. The App Store, where iPhone users can download and install new applications – carefully vetted by Apple of course – went live on Thursday. It’s […]

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