Championing better broadband for New Zealand 2020 / ISSUE 12

Opportunity Knocks Chorus CEO JB Rousselot on the challenges and possibilities facing the business.

HYPERFIBRE SAMKNOWS REMOTE WORKING BROUGHT TO YOU BY Next generation Measuring The network broadband performance is ready Contents 2020 / ISSUE 12

12 SamKnows Measuring broadband performance

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HYPERFIBRE Auckland film production house Augusto pioneers the fastest broadband 16 Working from home The network is ready 18 Fibre comes to Kerikeri The second stage of UFB puts smaller towns on the digital map 19 Legal streaming services If you know where to look, a treasure trove of online entertainment awaits 24 2degrees COVER STORY Pushes into business New Chorus CEO JB Rousselot says one of his first priorities will be to win over customers who have yet to choose fibre 28 Behind the ONT 8 All about Optical Network Terminals REGULARS

1 Editorial Crossing the fibre chasm 31 ? 2 PARENTING In Brief As a new parent Nick New Zealanders lead Devoy found relief at the world on digital the end of a 1000Mbps entertainment, schools connection get Wi-Fi upgrade

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Editor Bill Bennett Chorus Editorial Consultants Ian Bonnar, Steve Pettigrew, Holly Cushen Contributors Bill Bennett, Johanna Egar, Heather Wright, Mauricio Freitas and Crossing the Nick Devoy. Senior Account Director LauraGrace McFarland Designers Nick Walker, Alexis Jordan, Julian Pettitt fibre chasm Account Executive Paige Fleming On the cover Photograph by Robin Hodgkinson At the end of 2019, 56 percent of people who clear pay-offs from a technology investment. could connect to fibre broadband had chosen They are the customers that lock a technology to do so. That leaves 44 percent yet to make into the mainstream. the switch. The fourth group are reluctant adopters. They Published by ICG PO Box 77027, Mt Albert Getting them to switch is a classic example buy mature, proven technologies if sellers can Auckland 1350, New Zealand of what Geoffrey Moore calls Crossing the make a sensible case. They look for keen pricing. www.icg.co.nz Chasm. That’s the name of his 1991 book. It is The last group, laggards, is small and ISSN 2624-1137 (Print) ISSN 2624-1145 (Online) still used as an important contains those who may reference by technology never adopt a technology. sales executives. There are companies that Moore’s idea starts still don’t use email. There The Download is championed by It can also be Chorus with something called are people who will never PO Box 632, Wellington 6140 the Product Adoption because it gives connect to fibre. www.chorus.co.nz Lifecycle. This describes them prestige. This Moore says for a The contents of The Download how technology buyers technology to succeed it are protected by copyright. Please fall into five groups. They is where Hyperfibre must cross the chasm from feel free to use the information in this issue of The Download, with range along a spectrum. (super-fast) the first two phases and attribution to The Download by In 1991, Moore was enter the third. It’s a huge Chorus Limited. Opinions expressed broadband in The Download are not necessarily writing about companies leap that many technologies those of the publisher or the editor. and business technology. fits today don’t make. Information contained in The The same lifecycle Fibre broadband is at Download is correct at the time of printing and while all due care applies to consumers and this point today. Most and diligence has been taken in the products like laptops or iPhones. It also applies to early majority homes are already enjoying preparation of this magazine, the publisher is not responsible for any fibre broadband. fast broadband. The clear pay-off is enjoying mistakes, omissions, typographical The first group of buyers are early adopters. streaming TV, gaming, music and other digital errors or changes to product and They feel they must have the latest technology. entertainment. This is the group that pushed service descriptions over time. They may want it because they get a fibre into the mainstream. competitive advantage or it enables something Spark Sport dragged the first reluctant they need. It can also be because it gives them adopters across the chasm with the Rugby World prestige. This is where Hyperfibre (super-fast) Cup coverage. Fibre is now a mature, proven broadband fits today. product. This group is being lured by competitive Next up are visionary customers. They also pricing and deals. look for competitive advantage. In business they If Moore’s 30-year old prediction is right this may want to control costs. They accept immature will take us to an 85 percent-plus fibre adoption Connect with us Facebook.com/ChorusNZ support and absorb technology risk. rate. Not bad for something the planners thought Twitter/ChorusNZ Both early adopters and visionaries are happy would reach 20 percent. Chorus NZ Limited on LinkedIn to pay a premium. Group three is what Moore calls the early www.thedownload.co.nz majority or pragmatic customers. They look for Bill Bennett

2020 / Issue 12 2

In brief

Broadband kids less grumpy on rainy days Children are using the internet more when not at school, with traffic up a whopping 36 percent. Yet when the sun shines they still play outside. Chorus’ latest broadband usage data reveals big changes in data use when school children are home on holiday. “When they are at school there is a clear peak at 4pm when they come home, but when they are on holiday internet use is more consistent throughout the day, with the biggest difference at 10am, when it is nearly 30 percent higher,” says Kurt Rodgers, Chorus’ network strategy manager. “Our figures show a 36 percent increase in data consumption compared with January 2019 – equivalent to over a 100 million hours of video streaming in HD quality. But we can clearly see that when the sun is out usage drops. It’s good to know kids still like to play outside too.” He adds that fast broadband also means less grumpy kids as there are no more complaints about slow internet.

CHORUS PROVIDING RURAL MOBILE BACKHAUL New Caledonia Chorus is providing backhaul for the 400 new mobile sites being built gets Hawaiki link by the Rural Connectivity Group (RCG) as part of the Rural Broadband Initiative 2 (RBI2). New Caledonia’s new telecoms carrier, SCCI, High-quality mobile telecoms are and New Zealand-based undersea cable important to rural areas, says Chorus’ carrier, Hawaiki Cable, are to provide the island chief customer officer, Ed Hyde. And nation with a faster, cheaper trans-Pacific link fibre broadband is equally important in to the US, Australia and New Zealand. The rolling out mobile infrastructure. extension of Hawaiki’s 15,000km undersea Backhaul moves data from local cable will see both the capital, Noumea, and nodes to a central hub. RCG says the resort island, the Isle of Pines, connected. it is a critical part of the RBI2 roll- It will be New Caledonia’s second undersea out. Working with Chorus to deliver link. It will bring us broadband connectivity broadband along with backhaul services says Isle of Pines High Chief Hilarion is key in getting the 400-plus sites in the Vendégou. Local tribes named the cable. It programme up and running, says RCG’s is called Tomoo – a local language word – the executive programme director, John Proctor. name for the indigenous sea snake regarded as Chorus will provide backhaul to those sites in reach of fibre. Backhaul a legendary island protector. services will also be available to other network builders.

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Digital entertainment high on NZers’ list New Zealanders are world leaders in their we were twice as likely to use fibre as the audio streaming service adoption show that use of fibre broadband – especially when rest of the world, with 44 percent of us we greatly value our digital entertainment it comes to entertainment, says Richard now getting our internet through a fibre experiences,” says Xu. Xu, IDC associate market analyst. This has connection. Only the Japanese, at 45 Last year’s streaming of the Rugby World resulted in “strong year-on-year growth in percent, make more use of fibre than us. Cup by Spark Sport helped give fibre use adoption rates”, he says. The Australian rate is just 10 percent, a big boost – it jumped from 33 percent The IDC analyst was commenting on while the UK’s is 21 percent and the US’ 14 uptake in 2018 to today’s 44 percent. IDC’s last ConsumerScape 369 survey into percent. The worldwide rate is 22 percent. Our high fibre broadband adoption rate fibre broadband use. The survey found “Our high levels of smart TV, video and reflects the success of the UFB build, says IDC.

SCHOOLS’ WIRELESS INTERNET GETS BIG BOOST No more drop-outs. Network for Learning (N4L) is upgrading wireless networks in schools nationwide. This mean schools like Awakeri rural primary school, west of Whakatāne, can now focus on students’ online learning without worrying about its internet failing. “We live in a connected world and there are great learning opportunities available through the internet,” says Awakeri Principal Craig McDonald-Brown. His teachers and students had been fighting frustration over their unreliable internet service. The school is one of the first N4L has upgraded under its Te Mana Tūhono (Power of Connectivity) program. This kicked off in February. When complete it will see 12,000 switches and 38,000 wireless access points replaced in more than 2450 schools. N4L will manage their internet service for them. N4L CEO Larrie Moore says: "IT skills vary across schools. Schools need better, more trustworthy classroom internet access for their students’ online learning." Around 200 schools will get their equipment upgrade by June. The first group are those with limited IT support or ageing equipment. N4L will upgrade the rest over the next four years. Local IT companies are helping N4L deliver the Te Mana Tūhono program progressively across the country. If a school’s wireless internet equipment fails before its upgrade turn comes, N4L will step in and upgrade its equipment straightaway.

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Spark adds American Football to line-up Spark Sport has added American Football to its line-up and is screening the remaining games of the 2019/20 season on Mondays. American Football is one of the most watched sports in the world, says Jeff Latch, head of Spark Sport. It is also becoming more popular in New Zealand as more Kiwis take up the sport and more Americans move here.

