The company formerly known as Vodafone NZ formally started trading as One NZ today - and marked the occasion by revealing a partnership with the Elon Musk-owned Starlink.
For the 10,000-plus Kiwis who’ve bought one of its install kits, or those who used one during Cyclone Gabrielle, Starlink means a satellite dish you can buy at Noel Leeming, then plonk on your roof to get $159/month unlimited data internet via thousands of Starlink satellites that swarm the Earth at a low orbit.
But the One-Starlink partnership is about filling gaps in the carrier’s network. All of them.
The deal follows one already signed between Musk’s company and T-Mobile in the US. That deal will see T-Mobile users able to send texts via Starlink by the end of the year when out of usual cellular coverage areas.
One NZ CEO Jason Paris said customers will be able to send texts via Starlink’s Direct to Cell by “late 2024″ with voice and data to follow.
“The cool thing about working with SpaceX on satellite-to-mobile technology is that works with your normal smartphone, so you don’t need one of those big bricks,” Paris said.
Neither side has disclosed commercial terms, which was billed as a Southern Hemisphere first.
Paris said the service will cover 100 per cent of New Zealand’s landmass from 50 per cent today between the three main carriers - something that he said was keenly felt during Cyclone Gabrielle, amid power and fibre cuts. The Coast Guard was on hand for today’s launch. Paris said the SpaceX service will work out to NZ’s territorial boundaries.
Both T-Mobile and One NZ are waiting on Starlink to launch around 2000 “second generation” satellites to enable the mobile network tie-up. SpaceX has said the second-generation birds require its new, larger Starship rocket to launch. Starship could have its maiden flight as early as this month.
Paris said he had written to the Government, pledging that One’s 100 per cent coverage Starlink Direct Cell service would be made available to Spark and 2degrees customers for emergency calls, and to all emergency services. The initial text implementation would be for One customers only, however. (Today, any emergency call to one mobile network will automatically transfer to one of the other two mobile providers if there’s no signal.)
Asked if he was concerned that Starlink could one day expand its ambition from gap-filling to offering full mobile service everywhere, Paris said,
We don’t see the satellite-to-mobile service as a replacement for 4G and 5G technology. We see it as complementary,” Paris said.
“The speeds you get from satellite-to-mobile will be slower than 4G, so you won’t be streaming Netflix any time soon.”
That’s true. At least for Version 1.0 of Musk’s satellite-to-mobile service.
Appearing by video, Digital Economy Minister Ginny Andersen praised the way telcos worked with each other in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle. She said the Government’s review would include a working group on communications problems. It was still being set up.
Separately, 2degrees this morning said that it would trial a similar service provided by US low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite operator Lynk.
2degrees CEO Mark Callendar said: “While full LEO satellite mobile services are some way away, we’re testing capabilities in this area to ensure 2degrees customers are set to benefit as Lynk LEO satellites are deployed.”
Lynk’s service is expected to launch across the Tasman “within months and support nearly all modern handsets”.
Right now, Lynk only has a dozen satellites in orbit, but it plans 1000 by 2025 and 5000 by 2028 (Starlink has around 4000 today, with 2000 second-generation satellites due for launch shortly. Musk plans for at least 12,000).
“In business, we are currently working on a solution for enterprise-grade broadband satellite and are aiming to announce a proof-of-concept trial in the next few months,” a spokeswoman for Spark said.
“This would ensure businesses can continue operating and providing services that New Zealanders rely on if their primary services were to go down. For example, ATM machines could remain running if operators had this solution in place as a backup.”
In the consumer market, “satellite to your mobile phone is in its very early stages with many technical details still to be worked through, and these services are not likely to be available for some time. Our intention is to offer a consumer mobile satellite service in the future, but we don’t have any details to share at this time.”
Apple’s SOS texting doesn’t require you to buy any specialised hardware. You can make an emergency call using a regular iPhone - but it has to be the latest model, the iPhone 14, which is the only one with the necessary smarts built in.
The service also requires direct line of sight to a satellite, so is not a goer if you’re trapped indoors or underground in an emergency.
