Staying connected at work can often mean a blur of Teams messages, texts and calls occupying the average urban office worker‘s day, but there are also many people in remote New Zealand where connectivity is a lifeline.

Spare a thought for the six per cent of Kiwis employed in the primary sector and the four per cent of the workforce who keep the economy moving in the transport sector. Tens of thousands of us work in remote parts of the country and beyond the reach of traditional mobile and fixed-line communications networks for at least part of the day.

That’s why the debut of the One NZ Satellite TXT service, which is available on monthly post-paid plans to customers with eligible smartphones, is attracting so much interest from businesses.

With health and safety compliance a key agenda item at board of directors meetings, company leaders are looking for additional ways to keep their workers out of harm’s way, and to lend support quickly when accidents happen.

The health and safety imperative

Cyclone Tam recently brought natural weather events back into focus. Ralph Brayham, Executive Director at global infrastructure manager Morrison, said the issue of keeping a remote workforce safe was also top of mind in March when parts of Queensland were threatened by cyclones causing storm surges and flooding – something that New Zealand businesses also need to prepare for.

When Brayham joined Morrison nearly a decade ago, the investment firm had an asset portfolio worth around $3.5 billion. Now it is closer to $50 billion, including electricity, water, and transport assets around Australasia. Morrison founded Infratil, the listed company that owns One NZ and which has renewable energy, digital infrastructure, healthcare and airport assets all over the world.

“As investors in companies that employ a lot of people as part of dispersed and remote workforces, we are constantly looking at ways to mitigate the risk of workers coming into harm’s way,” says Brayham.

“Whether its ex-tropical Cyclone Alfred that hit the Queensland coast, or Cyclone Gabrielle back in 2023 in the North Island, we need to be ready for events that hamper our efforts to keep in touch with workers in the field.”

That’s why Brayham, a veteran of the telecommunications industry, is particularly excited about the ability to send and receive text messages via Starlink Direct to Cell satellites with One NZ.

“It offers that extra layer of resiliency that we think is really, really important,” says Brayham.

While many workers, particularly in the transport sector, are equipped with GPS-based fleet tracking locators, and marine vessels often carry emergency personal locator beacons, Brayham sees satellite texting capability as democratising access to backup communications.

“If you are driving a tractor and get cut off by a landslide on a remote country road, chances are you’ll have no way of letting anyone know,” he says.

“Satellite to mobile texting doesn’t replace other safety communications systems, but without the need for a separate device and available on a wide range of plans, One NZ Satellite TXT certainly gives you a convenient option to reach out for help or let a friend or colleague know of your situation, you just need to be able to see the sky to use it.”

Planning for disruption

All Morrison’s portfolio companies all have communications plans for disaster resilience, an area of focus that has come into sharp relief as more frequent and intense weather events resulting from climate change threaten infrastructure such as electricity and telecommunications networks.

“If the grid goes down, being able to check in with employees via satellite gives us all huge peace of mind,” Brayham says.

“And I’m also happy to know that when one of our companies’ employees is out on the weekend doing a hike with their eligible work phone in their pocket, they also have an additional line of safety if something goes wrong. It all adds up to greater resilience and wellbeing for lots of our workers, which is a tremendously valuable thing for everyone concerned.”

One NZ Satellite Terms: TXT in minutes on eligible phones and plans. TXT only and needs line of sight to the sky. Terms, fair use and capacity control apply. See one.nz/satellite