Fibre overtakes copper The Commerce Commission’s Elsewhere in the report it STREAMING SHAKE Annual Telecommunications notes New Zealand’s mobile Monitoring Report says fibre plans remain competitive by UP AS SKY BUYS overtook copper as New Zealand’s international standards. connection technology in the year Gale says; “New Zealand’s LIGHTBOX to September 2019. mobile plan prices are below the Spark has sold Lightbox to Sky TV. The pay TV By the end of September OECD average for all plan types company says it plans to roll Lightbox into Neon, its 880,000 premises were we measure. For instance, a online television and movie subscription service. connected to the fibre network. medium use plan of 100 calls and The sale also marks an increase in the stakes There were 581,000 copper 2GB of data costs $28—24 percent between entertainment providers. Neon is already connections. Fibre connections below the international average”. comparable to Netflix and comes at a comparable were up 31 percent on the year The Commerce Commission earlier. Copper connections were also looks at telco market share. price. Currently, this is $20 per month for Neon’s down 23 percent. It notes smaller companies are watch-on-two-devices subscription service Fixed wireless broadband growing their share of fixed compared with $17 per month for Netflix’s two- connections also climbed during broadband at the expense of the device plan. Both include TV and movies. the year. In September 2019 fixed big names. For the present, Spark’s Lightbox customers wireless was up 14 percent; a total He says; “Increased competition will continue to receive their service as normal. of 188,000 connections. in the market is good for The merged service will be launched mid-year. Telecommunications consumers. In the past year we’ve Perhaps the biggest bonus for viewers of the Commissioner Dr Stephen seen encouraging signs with small newly merged service will be access to the HBO Gale says; “New Zealanders are retailers like MyRepublic and Stuff material Neon boasts. This will likely include increasingly moving to the fibre Fibre growing their market shares. broadband network. This trend is Overall, smaller retailers’ market Game of Thrones, Outlander, popular-again set to continue with nearly three- share grew from 8 percent to 11 Mafia series The Sopranos, films likeBohemian quarter of a million homes and percent in 2019, with customers Rhapsody, and the rated HBO/BBC series His businesses yet to switch in areas largely being wooed over from Dark Materials. where fibre is available”. Spark and Vodafone.”

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Vodafone sponsors e-sports schools’ league Vodafone New Zealand is sponsoring Let’s – the latter uses a mobile app. The free Games are broadcast on Twitch, the online Play Live’s High School League for 2020. inter-school competition gives students games service. The league sees students in New competitive experience. It also builds Vodafone has a two-year partnership Zealand and Australia compete for two leadership skills and develops critical deal with Auckland-based LPL, a leading e-sports titles, Dota 2 and Clash Royale thinking, says LPL director, Duane Mutu. e-sports tournament company.

THIRD OF NZ COMPANIES HACKED Increasing numbers of New Zealand companies are being hacked, with online attacks up 10 percent on last year, according to an Aura Information Security survey. The survey found a third of New Zealand businesses suffered an online attack during the past year. Aura polled 360 companies, big and small, across the country to draw its conclusions. Aura general manager Peter Bailey says 42 percent of respondents said they expected to be hacked this year. And when it comes to ransom demands, while 40 percent said they wouldn’t pay up, 20 percent would pay. Online security is only as strong as its weakest link, he says. And with most organisations having poor password practices, “we’re not off to a great start”.

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West Coast gets broadband boost Three West Coast digital hubs are being set up with the aid of $1.2 million in funding from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF). Development West Coast gets an $800,000 injection to create a Grey District Regional Hub and a second Outreach Hub. A further $400,000 is being spent on a Buller District Hub, which is being developed by EPIC Westport Ltd. “Digital connectivity is critical to driving innovation and creating a sense of community and connectivity,” said Fletcher Tabuteau, under- secretary for regional economic development, announcing the $1.2 million funding initiative. MARAE CONNECTING FAST – 70 HAVE UFB NOW Two important marae, Waitangi and Rātana Pā, near Whanganui, now have Ultra-Fast Broadband thanks to Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. More than 70 marae now have broadband, says Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones. The PGF’s $21 million Marae Digital Connectivity Programme has been embraced by rural communities keen to enjoy the kind of fast, reliable broadband urban users can increasingly take for granted. The Minister says that every week more marae join up, keen to get online, and there are now 200-plus on the BY THE waiting list. NUMBERS Rātana Pā – home of the Māori Rātana Church – and Waitangi’s lower marae, Te Tii Marae, are the most important marae to be connected. The Minister called Te Tii Marae an “incredibly significant place”. He also 303 GB said he was delighted that Rātana Pā was connected AVERAGE MONTHLY DATA USAGE before the January 25 birthday celebrations for its ON CHORUS’ FIBRE founder, Tahupotiki Wiremu Rātana. Marae are hubs for whanau and iwi, and important to many rural communities, says the Minister. “Marae Fibre now makes up are often the centre of small communities and being digitally connected cannot be overstated. 56 PERCENT “Many rural areas have very slow or no internet, a of all of Chorus’ tool vital in today’s world of education, business and broadband connections community wellbeing. “It's essential that our regions have good infrastructure; from roads, bridges and rail to fast, reliable internet. This is exactly what the PGF is about.” 148 MBPS AVERAGE CONNECTION SPEED ON THE CHORUS NETWORK

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E-sports broadcaster teams with Stuff Stuff has partnered with e-sports broadcaster Let’s Play Live (LPL) to stream its online games and shows on Stuff and Play Stuff. The online gaming company has a studio in Auckland and also operates in Australia. It reaches thousands of players every month. Players use LPL for multi-player battle arena games, online racing and more. The Stuff partnership allows LPL to reach a bigger audience, says LPL director Duane Mutu. New Zealand has an estimated one million e-sports gamers. Its Dirty Gaming and Night Squad gaming shows now feature on Stuff alongside other Stuff partners’ content – these include the BBC and NZ On Screen. LPL and Stuff also recently teamed with the Heart Foundation to livestream a 90-minute game in support of the foundation’s annual appeal.

GAME ON FOR EXPORTS – NOW $200M Interactive game exports have doubled in the last two years and have now topped $200 million. Nearly all the earnings from our games development industry – 96 percent – come from overseas. In 2017, the industry earned $99.9 million, in the 2019 financial year that had reached $203.4 million. The figures come from the industry’s body, the New Zealand Game Developers Industry, which conducts an annual survey. The latest canvassed 39 interactive, gaming, virtual and augmented reality and edtech companies. The country’s 10 largest studios earned most of the revenue – 93 percent. They also employ 77 percent of the industry’s workers and are now 10 years old on average. The survey confirms the industry body’s 39 percent average annual growth projection, which should see the games industry become a billion-dollar one by 2025. Game successes include NinjaKiwi’s Bloons TD6, which has topped Apple’s paid games chart, and Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile – the latter is one of the top 10 PC games in the world. The industry is also a job success story, with the companies surveyed adding 133 new jobs this year. And the jobs are for artists as well as programmers – 29 percent. However, skills shortages have intensified – limiting business growth – and women and non-binary people make up only 21 percent of employees.

2020 / Issue 12 8 The Download | JB Rousselot

Taking data further JB Rousselot sees new opportunities JB Rousselot took over the Chorus CEO reins as the first stage of the UFB network completed. The UFB2 and 2+ project is due to complete at the end of 2022. The company is moving from building infrastructure to operating a network. It is a time of change. Rousselot says one of his first priorities is winning customers who have yet to take up fibre

horus was on JB Rousselot’s radar copper pricing, as having put the company to a great public-private funding model. The a decade ago. When Australia on the right trajectory. country and investors made an investment in Cwas establishing its own fast He says: “It shook the organisation to the the technology; it’s ready to go.” broadband project, he joined NBN Chair core. The regulations meant Chorus had to Ziggy Switkowski on a fact-finding mission learn fast how to operate super-efficiently EASY SWITCH to New Zealand. Since then he has kept and keep costs low. That’s a culture that Part of getting people to switch to fibre is watch on the company’s progress with the has remained with the company. Along the to make the process as easy as possible. UFB network. way it has become innovative about finding Rousselot says there are people who have He says; “I think this country got it right ever more cost-effective ways to build a been able to place an order for years now; in terms of their structural separation fibre network”. “They just haven’t found the justification to and policy framework around it. There Now the first stage of that network is do it. They may not know the installation is are very big differences between how it's complete. At the end of last year 56 percent free. They may not know how much it has been set up here and how it's been set of homes with fibre network access had improved over the years. We need to get up in Australia.” He says New Zealand taken up a service. That’s far more than these messages to them. Once they discover was correct to keep the copper network anyone expected when the network was how good fibre is, they won’t go back”. assets in Chorus. Another area where he first planned. Yet Rousselot is certain there The potential external challenge says New Zealand has done better than is more to come. for Chorus comes from fixed wireless Australia is the bipartisan consensus which He says; “A 56 percent uptake means that broadband. Spark and Vodafone talk of kept politics out of fibre. 44 percent of people still haven’t placed ramping up their wireless offerings with the A more subtle observation is that he their order. This is a great opportunity for us. arrival of 5G mobile technology. sees Chorus’ tough early experience, with What we need to do is to convince people to Rousselot is more than ready to deal the regulatory regime wrangling over climb aboard. The network is there thanks with the threat. In his last role he was PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBIN HODGKINSON ROBIN BY PHOTOGRAPH