As the T-Mobile deal was announced, Musk called the set-up a “cell tower in the sky”.
We already know the technology is doable. Late last year, Apple introduced an emergency text via satellite feature for iPhone users in the US, UK and several European countries, in a partnership with low-Earth orbit satellite operator Globalstar (one of Rocket Lab’s customers, in terms of future bookings, and the recipient of a US$450m investment from Apple).
In a December 2022 application to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Starlink said its second-generation satellites would provide cellphones with “voice, messaging, and basic web browsing at theoretical peak speeds of up to either 3.0Mbps or 7.2Mbps peak upload... and up to either 4.4Mbps or 18.3Mbps on the downlink”.
Those are relatively slow data speeds - more like copper than the hundreds of megabits per second you can get via Starlink dish on your roof - but the key point is the almost-anywhere coverage, which could prove a literal lifesaver in the event of a disaster.
In the meantime, there are more down-to-Earth issues. Minister Andersen has said the communications havoc after Cyclone Gabrielle is likely to be part of the Government’s review of New Zealand’s response to the disaster.
The early days after the cyclone saw Ngāti Porou distribute dozens of Starlink kits to communities on the hard-hit East Coast as telcos struggled to restore service - in part because of difficulties getting fuel to generators (Starlink kits also require power) and breaks in the fibre cable that connects cell sites to main networks.
Spark has already said that it favours a public-private approach to making cell towers more resilient, modelled on Australia’s response to the “Black Summer” bushfires of 2019/20 - which included the federal government shipping in A$38m ($40m) to cover half the cost of toughening 1000 cell sites, through measures such as larger battery arrays for much longer back-up power.
The Vodafone NZ to One NZ rebrand follows the 2019 deal that saw the multinational Vodafone PLC sell its New Zealand business to a joint venture between NZX-listed Infratil and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management. Each holds a 49.95 per cent stake, with the balance owned by Paris and five other executives.
This is not Paris’ first time at the rodeo. He was number two at Telecom as it rebranded to Spark in 2014 - a move that initially drew criticism but later gained wide acceptance.
The current rebrand he’s involved in has also drawn fire, in part because again a common word is being used (a Companies Office search for “One” yields a 67-page response). In early January TVNZ filed trademark opposition with the patent office. The state-owned broadcaster of 1News said it made the move to trigger an extension in discussions over how each party should use “One” branding.
This morning, as Vodafone NZ officially began trading as One New Zealand Group, a One NZ spokeswoman told the Herald that talks continued.
“We are working out the finer details with TVNZ and look forward to continued engagement that enables both companies to operate [effectively],” she said. “There isn’t an issue about whether One New Zealand can exist as a brand.”
A spokeswoman for TVNZ said, “There is no agreement yet.”
Whatever the final shape of the two organisation’s detente, it seems it will take all-comers a bit of time to get used to the switch from Vodafone.
“That’s one for the swear jar,” Paris said as he accidentally called One NZ by its old name during his launch speech.
Shares in One NZ co-owner Infratil shares were recently trading at $9.19, with the stock up 12.8 per cent for the year.
Following Infratil’s Investor Day last week, Forsyth Barr reiterated its “Outperform rating and lifted its 12-month target price by 60c to $10.60.
“Vodafone - soon to be One NZ - is showing real momentum,” a team of ForBarr analysts said.
Infratil’s update said the telco’s operating earnings were “on track to exceed its FY23 guidance range of $490 million to $520 million” with 10 per cent growth over the prior year.
The Starlink-Vodafone partnership announced today follows other local telco tie-ups.
Starlink earlier named 2degrees as the first local reseller of its business package, which involves a $4200 satellite dish and $840 in monthly fees.
2degrees, along with Cello, also partnered on Starlink’s six local ground stations, using or connecting its satellites to the terrestrial internet - an arrangement it inherited from Vocus NZ (aka Orcon Group) when the two companies merged last year.
Fletcher Building, Spark and Ryman are potentially all on the radar.