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chief strategy officer at NBN, Australia’s There has been discussion about Rousselot gives two examples. He government-owned broadband company. Chorus and the other fibre companies says that when the UK introduced new He says; “Because NBN was running part becoming utilities like those that deliver privacy legislation, the networks saw of its network on fixed wireless, we know water and electricity to homes and a drop in traffic. He says: “It was in the how hard it is to deliver very reliable, businesses. The regulatory settings are background, not obvious.” Likewise, there uncongested, unlimited fixed connectivity, moving in that direction. Yet Rousselot was a noticeable change when Netflix home connectivity, using that technology. says there is no other utility where the introduced a new coding algorithm. It's not easy.” He says a fixed line, service being delivered changes at One of the tasks facing Chorus is to especially a fibre fixed line, is always going anything like the pace of broadband. communicate sophisticated messages to be cheaper and better. about complex technology matters to an CONNECTIVITY audience that may not always understand LOW LATENCY For him the service being delivered is not all the nuances. Rousselot gives Google That said, he acknowledges there is a so much bits and bytes as connectivity. He Stadia as an example. Stadia is an online place for 5G and wireless broadband. sees Chorus’ core business as becoming gaming service that does away with the “The great thing 5G does is that it allows more about providing customers with need for consoles and other specialist thousands of mobile devices to connect to better connectivity. One aspect of this may gaming hardware. It’s not yet available in the network. Think of how it will be used be for Chorus to take the data further into New Zealand but is expected to arrive in in the Internet of Things. people’s homes and business premises. the near future. “It also has low latency compared with He says: “How do we tell the story that 4G, so it will be great for driverless cars for Stadia to work, you need really low and applications like that. There is going “I keep a box of latency, and the only thing that's going to to be a lot more capacity created around give you that low latency is fibre?” 5G, but that extra capacity is going to be old hardware in my Stadia is an example of the kind of used best by applications that require attic, my ‘technology external innovation that continues to mobility,” he says. reshape the telecommunications sector. A key lesson Rousselot learnt working museum’. It’s full Innovation can come from inside the in telecommunications is the speed of of devices that I’ve industry too. Earlier this year Chorus technology change and how people’s introduced Hyperfibre, affordable fast behaviour reflects the change. He owned. Every once in broadband services that run at 2 or 4 says: “Remember the world before a while I turn them gigabits per second. Rousselot says he smartphones? Those were the days when I loved the idea of Hyperfibre the first time had to organise to meet my wife under the back on. It helps to he heard about it. clock at a certain time. We forget what that realise just how long Another area of innovation is where was like because things change so fast.” existing service providers add content With fibre, the pace of change is, if it used to take a PC to their offerings. Vodafone has its own anything, faster. Part of this growth is to boot up” branded TV service. 2degrees gives its fuelled by an increase in the number of customers a subscription to Amazon domestic devices that consume data. He says: “We need to ask questions Prime. Spark added television style He says: “You know, when you think like: how do we make Wi-Fi work better content with Lightbox, which it has since about how quickly people consume more in the home? We need to get a better sold to Sky TV. More recently it has made and more data and what they do with understanding of the applications that run a bigger content investment with Spark it in their home, it is the equivalent of on our network. That way we can improve Sport and its streaming Rugby World suddenly people going from hand washing our services to better meet customer needs. Cup coverage as well as English Premier to having a dishwasher, to having ten “When Netflix launched in Australia, League Football. dishwashers and then to refilling their we suddenly saw a change in the amount swimming pool every month. of data used and the time of day at which CONTENT “Data use is growing year on year. the data was used. Even after a couple of Rousselot has worked on the added If something grows 25 percent a year, months the change was dramatic. I’m sure content side of the fence when he was in it almost doubles every three years. it was the same in New Zealand.” Australia and knows where the pitfalls That’s where we are with data. I read in Gathering more information about lie. “We were streaming the Melbourne November that, on average, people will what goes on with data flowing into homes Cup in Australia. People wait until the be using a terabyte by 2023. If we stick and businesses is a key part of providing last moment to sign up for the service. with the water analogy, the connection to customers with better connectivity. Many of Then suddenly what crashes is not your your house would have gone from being the events affecting the customer experience streaming server, but it's the authentication a hose to a pipe that’s 50 centimetres are external to the telecommunications that you've put in front because everybody in diameter.” sector or beyond its control. wants to authenticate at the last moment.”

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20 YEARS IN TELCO Rousselot started his career as a civil engineer. He graduated in his native France and spent his early years working with a hard hat on his head. Engineering took him to places such as Egypt and Taiwan. From there he moved into consulting for an American company after studying for his MBA at MIT. IMAGE TO BE SUPPLIED Then he worked for another American company: Disney. At the time Disney was establishing its European operation in Paris. His next step was in investment banking, a role that took him to Australia. Working in venture capital saw him move close to the telecommunications sector. He has now spent a total of 20 He says that side of the project worked better experience, they get it. That's not years in the sector. This includes well for Spark Sport in the run up to the a conversation that you can have with 16 years in what he describes as Rugby World Cup. Most of the problems everyday Kiwi mums and dads. They'll ‘hard core telco’, that’s 10 years that caused bad publicity for the company see the benefit of it, but they don’t want at Telstra and, more recently, six was to do with things that were beyond to know how it is built and delivered. All years with NBN. Spark Sport’s control. “Some people were they want is for it to work”, he says. These days he restricts his still running off old Wi-Fi or an old laptop engineering activity to leisure that was unable to cope with that type of BETTER AND FASTER time, in Sydney he rewired the streaming. But overall it was incredible.” He says: “It's amazing how we haven't HFC network in his home. Yet Yet for him, media remains an add-on really noticed our internet getting better he says the skills he learned still for telecommunications companies. He and faster. It just happened. We didn't inform his work. says: “It’s not the core business. You might register that it is a lot faster, although we “I do like to get my hands on do it because it supports the core business. did register that it had not slowed, which tools once in a while, but I try not In Australia we saw telcos run media as is not the same thing. And we can do new to do it in the work environment. part of the business, then establish stand- things on it. And I love being in the field. alone operations. Spark is going through “I keep a box of old hardware in my Because that's where you get the same thing now. In Australia the attic, my ‘technology museum’. It’s full the real stuff. I love opening pits, content is bundled as part of the service, of devices that I’ve owned. Every once discovering how we do things here it is an add-on”. in a while I turn them back on. It helps to here and so on”, he says. The user experience is an essential part realise just how long it used to take a PC Having a background in of making this kind of consumer service to boot up. Even four years ago that was engineering also means an succeed. That is where Chorus has a role normal, yet if you look at it now you think affinity with numbers. He says: to play. Much of the innovation happening there is no way I can tolerate this”. “I like numbers. Once in a while in the fibre market involves services or The customer experience continues to I will do my own little half-hour technologies that the consumer may not improve. Most of the time we don’t notice deep dive on numbers. Because see directly, but they see the benefits. that it continually creeps up. We learn to if I do the calculation myself, Rousselot says it is different with accept this as normal. But this has been the numbers stick in my mind a businesses. “When we explain to an a downside for the industry. It makes it lot better than if somebody else over the top provider that we can take harder for technology companies to justify does them for me.” their content at the very edge of our price increases even though people are network and give their consumer a getting more.

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wants to know more When consumers have a greater handle on broadband performance they can make better choices. The Commerce Commission wants this data so it can check service providers are delivering on their promises. Sam Crawford – the Sam behind SamKnows – explains the broadband measuring role his company plays to Bill Bennett

any organisations monitor New UK-based company to run its Measuring “We have government clients in Canada, Zealand broadband speeds. Broadband New Zealand programme. the UK, parts of Europe, Hong Kong, MThey get data in different ways. SamKnows measures the performance of Singapore and Saudi Arabia, as well as Google, Akamai (the content delivery service providers, broadband plans and New Zealand and Australia. We tend to network services’ provider) and even communications technologies. It provides work with a couple of ISPs in each market. Netflix produce reports based on the regular performance reports that are posted Sometimes more than a couple. The vast activity they see on their servers. Speed for all to see on the Measuring Broadband majority of ISPs in the US are customers.” test company Ookla produces an aggregate New Zealand website. Crawford says SamKnows researched the number based on data collected by its SamKnows works with many market before coming to New Zealand, so it ‘speedtest’ website. telecommunications regulators around the knew what to expect. Even so, he says, one While these numbers have their uses, world. Customers include Ofcom in the UK thing jumped out in front of him when the they don’t provide a rigorous, timely and the Australian Communications and company started collecting New Zealand and independent report of line speeds. Media Authority. SamKnows CEO Sam lines’ data. Consumers, businesses and the regulator Crawford refers to this as the company’s “I was very impressed by the headline would find it hard to use that data to prove “government work”. He says SamKnows access speeds. There are plenty of people New Zealanders are, or are not, getting the also works with telcos and ISPs (Internet in New Zealand running at 1Gbps. It seems services they are paying for. Service Providers). The split between commonplace. Your nearest neighbours, Enter SamKnows. In 2018, the government and commercial work is the Australians, are typically running at Commerce Commission appointed the roughly 50:50. one tenth of your speeds.

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“In general, access speeds are very Providers). We don’t always have a good, in part because there has been fibre sophisticated enough statistical sample to penetration for some time now. After report on all of them. We can’t report the THE I visited New Zealand, I realised how data on a company in good faith if we only impressive it was reaching that level of have one or two of their users.” SAMKNOWS penetration, although I understand there A medium-sized New Zealand service STORY are rural areas that are not served.” provider might have 15,000 to 20,000 Sam Crawford started his business customers on its fibre plans. Crawford says 10 years ago. Not long before, LOCAL TRAFFIC ROUTED OVERSEAS that isn’t a lot when you are trying to recruit BT announced a programme to One issue that emerged from the early data people to install the measuring hardware. roll out broadband in the UK. SamKnows collected was a connectivity or “You need maybe a couple of hundred This was done on a demand peering problem with one of the ISPs. people to get the data. It might only be point basis. If enough people in an He says: “As a result, a lot of traffic five percent of the company’s customer base. area wanted the service, BT was going overseas before returning to But getting to recruit one in a thousand or would build it there. Auckland or Wellington. This looks very even one in a couple of hundred is a tall ask.” Crawford got involved in strange coming from Europe where this This becomes more of an issue when it collecting names in his area and kind of thing simply would not happen. comes to breaking down customers into developed tools for automating Peering inconsistencies seem alien. We different technologies or plan speeds. the registration process. He used [Europe] are a small, densely connected This is why Crawford is keen to recruit a website name given to him as market and everyone just peers openly with more volunteers. He says that he’d a gift: SamKnows. one another, and it’s at a low cost. like to, say, compare the broadband He was involved in tracking performance of Spark customers using the availability and roll out of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber fast broadband services. As this Line) in rural parts of the North Island happened, services emerged with customers using the same service "I was very impressed offering ‘free’ broadband, elsewhere. (ADSL is the slower broadband the catch was there were no by the headline access service delivered through the standard guarantees about the service copper telecoms network.) speeds. There are quality. ISPs were using traffic He says: “If we don’t meet our minimum shaping and customers were plenty of people in sample size, we can’t do it. The guide size naive about the market. is 45 users for every strand that we want New Zealand running Crawford started measuring to report on. If, say, we don’t have 45 users performance using the first at 1Gbps. It seems on Spark ADSL in rural parts of the North prototype of the device that commonplace" Island we can’t report. Forty-three users is evolved into today’s white not good enough.” box. He had limited resources Crawford says this can get frustrating, but contacted the UK “I can’t thing of the last time we had a but he says that it is important SamKnows’ telecommunications regulator situation in the UK where, as a matter of reports are reliable and defensible. “We to see if there was any interest in policy, traffic was routed to the US before don’t want to end up in a shouting match the project. There was. coming back. We have seen it in Singapore with any of the ISPs, but, if we do, we Today, SamKnows has about and in parts of Australia.” want to make sure we’re on the right side 40 employees. Most are based He says another surprise was the of the argument. in London. Crawford says two- Commerce Commission’s openness to “We’d love to break out numbers thirds of the employees work on innovation. “They were good and inventive for HFC (Hybrid Fibre Coaxial cable). the technical side of the business. with some of their advertising to get people We’d also like to break out fixed wireless They might be hardware to sign up as volunteer panellists. We’ve not broadband by Skinny, Vodafone and so on, engineers, C++ programmers, worked with any other regulators who have but, frankly, we need more samples to do mobile or web developers. There done things like that.” that. (HFC technology combines optical are support staff and people Panellists are the volunteers who fibre and coaxial cable.) who look after infrastructure and attach a SamKnows white box to their “We’re on a recruitment drive ahead support systems. The other third home or business broadband line. The of the next report and we are trying to of SamKnows’ employees are aim is to get 3000 volunteers and the reach as many people as possible. There’s account managers along with a company is still recruiting. a huge stock of white boxes waiting to go couple of sales staff. Crawford says: “We have people on out; we need people to sign up and say a whole variety of RSPs (Retail Service they are interested.”

2020 / Issue 12 14

Pioneers shift terabytes in minutes

yperfibre is the next generation of of data and we might shoot for two days The inhibitors to that are technology, time, Ultra-Fast Broadband. It moves on a high-end commercial – and that’s location and a lot of those technical details Hdata much faster than the current just the footage. Then there are visual that get in the way of you doing your job. top-line gigabit per second (1Gbps) service. effects sequences we need to send to post- The more you can remove them, the more In tests, Chorus, which developed production FX [special effects] houses or you open yourselves up to new clients and Hyperfibre, trialled speeds of up to 8Gbps. overseas. These files can be 10, 20 or even to offering a better service.” For now, its wholesale offerings are a more 100s of Gigs. Then they need to send us Augusto’s wings are still clipped by the modest 2Gbps and 4Gbps. That’s more than proofs and then the finals. This back-and- fact that New Zealand is part of a select enough to make a difference for companies forth happens several times over.” super-fibre club. Only about seven countries handling big files. Segedin says good workflow is critical currently have Hyperfibre-like services and One of these companies is Auckland film to the company doing good work. “We try the US (where Augusto has an office, in New and video production company Augusto. It to be as creative as possible for our clients. York) isn’t one of them. But Segedin sees started trialling Hyperfibre in December. having Hyperfibre now as future proofing Augusto has seen the time taken to for when it is more widely available. download a terabyte of data fall from 12 Augusto has several international clients, hours to 18 minutes. As managing director including Germany’s Adidas and New York Aimee McCammon says – “that’s the time basketball team the Brooklyn Nets. At home it takes the film editor to make a coffee it works with Tourism New Zealand. and come back.” “We’ve stopped talking about speed. SYMMETRICAL TECHNOLOGY We now talk about how much time we Hyperfibre uses the XGS-Pon technology. save. We move heaps of data around. In This is a data network standard that allows the old days – the bad old days – we’d send users to send data over the internet at hard drives on planes with people carrying speeds of up to 10Gbps. Right now, 8Gbps those drives.” is more realistic. Mariano Segedin, the company’s head As well as being fast, the technology of post-production, says it’s all about is symmetrical. This means upload and optimising workflow. download speeds are the same. It is, in effect, “We design our workflow to work best next generation Ultra-Fast Broadband. for us. Being able to move data across pipes Orcon is the first telecoms retailer to rather than physically is much better for sell Hyperfibre. Its 4Gbps service costs scheduling. A day shoot could be a terabyte $200 a month. Installation is simple,

thedownload.co.nz The Download | HyperFibre 15

says Chorus. The technology uses the Lord of the Rings movies. More recently, it with the building, will be modelled in a UFB network already serving many New worked on the new-style Thunderbirds Are software tool held in the cloud. Zealand homes and businesses. All that’s Go television series. “A dozen different companies all need needed is for a technician to install a Chorus’ network strategy manager, to access that same repository of data, so new generation ONT (Optical Network Kurt Rodgers, sees several industries there is only one version of the truth. They Terminal). For more on this see page 28. needing super-fast fibre. They range from work on different aspects of the one project the creative industries, like Augusto, to file, everyone from architects, to civil HYPERFIBRE ROLL OUT software developers, architects and the engineers, to quantity surveyors to interior Hyperfibre was first run out to Queenstown, construction industry. designers. And they need fast access. It’s in February, and then Wellington, in March. He cites an Auckland software developer not good enough any more to put files on Chorus will gradually roll it out to the rest of whose speciality is developing factory discs and courier them around. You’ve got country over the coming months. The roll automation software for the US market. to work in real time.” out should be complete in September. “He works from home and his work Rodgers sees more and more people Some Auckland companies with heavy generates huge files that he needs to send and businesses getting on board with file transportation needs – like Augusto – to his US client,” says Rodgers. Hyperfibre and it eventually becoming a have been trialling the technology Chorus’ initial focus was on the creative mass market service. since December. industries because of their need to shift “We started building the fibre network 10 Queenstown and some Wellington massive video files around. Putting years ago and it’s been a fantastic success. suburbs got Hyperfibre first because they someone on a plane with a hard drive is A lot of people are now on a 100Mbps plan have the greatest need. Many films are clearly not a very productive option. and gigabit plans are now the fastest growing shot in Queenstown, including The Lord of Rodgers sees architects as becoming big – up to around 13 percent. Hyperfibre is the Rings. Jane Campion’s latest, a Netflix users as most now use cloud-based building going to be for high-end users at first, but Western drama – The Power of the Dog – is information management systems. 10 years ago we thought 100Mbps was. being partly filmed there now. He describes how “on a big building “Gigabit is going to become entry level, Wellington suburb Miramar got project there will be a dozen different and Hyperfibre will become mass market Hyperfibre early, in March. It is home to professions involved, and all the planning because digital is becoming embedded in Weta Workshop, which helped create The and design, and every single thing to do everything people do.”

2020 / Issue 12 Working from home: the network is ready Investments made to prepare for last year’s Rugby World Cup mean the fibre broadband network is able to cope with the demands of people working from home, self-isolating and distancing themselves socially, reports Bill Bennett

orkers logging on remotely, along of 3.5Tbps. That means our network can traffic could triple or climb even more with students sent home from handle a 50 percent increase in traffic from than that and there would be plenty of Wschool, mean an unprecedented today’s peak level without any concern.” headroom for the network to support it.” surge in network traffic. Yet Chorus network The run-up to the 2019 Rugby World Cup strategy manager Kurt Rodgers is relaxed saw Chorus and other telecommunications RELAXING EATS UP DATA about the prospect of New Zealanders companies bring forward network upgrade The main source of data use on the fibre consuming more data than ever before. He investments by 18 to 24 months. They knew network comes when people relax. In says the Chorus fibre network is more than there would be increased demand and the evening that means Netflix and other up to coping with increased demand. prepared for it. streaming video services. There are also It turns out that the work put in a year In normal times, day-time network peaks when a brand-new game first arrives ago to prepare for Rugby World Cup traffic traffic is far lower than during the evening. and gamers all download the software at surges means our fixed telecommunications Rodgers says that at noon on a typical work the same time. networks are more than ready. day there is around a gigabit of traffic. If Rodgers says: “We see large traffic surges Rodgers says: “The typical peak traffic large numbers of New Zealanders work on our network at exactly four o’clock every load on our network at the moment is from home, any extra demand is not going day of the week. That’s because kids are around 2.3Tbps. Our network peaks at to cause a problem. coming home from school and streaming around about 9pm in the evening. The He says: “Even if lots of people work video or playing games.” capacity we put in place for last year’s from home and the school kids are all This means day-time traffic is likely to Rugby World Cup easily handles peaks there, we have plenty of capacity. The be higher than in the past if people working

thedownload.co.nz The Download | Working from home 17

at home take a break and start streaming Netflix during the day. Rodgers anticipates this, along with 'Fibre broadband is other behavioural changes will alter the the best technology current data use patterns. He says: “It will happen as more and more for working from social events are cancelled due to Covid-19: home. It is more than rugby matches; pubs and restaurants closing, things like that. We might expect to fast enough for every find many more people at home during the business application, evenings and that means there will be more including video- streaming. That will probably be where we will see the biggest increase.” conferencing' In the past, a huge surge in data demand might have put pressure on the submarine uncapped plans. This means workers networks connecting New Zealand to the won’t find themselves cut off before the WHEN rest of the world. This is less of an issue end of the month. now. Rodgers says that at least three- Four out of five homes are on the WE FIRST quarters of data consumed in the country fibre broadband network. At the time WORKED is now served from caches and content of writing, a little over half of New delivery networks. Zealanders who could take up a fibre FROM He says: “This covers most of the things connection had done so. that you do, whether it’s Google, Facebook, Rodgers says company managers and HOME Netflix, all the normal big-use cases. I don’t small business owners should check In 1998, power was cut off think there will be a big change in demand people intending to work from home have in central Auckland for five for international capacity.” a suitable connection technology and weeks. As many as 60,000 Fibre broadband is the best technology broadband plan. Likewise, he suggests people worked from home or for working from home. It is more than people planning to work remotely should from make-shift offices in the fast enough for every business application, check their connection is up to the job. After suburbs. It was the nation’s including video-conferencing. all, everyone wants to remain productive. first large-scale experience of More important, fibre connections are He asks: “If you are in business, are you telecommuting. predictable and reliable. Performance leaving it to chance that your employees have The technology was doesn’t vary depending on what people are fit for purpose broadband at home? What primitive by today’s standards. doing elsewhere. This means a connection happens if your staff have chosen to go with Fax machines were won’t suddenly drop out when someone is a fixed wireless account with a low data cap? commonplace. For many, in the middle of a task. Is that going to impinge on their ability to they were the main means of Another advantage of fibre when it work from home? What level of involvement communication. Phones were comes to working from home is that do you as an employer have on the type of not yet smart phones. service providers offer affordable broadband your staff have at home?” It was towards the end of the dial-up internet era, so data speeds topped out at should do the job, possibly the one 56kbps. Telecom New Zealand IS YOUR WI- your service provider gave you when introduced its Jetstream ADSL you signed up. Place it as centrally as (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber FI READY possible, not too near solid walls or Line) service a year later. other electrical equipment. Sending emails and text FOR REMOTE If you have a bigger home, or you was fine. Transmitting larger WORKING? have an office set up in a sleep-out or files, including photographs garage, upgrade to a wireless mesh and big PDFs was easier done For many home users, the Wi-Fi router system. A wireless mesh has a main with a memory stick and a is often the weakest link in the chain router and smaller nodes that it uses drive across town. Video- between them and their workplace to fill in blank spots. They cost a little conferencing wasn’t practical system, whether that be a company more than a standard router and are for most companies without server or somewhere in a cloud. a little more complicated to set up. ISDN (Integrated Subscriber You need something reliable that On the plus side, a wireless mesh will Digital Network) lines and even gives out a strong signal. If you have cover all your dead spots, so you can then it could be an ordeal. a small home, a single Wi-Fi router work anywhere.

2020 / Issue 12 18

100 Mbps EAVEN Kerikeri recently got fibre broadband and one data-hungry H business, Aerial Vision, has been transformed as a result. Another, 'Flashpackers' Hone Heke Lodge, is now enjoying a complaint-free life as its young guests skype, download photos and play online games with no drop outs. Johanna Egar reports

thedownload.co.nz The Download | UFB 2-Hicksville 19

Northland’s avocado bounty – aerial photograph of Pukenui’s Mapua Orchard taken by a drone equipped with precision GPS. The 205 hectare site was also mapped by drone

hen you’ve had to live with an internet tied up for days while it did an “atrocious” download speed upload”, he says. 'When you’ve had to Wof 1-2Mbps, going to a fibre McLelland, whose background is in broadband speed of 100Mbps is “hugely photography, also takes still photographs. live with an atrocious beneficial”, says Glenn McLelland. These used to take 45 minutes to upload; download speed of The owner of Kerikeri-based drone they now upload in just a minute. photography business Aerial Vision, “We can get jobs straight out there now,” 1-2 Mbps, going to McLelland has enjoyed fibre for six months he says. “It’s a fast turnaround.” a fibre broadband now and it has transformed his business. Fibre has removed Aerial Vision’s main He says the company was previously on workflow bottleneck. The smaller but still speed of 100Mbps is an ADSL connection that did a kilometre hefty 20GB data-sets produced by the hugely beneficial' loop before getting to its central Kerikeri aerial survey photographs and video the premises. The new 100Mbps connection company increasingly specialises in, can Glenn McLelland means the huge video files – 50 to 80GB, if now be uploaded quickly to processing THE OWNER OF AERIAL VISION using 4K video – that his drone cameras can services in the cloud for analysis. This can generate can now be uploaded in an hour. be done “without making our internet “It sometimes used to take days to connection unusable”, says McLelland. road construction and cycleway planning, upload them. If we did a big job, we had The company has done a lot of aerial as well as kiwifruit orchards and music to put everything on a hard drive and take mapping and has mapped areas from festival organisers all need this service. it up to Springbank School, which has as small as one hectare to 300 hectares. McLelland gives the example of a huge pine fibre, because we couldn’t have our whole Forestry companies, councils undertaking seedling nursery that is home to millions

2020 / Issue 12 20 The Download | UFB 2-Hicksville

of seedlings. Aerial mapping tells this huge supplier to the forest industry how many seedlings have actually sprouted – not all do. Other clients want their land surveyed aerially for a variety of reasons, particularly if they have recently bought some land, or are thinking of doing so. A drone camera can take a variety of measurements and now – because of fast broadband – “within an hour you can have a 3D map you can view online and have it colour- coded for land heights or whatever else you might want,” says McLelland. “These models are detailed and can be analysed in a number of ways depending on customers’ requirements – for example, extracting contour lines, calculating cut-fill volumes, determining slope and run-off.” Inevitably, given this is Kerikeri, HELPING YOUNG kiwifruit mapping is a regular job for Aerial Vision. It works with Zespri, ADVENTURERS FROM kiwifruit international marketer, to perform aerial audits of kiwifruit AROUND THE WORLD farms. These tell Zespri how much GO ONLINE canopy area each grower has and determines their golden kiwifruit Aerial Vision isn’t the only Kerikeri and a 10ms (millisecond) ping.” (Ping – licensing fee. (Canopy is the amount company experiencing big benefits response time – is important for online of fruit being grown – the plants’ leaves from fibre broadband. 'Flashpackers' gaming and anything under 20ms is form a canopy.) Hone Heke Lodge had fibre installed considered excellent.). Another client is the Police. “We in November. Although its needs were She isn’t sure what their internet once surveyed a crime scene to give not as pressing as Aerial Vision’s they speed was before the lodge had fibre them a top-down map without the were still real. broadband installed, but says they scene having to be disturbed,” says Co-owner of the luxury backpackers’ don't get people moaning about the McLelland. The company also took the lodge, Victoria Howells-Kennedy, says internet now. "That’s the main thing. photographs for the Police’s fire-arms online life used to be quite fraught. Our guests are happy. They can keep training manual. “That was quite a fun “Prior to this, we had constant internet in touch with their family; they can one as we got to chase around with drop-outs and slow speed. We even all skype at the same time. None of the cops while they did their bad guy put in two lines to try and alleviate it. the dropping in and dropping out we scenarios.” It still didn’t work.” used to have." Having fibre broadband makes Now, with fibre broadband installed, "It’s fantastic, especially because work so much easier that the company the lodge’s “young adventurers”, as our clients are so young and it’s their is now thinking about collaborating Howells-Kennedy calls them – their world, being on their phones and more with others. Previously, it was guests are mainly aged from 18 to the Internet. It’s been a really good hard to send raw video footage – the 24 – can much more easily keep in customer experience”, she says. files are very big – to another person or touch with their families using Skype. “And it’s good for our kids as well. company for editing help. McLelland They can also quickly download their Because we live on site, we have two says he would like to collaborate more photos, watch Netflix, use social lines, one for our guests and one for “with like-minded businesses at the media, keep their blogs up to date and ourselves", she says. Better internet top of their field.” play online games without getting means the couple’s 14-year-old twins, “Aerial Vision prides itself on frustrated by slow response times. who are both keen on online games, quality”, he says. “This is why we Howells-Kennedy gave a one-day now have much more fun playing are CAA certified”. The certification example of their internet speed now. their favourite, Minecraft. Latency, or means the New Zealand Civil Aviation “Yesterday, our typical speed was: response time, is now a respectable Authority (CAA) is satisfied the company download 21.6Mbps; upload 28Mbps, 12 milliseconds. has robust drone safety procedures.

thedownload.co.nz The Download | Legal Streaming Services 21

Keep it legal and still download video riches There is a treasure-house of legal movies and television available to New Zealanders. Mauricio Frietas, tech website Geekzone’s creator, has compiled a comprehensive list that proves you don’t have to pirate to enjoy the streaming video riches out there. He also discusses how best to access these treasures

Of all the things you can do with fast broadband, Fire TV stick, or streaming boxes like Apple TV and entertainment is one of the first that comes to mind. Vodafone TV. And nothing displays current online entertainment Although some services can be accessed however consumption trends better than Netflix and YouTube. you choose, not all can, so you will need to do your You see people streaming video content at home, at homework by going through the list on the next page work (yes, they are watching training videos), on the to find which services you would fancy – and how best bus, the train and on aircraft. to access them. And yet, despite the vast amount of content carried by these two services, people still want more – more AVAILABLE IN NZ NOW variety, more choice, better quality. What is special about this list of streaming services To help, we have compiled a list of services available is they are all available right now – and licensed to in New Zealand to show you that what isn’t missing in distribute their content in New Zealand. You don’t the world of online entertainment is choice. have to do anything fiddly like fire up a Virtual Private All the video categories are there – everything from Network (VPN) or modify your home network to use a documentaries to Japanese anime, to sports, movies third-party service, to bypass geo-blocking restrictions. and a variety of television series’. And there are Something else worth considering is your security. regional offerings too, including Indian, ChineseIMAGE and TO BE YouSUPPLIED can’t assume a streaming service has distribution New Zealand movies. There is something to satisfy rights just because it offers a movie and accepts a credit every appetite. card for payment. Some services are just pirate sites Some of these services are free access, while housed in a country with lax laws where the long arm others are monthly subscription-based and others of international law can’t reach the owners. In contrast, are supported by adverts. Some services are available the list below gives you a safe start. through apps on mobile devices. These allow you to Lastly, the market is constantly changing, with download movies and episodes of television series’ for new streaming services being launched and others offline viewing on smartphones and tablets. being consolidated. The recent acquisition of Spark’s Streaming services are also available for laptop and Lightbox by competitor Sky Television, in February, is PC viewing, via your web browser. Some can even be an example. viewed using the Freeview set-top box or on a smart TV. Some services will work with dongles (small For an up-to-date list, modems) like Google’s chromecast and Amazon’s check out: https://gkz1.co/StreamNZ

2020 / Issue 12 22 The biggest choice

It may not be obvious, but there is huge choice in movies, TV shows and more out there that is legal. And – as our list shows – much of it is free

ABC News Live news Free Acorn TV British TV series Paid subscription Al Jazeera (TV only) Live news Free All Warrior Network US veteran content Paid subscription Amazon Prime Video Amazon originals, movie rentals Paid subscription AnimeLab Japanese anime and movies Free with ads, paid subscription Apple TV+ Apple originals, movie rentals Paid subscription Beamafilm Movies Free with library card Bloomberg TV Live News and market data Free British Pathe TV Documentaries, classic movies Paid subscription Choice TV On demand TV shows, movies Free Classic Cinema Online Public domain movies Free ConTV TV shows, movies Free Crunchyroll Anime Paid subscription CuriosityStream Documentaries Paid subscription Disney+ TV shows, movies Paid subscription Docplay Documentaries Paid subscription Fanpass SKY sports, ESPN Paid subscription (week, month)

Freeview Plus Free-to-Air TV Free (with certified Freeview TVs & set-top boxes) France 24 Live news (English) Free Free movies online Public domain movies Free Gary Hustwit Documentaries Rent/buy individual videos Google Play Movies Movies Rent/buy individual movies

Heihei (Kids programmes, NZ On Air) Kids’ content by NZ On Air & TVNZ Free

HGTV (Home & Garden TV) TV shows Free IMDB Trailers Movie trailers Free Internet Archive Public domain movies Free iWonder Documentaries Paid subscription Kanopy Movies Free with library or university card Kungfury Movies Free Lightbox TV shows, movies Paid subscription, movie rental

thedownload.co.nz The Download | Legal Streaming Services 23

Maori TV TV shows Free Maple Films Short indie movies Free Microsoft Movies & TV Movies Rent/buy individual movies MLB MLB (Major League Baseball) Free Mubi Movies Paid subscription

NBA TV NBA (National Basketball Association) Paid subscription

Neon TV shows, movies Paid subscription Netflix TV shows, movies, documentaries Paid subscription NFL Game Pass Sports (incl Superbowl) Paid subscription NHL NHL (National Hockey League) Paid subscription NZ Film On Demand NZ movies, documentaries Rent/buy individual movies NZ First TV TV shows, movies Free, rent/buy individual movies NZ On Screen Documentaries and trailers Free Parliament TV New Zealand Parliament sittings Free Play Stuff News and documentaries Free Public Domain Movies Public domain movies Free Public Domain Torrents Public domain movies Free Red Bull TV Sports Free ShinePlus TV shows Free Sideline sports School sports Individual matches, pass

SKY GO TV shows, movies SKY subscription required

Spark Sport Sports Paid subscription Spuul Indian movies Paid subscription

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah TV show Free (some videos may be restricted to USA) Thought Maybe Documentaries Free Top Documentary Films Documentaries Free TV3 On Demand FTA TV shows on demand Free TVNZ On Demand FTA TV shows on demand Free Twitch e-sports Free Viddsee Chinese movies Free Viki Asian TV shows and movies Paid subscription WatchMe Short New Zealand movies Free YouTube Movies Movies Rent/buy individual videos Yupptv Indian TV shows and movies Paid subscription Maple Films Short indie movies Free

2020 / Issue 12 24

WE CAN SERVE BUSINESS BETTER Consumer mobile telco 2degrees is pushing into the business market with fibre broadband. It’s also eyeing up the Internet of Things – Heather Wright reports

ibre broadband and Internet of our brand in the business market,” he says. Come 2015, it snapped up internet Things (IoT) technology both feature “The business part of our business is still in provider Snap, with whom it had Fbig in Andrew Fairgray’s plans for start-up mode.” previously partnered. The purchase 2degrees. The telecom company’s new When 2degrees launched, in 2009, after brought 2degrees a suite of assets in the chief business officer, is charged with nine years of planning, it was into a near enterprise market, particularly in the growing 2degrees’ fledgling business and saturated market. It then followed a fairly fixed-line space, along with home phone government market share and sees a strong traditional path: a pre-pay then post-pay and home broadband services. role for both in this. consumer service, followed by SME (small It’s a suite the company has continued Fairgray’s appointment last September and medium enterprise) offerings. In 2012, to build on. It now offers a nationwide data highlights the telco’s full-service business then chief executive Eric Hertz announced network, plus direct access to major data telco push – Fairgray is the former head of plans to enter the fixed-line market and centres and cloud providers. The latter corporate and government sales at Vodafone. so more aggressively compete against include Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web “We have a strong brand and a good then Telecom (now Spark) and Vodafone. Services. Managed services, cloud security understanding of the consumer market, It offered fixed-line phone and internet and unified (voice, data and internet) but we’ve got some work to do to leverage services, as well as a mobile service. communications services, both over the

thedownload.co.nz The Download | 2degrees 25

Internet and in the cloud, are also included Chorus figures show 44 percent of all technology to store data. Initially, this in its business offering. businesses with fibre broadband running might be data from security cameras, but “We have a number of DHBs (District past their premises have yet to connect. This could expand to include air conditioning, Health Boards) and government agencies gives 2degrees a big greenfield opportunity, movement flow, personal security and with whom we have a very strong position but, Fairgray says, the company isn’t just more. (IoT networks allow for the automatic managing fixed networks, plus an looking for the new connections. transfer of a variety of data.) opportunity to educate the market on our “Once you have fibre in, the ability to “We have a significant opportunity mobile assets,” says Fairgray. change is a seamless one. to define what a smart city means He is coy about the size of 2degrees’ “There are also the 56 percent who have from a New Zealand economic benefit business customer base and market share, fibre but probably think they have to stay perspective,” he says. “Take the cone but says he plans to double the business with their incumbent supplier.” These are wars in Auckland (which saw people within the next three to four years. the customers 2degrees is focusing on with blocking public parking with traffic cones “affordable quality services” and, Fairgray in some streets last year) – we could work COSMETICS AND CAR COMPANIES says, once customers understand the proactively with the council on leveraging NOW ON BOARD benefit of 2degrees’ customer service, he is telecommunications to get ahead of The company’s customers include confident they will be interested. that curve so people could work from cosmetics company the Body Shop, which Its customer service is building 2degrees’ home or from pop-up locations, creating uses 2degrees’ mobile services – with business proposition. The company – with environments before cone wars occur and landline on mobile – and broadband for its ‘Fighting for Fair’ tagline – has price people lose hours of travel time trying to its retail stores. It also provides mobile parity. It can offer bundled deals like its get to the CBD.” (Frustrated residents and network connectivity services for the competitors, so this leaves service as the have taken to using traffic cones and Ministry for Primary Industries. differentiator, says Fairway. The company bins to stop the increasing numbers of Another customer is Thrifty Car Rental ranks highly in consumer reports on service. commuters using their streets as public and Dollar Car Rental (sister companies) However, Fairway doesn’t rule out car parks.) for whom 2degrees provides a nationwide acquisitions to bolster its fibre play – or other Water and water infrastructure data network across more than 30 sites growth opportunities. management are also areas where IoT using Chorus connectivity. This network technology could be used and which supports a full suite of managed internet, Fairgray is enthusiastic about. He notes WAN (wide area network), security, Wi-Fi Wellington’s recent water pipe woes. and mobile services. "For pure physics, A head of IoT is being brought into In addition, engineering company nothing beats a piece 2degrees to focus on building an IoT Land Development and Engineering uses ecosystem with partners. 2degrees for its mobile connections and of fibre. It creates Six months into his role at 2degrees, WAN services across its four sites, as well as the highway for us Fairgray has plenty of plans for his division, for broadband and cloud security. to the go and add including an expansion of the company’s “Once business customers join, they regional footprint, using partners. “I firmly love us,” says Fairgray. He adds that they applications as we believe people buy from people they trust typically set 2degrees’ net promoter score at grow our business" who operate within their region,” he says. four times that of its two main competitors. He is also focused on ensuring “product “But there’s a perceptional gap that we have Andrew Fairgray hygiene”, ensuring products are relevant to to work at addressing.” CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER their market, priced appropriately and have However, Fairgray believes the current clear lifecycle management processes in wave of change – moving us from fibre “I will always continue to look at place to enable both cross-selling and up- broadband to IoT to 5G mobile – sweeping opportunities so we can grow,” he says. “It’s selling “in a transparent, consistent manner through the telecoms sector will benefit about finding the opportunity that supports that makes sense”. 2degrees. where we’re trying to take the business. “As we are going out and growing this Fibre broadband is “one of the most The opportunity around fibre creates great opportunity, the best thing we can exciting opportunities” for 2degrees, he opportunities for us to talk to companies do is win at mobile first. It’s simple, well says. It puts the company on a level playing that may have built their business on other understood and we have great credibility in field with its competitors. access mediums in the fixed world.” this market that people quite simply get. “For pure physics, nothing beats a Fibre will also be a factor in another “Then, with this, we can start building piece of fibre. It creates the highway for growth opportunity for the company: IoT. trust and confidence so we can look at us to go and add applications as we grow selling broadband. And once we start selling our business. It’s like building the best USING TELECOMS TO STOP broadband – and I’m referring to fibre here – foundation you can for your house, and THE CONE WARS that will enable mobility in a holistic sense. then, as you find business applications you Fairgray says 2degrees is looking to “Once we get to that stage, then we can know will stand the test of time, these can harness IoT as a value-added service for look at what potential extra applications we stand on this great foundation.” its customers while also leveraging the can sell to add more value.”

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WAN platform play moves complexity behind the curtain Network architectures and carrier strategies are evolving towards a platform play model. Research company IDC’s Hugh Ujhazy tells Bill Bennett the future will see connectivity aligning with business outcomes and transport mechanics becoming less relevant. Connectivity strategies will be driven more by the desired outcome and less by the journey

ide Area Networking is evolving future is moving towards a platform play. This is a way of abstracting at a pace. WAN users already This means an application will make a communications to the point where Wcombine fixed-line and wireless request for a connection, it will give the customers don’t need to know or care technologies with concepts like software- request some parameters and it will then about what is going on. In effect, they are defined networking. do whatever job it was going to do before asking for a connection, letting the network This approach is better suited to cope handing the connection back. This is in operator choose the technology and the with a world where workers, applications contrast to the conventional approach route. All they do is pay for the delivered and workloads are in a constant state of flux. where a customer might have to get a fixed service. There is no need for a permanent Eventually we could reach a point where two-year contract for a link.” relationship with the network. just as cloud computing users don’t always With a platform play, telcos will offer Ujhazy likens this to loading an app on need to know where their data is, network connectivity services, alongside compute, a phone. He says: “It goes out there, grabs users won’t need to know how their data storage and applications, on terms that some cloudy bits, some application bits gets from point A to B. All they will care are similar to cloud computing. Just as and does its thing.” about is that it gets there on time and at a cloud customers don’t have to pay for on- We are not there yet. There is still a way reasonable cost. premises servers but spin up on-demand to go, says Ujhazy. The message from the IDC vice-president Hugh Ujhazy says services instead, connectivity customers carriers is: “If we present ourselves as a a year ago he was talking about carrier won’t need fixed links. They’ll be able to utility where all I’m offering you is a pipe supported multi-LAN (Local Area buy the connections they need as they to shove data down then I’m increasingly Network) and multi-cloud capabilities. need them. And, like the computing cloud, marginalised. So, if I start offering you a “There is an explosion of options along the network will be always on. connectivity platform which has a place with the race to interconnect all the public Ujhazy says: “We have to assume to store all this data you are connecting, a cloud, private cloud and on-premises the network is always going to be. You place to consume it from any device from clouds, and wrap all this into the overall might make a request such as, ‘I want any location at any time, and a place to enterprise network. connectivity to an end point in Hong Kong. share it, then I can become really relevant.” “This year we’re adding the concept I want one millisecond latency and I want He calls this approach “moving more of multi-platforms because we think the the least cost route’.” and more behind the curtain. Think about

thedownload.co.nz The Download | Hugh Ujhazy 27

what AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Microsoft Azure have done for us. There 5G TO DOMINATE MOBILE was a time when we had to work for a living CARRIER THINKING while building these environments. Now Ujhazy says 5G is going to be huge it’s a matter of matching this much virtual for the mobile carriers. machine with this much storage and this He says: “We’ve done a telco much capacity and here is the credit card.” capex (capital expenditure) forecast for the Asia-Pacific SINGTEL’S LIQUID PORTAL region excluding China and Ujhazy says he is impressed at what Singtel Japan. The fastest growing single is doing in terms of unifying all these capex item is the build out of 5G parts. He says: “They’ve built an interface radio access networks. It’s going on top of all the cloud providers and all to grow at 93 percent compound this connectivity. It’s called the Liquid annual growth rate (CAGR) over Infrastructure. Customers can come in the next five years. That’s in a through the Liquid Portal and they can context of a decline of about 1.6 choose this and that and it comes down "...if I start offering percent CAGR in their total capex. to a single Singtel bill. That’s the sort of you a connectivity So, it’s obviously going to be big complexity that we can push behind the for operators.” curtain and make it the responsibility of the platform which has For Ujhazy, 5G remains mainly carrier. It’s quite appealing to customers a place to store all an enterprise play, but there is also who don’t want to deal with all that.” a consumer play in the mix. He Communications technologies are this data you are says carriers need 5G technology converging elsewhere. Ujhazy says that connecting, a place because it simplifies and in some markets Vodafone plans to offer streamlines their job of provisioning “IoT Plus”. This brings together traditional to consume it from and managing a cellular customer. IoT (Internet of Things) connectivity with any device from any They also need it so they can private LTE (Long Term Evolution) and location at any time, keep offering the increase in 5G networks, along with edge computing. performance and capacity that This is all wrapped together with managed and a place to share we’ve all come to expect. services. In effect, Vodafone is telling it, then I can become He has changed his view of customers it will take care of everything. network slicing in the last year. It’s a compelling proposition. really relevant" “I didn’t believe in the private

networks that are possible with NO OVERNIGHT CHANGE Hugh Ujhazy IDC VICE-PRESIDENT 5G. Vodafone Global changed my Another aspect of 5G is that it won’t be an mind. They said they have about overnight revolution. He says: “It is going 160 different requirements – that’s to be with us for the next 20 years. There’s 3G is used today for M2M (machine to expressions of customer interest – no need to run up to the buffet to grab a machine), for cellular connected devices already on the table. So there will quick bite, it will be here for a while. that will probably move to narrowband. be a place for it. I’m not sure how “Everything about the landscape for 5G Some markets are retiring their 3G, but that will make sense over time. But is a co-existence strategy with 4G. And that the message here is all about the overall it is coming.” 4G network isn’t going anywhere probably portfolio of connectivity options you now for the next two decades. When we look at have as a user. things like broad widescale coverage over “It’s the same for enterprise customers long distances, a lot of that is best left to 4G.” and consumers. You have everything from The big change will come with stand- fibre to Wi-Fi 6 to 4G and 5G. We’ve got alone 5G. Once the millimetre spectrum is more choices than ever before and building available, that will be where customers get the right strategy for that is the challenge to see the promised high speeds. He says: “It we face.” is only going to be there in pockets where it is needed. You’ll see a blended environment Sydney-based Hugh Ujhazy is vice president, in terms of the Gs for some time.” IoT and telecommunications for IDC. He This mixed environment goes for all leads the research company’s analysis of fixed the Gs: 3, 4 and 5G. Ujhazy says each of and mobile network services for the Asia- them does something interesting. “The Pacific region.

20202018 / / Issue Issue 12 7 28

A LOOK BEHIND THE OPTICAL NETWORK TERMINAL

Everyone connected to the fibre network has this white plastic box terminal. Bill Bennett unravels its mysteries and talks about the capabilities of the next generation ‘box’

very home and business connected device: Chorus and NBN in Australia. That retail service providers (RSPs) about how this to the fibre network has an Optical meant that parts and long-term support can work as The Download went to press. ENetwork Terminal or ONT. It’s a could become a risk,” he says. Among other issues, the trial will look at white plastic box that is usually mounted “The third generation ONT is in more how to provide support and troubleshoot on an inside wall at the point fibre enters widespread use around the world. This problems. It’s a question of determining the building. means there is less risk. It’s also newer, which where Chorus and RSPs draw the lines of Chorus change manager Jacques De means it can do more, specifically it can responsibility. De Villiers says that in some Villiers says the ONT converts light provide layer three capability (see Layer 3 cases, it will be as simple as telling someone carried by the Chorus fibre network into explained on the next page). We are looking to switch the ONT off and on again. electrical signals that your television, into using these features at the moment.” One area of concern is that some computer and other devices can use. He What this means in practice is that an customers get to tweak the settings on says it is an essential piece of equipment ONT can also be a router. You won’t need a their Wi-Fi routers for better or specialist for fibre customers. second device. That’s one less connection, performance. De Villiers says that’s He says there is a lot inside the ONT. It one less power socket needed in your home. something Chorus will need to work with has Ethernet ports for home networking as De Villiers says with first and second RSPs on. He says: “As soon as we lock down well as the expected phone port. The ONT generation ONTs customers need a router the ability to tinker, we’re closing off that uses electricity provided by its customer – to route the signal to the network. part of the market. But, if we open it up, we the device plugs into the mains grid. The third generation ONT has four increase the risk that someone will configure At the time of writing, Chorus is on its third gigabit Ethernet ports built in, along with it incorrectly and even break things.” generation residential ONT. De Villiers says a Wi-Fi access point. Like most modern A possible approach to this is to let it was introduced a year ago, in early 2019. wireless routers, the ONT Wi-Fi operates on RSPs log in remotely and do their own “We moved to the third generation ONT both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. configurations. mainly because only two organisations in De Villiers says a trial of the ONT as a Another problem is that some early fibre the world were using the second generation router is underway. Chorus was talking to adopters installed their ONTs inside a

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Another generation of ONT is on its way. De Villiers says there is no need at the moment for a new generation of residential ONT. “That has a lot of life still in it. However, I think we are going to introduce different ONTs for different capabilities. There is a demand for this with corporate users, and there will be a need for versions to go into things like ATMs or traffic lights.” De Villiers says ONT innovation is starting to ramp up, with new products and capabilities coming thick and fast. “New Zealand was ahead of the market. Now most of the rest of the world is moving to fibre services. As more countries roll out fibre networks, there is going to be demand comms cabinet. These are typically made De Viliers says this is optional for the for new hardware capabilities and a lot of metal, which means Wi-Fi is not going to RSPs. “They can choose to take them. We more fresh ideas.” work. This will be another issue for RSPs to don’t have pricing or a commercial contract work through with Chorus. around it yet. They can choose whether to In some cases RSPs provide customers use them or whether they will continue to with uninterruptible power supplies, so supply routers. It will probably have a price a fibre connection can continue to work associated with it and RSPs will most likely in a temporary electricity outage. Chorus pass it on to customers,” he says. has back-up power at exchanges that can keep connections running until, say, a FRAGILE BUT FUTURE-PROOFED generator kicks in. Replacing the ONT means touching the Chorus’ plan is to work with RSPs who will fibre. De Villiers says the glass is fragile, be able to make the newer ONT available to so it has to be done by a skilled technician. customers now using the older hardware. Chorus is nervous about other hands touching its fibre; it introduces a lot of risk. That said, Chorus designed its ONT to be future-proofed. De Villiers says there is an easy upgrade path for people wanting the new device. Because an ONT is always on, it has to LAYER 3 be reliable. De Villiers says while consumer electronic devices are often built to offer a EXPLAINED mean time to failure of five years, the Chorus The telecommunications industry ONTs are specified for a 50-year time-frame. uses layers to refer to different He says: “At the moment, our standard parts of network communications. is the third-generation ONT. If you are Layer 2 is the data link. It’s getting a new connection, you’ll get one where data packets are encoded of these. We are releasing information and decoded by electronics at about the ONT at a site for the RSPs, so each end of the connection. The they will be able to make an educated service Chorus delivers to your call about whether they choose to order a building is Layer 2. At present, the replacement for the customer or stay with ONT is the device that decodes what they have.” the signal at your end. From here, Businesses and customers on the new it hands over to your router, Hyperfibre service get a different ONT. usually a Wi-Fi router. The Hyperfibre version is enabled for layer Layer 3 handles switching and three so it works as a router. It includes routing. It creates paths between a 10Gbps Ethernet port along with three end points and handles problems gigabit ports and Wi-Fi capability. like errors, congestion and so on. At the time of writing, business customers In effect, your home router gives you Layer 3. Jacques De Villiers are on their second-generation ONT. This is a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) device.

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Budding parents broadband is your new best friend Burning 2am new parent question? Ask Dr Google. Need help timing contractions? There’s an app for that. Nick Devoy negotiates the new-baby world with fast broadband’s help

thedownload.co.nz The Download | Parenting 31

ack in March 2019, my wife face means things are about to get messy revealed we were going to be unless you get to the birthing suite ASAP. Bhaving our first baby. Within The birth itself was a textbook one, no a second of her delivering the news, I dramas. And he hadn’t even been towelled experienced two emotions. One was off properly before the first baby selfies absolute elation and the other doesn’t have were up on Instagram. Name and weight a name but is likely the same feeling a large attached to photos of brand-new bubba company gets upon learning it is going to were communicated to hundreds of people be audited by the IRD. in a nanosecond. No need to text or call 37 Happiness met trepidation met different people, just tag whoever you need excitement met unholy terror. I’d never to in a Facebook or Instagram DM. Dads of had a kid of my own before and the last old used to bring a bulky Kodak and several time I had been in close proximity to rolls of film to the hospital, then take the breastmilk was in the mid-80s. How was I film to the local chemist to be developed, going to pull this first-time dad business off? only to realise the flash hadn’t been turned The nerve-wracking trepidation soon on. All this Dad needed was a charger and dissipated however, when my wife and I decent Wi-Fi access. remembered we now live in a world powered "Sometimes you are The first few weeks of parenting are by high-speed broadband. Anything we need best described as a baptism of fire. You are is literally at our fingertips. that exhausted you in the trenches and your only option is to We did all the standard doctor and start to question if charge into the fray. My wife and I quickly midwife appointments of course, but discovered one life-saver however: you what do you do when you want a burning there is a God. From can Google everything you think may be question answered at 2am in the morning? my experience, there wrong with your baby at any hour of the Well, the answers are in the palm of your day or night. Questions can include: Why hand – if your palm happens to be holding absolutely is, and He/ won’t my baby stop crying? How do I know a mobile phone or smart TV remote. There She delivers at a speed if my baby has reflux? How long should my are thousands of apps and how-to videos of around 1000Mbps. baby sleep for? And, how long before my available to the first-time parent, both for baby is old enough to get a job, so it can leading up to the birth and for once your It’s all there at the start contributing to household expenses? little sprog has safely arrived. With all that touch of a button or Generally, the search results are reassuring lightning-fast assistance available 24/7, – up to a point. Most googled baby advice how hard could this parenting thing be? the swipe of a screen" concludes with some kind of disclaimer – Fast forward nine months. My wife was for example, “if you are unsure, consult a having little pangs (called Braxton Hicks or Nick Devoy medical professional.” This is another way false labour pains). It sounded like the little DATA INTEGRITY SPECIALIST of saying: We ourselves aren’t 100 percent man was gearing up for his journey out. I sure what is wrong with your baby, so please sprang into action, grabbing the car keys. don’t sue us if something bad happens. “Right, let’s do this, I’m ready,” I said. My advice regarding googling anything I soon learnt my wife was anything but health-related? Don’t. I once had a ready. Labour can last days and we were lingering pain in my neck, and Dr Google merely at the start of a very long week. told me it could be many things, the most If labour and childbirth can be likened likely of which was a flesh-eating virus. I to long-distance international travel, we went to see a real-life orthopaedic surgeon hadn’t even arrived at check-in. and it turned out all I needed was a more My wife then schooled me on the supportive pillow. multitude of ‘Am I in labour?’ contraction- timer apps you can download. Don’t know LIVING IN A SIT-COM when to go to the hospital? No problem. There are the smart TV apps to help you out Whip out your smartphone, open your too – Netflix, Lightbox, Google Play, Spotify, contraction-timer app and it will tell you. TVNZ On Demand etc. All of which come in A green smiley face means you are fine for very handy during those sleep deprivation now, a yellow serious face means Dad needs marathons you encounter in the first couple to start loading up the car and a red worried of months. Legend has it that while Steven

2020 / Issue 12 32 The Download | Parenting

Spielberg was filming Schindler’s List In my opinion, the whole Boomers taught us to cross the road and ride bikes (because of the heavy subject matter) he versus Millennials biffo that’s going on and kick rugby balls, and growled at us took to watching episodes of Seinfeld in the at the moment... well, first, we should when we were cheeky. Good, solid, bread- evenings to wind down. respect our elders, because they are the and-butter Kiwi parenting that no app or As fate would have it, TVNZ On ones who invented and then built the self-help video can replicate. Demand released the full Seinfeld series telecommunications infrastructure that We youngsters should count ourselves around the time our baby was born. I swear makes our modern lives so luxurious. They lucky that we can pass all that down to our Seinfeld’s theme music can de-escalate didn’t have contraction-timer mobile apps own kids, but also eat some humble-pie the most stressful of situations (specifically or Dr Google back in their day. If their baby because we have these fancy tech devices that upbeat slap bass music played between was screaming all night for some ungodly and fast internet which all makes modern scenes). We used to binge-play episodes reason, they had to wait until morning first-time parenting a teeny bit easier. during arduous feed-and-nappy-change when the Plunket helpline fired up – and sessions that happened at all hours of the they had to use an ancient piece of analogue Nick Devoy is a data integrity specialist night. Pretty soon it was like we were living hardware known as a landline phone. at Chorus. He has been working in the in our very own sitcom. They didn’t have smart TVs to help pass telecommunications industry since 2015. He YouTube is another treasure-trove of the time during those long sleepless nights lives in Hamilton with his wife and baby son. self-help for the budding parent: Nappy either. The Goodnight Kiwi used to come on changing for dummies, therapeutic infant late in the evening, wave tauntingly and say, massage lessons, New Age acrobatic “Sorry folks, I’m done for the day, you’re on breastfeeding techniques. Then there was your own from here.” me thinking you had to have NASA-level Boomers also taught us good old- accreditation to install a baby car seat, but fashioned parenting – you know, it’s surprisingly easy once you watch a step- the real-life version that an app by-step video. or smart TV can’t help you with. There are also lots of distracting Wiggles They read books to us, taught clips Mum and Dad can play on repeat us how to use our imagination while racing to eat some food themselves and play outside, cleaned and while baby sleeps – finally. There’s also the bandaged our scrapes and cuts, 10 hours of ambient lullaby music or white noise to gently coerce said bub to sleep… it’s all there. Sometimes you are that exhausted you start to question if there is a God. From my experience, there absolutely is, and He/She delivers at a speed of around 1000Mbps.

BOOMERS ARE OK Almost three months in, I still ask myself those nervous parent questions that no YouTube self-help video or mobile app can answer. Will my kid turn out okay? Will I do a good job? And, how is it possible for so much faecal matter to come out of such a small human? Seriously, the ratio of breastmilk to poop doesn’t equate, in my opinion. If I didn’t know better, I’d say someone is tipping entire jars of whole- grain mustard into my son’s nappies when I’m not looking. This aside, we have it a lot easier than our own parents. In the high-speed broadband, Wi-Fi world we now live in, we don’t have to wait for anything any more. It’s all there at the touch of a button or the swipe of a screen.

thedownload.co.nz The Download | Rant 33

Your fibre line goes both ways

Much of, if not all, the attention fast broadband gets These industries are growing, for instance, last year concerns users consuming data. New Zealand’s interactive games developers earned Yet every fibre connection on the UFB (Ultra-Fast over $200 million. That’s double the amount earned Broadband) network is bi-directional. Data travels in two years earlier. They sell to customers around the both directions. And many fibre plans are asymmetric: world. Almost all the money comes from exports. Data goes up the line as fast as it comes down. Their busy up-stream data traffic is helping give New You get a lot of benefit from having a connection and Zealand’s economy a boost. keeping your ‘down’ data line full. But you can get so Away from the creative industries, video is a much more from broadband if your ‘up’ line is busy too. great way to get customer attention. Apart from fast This is the case whether you are a commercial broadband, you need a decent video camera. There is broadband user or a consumer at home. one in almost every modern mobile phone. Throw in a If you use broadband at work, sending large little imagination and your company can get attention amounts of data can be productive. It can help get your from anywhere in the world. business noticed and keep customers informed. In The same goes for individuals. It has never been creative industries, the data you send up the line to the easier to create your own data-rich content. If making Internet may even be your business. YouTube videos doesn’t appeal, you can post music For home users, sending data, as well as consuming it, online or start a podcast. Tell the world about what can be more fun. You may have a creative itch you want to interests you and connect with like-minded people. scratch and it’s more satisfying if you share the result. One simple and rewarding way to make better use At the time of writing, UFB fibre plans range from of your connection’s data uplink is to build your own a basic 30Mbps down, 10Mbps up, to Hyperfibre with website. There are easy-to-use tools like WordPress 4Gbps in both directions. that make this a breeze. Run a blog, show your cat It’s no accident that people who choose the fastest photos or hang out your shingle in cyberspace. broadband get asymmetric connections with a fast up- Whatever you choose to do, remember your fast link. They often work in creative industries like video data link has an up line as well as the down line that production or movie making, or online games creation. you can use to good effect.

2020 / Issue 12 SECTION NAME | FEATURE NAME

Some of the fastest broadband speeds on the planet.

34 | CHORUS.CO.NZ hyperfibre.co.nz