Championing better broadband for New Zealand 2016 / ISSUE 3

CATCH US IF YOU CAN Australia and New Zealand have taken very different approaches to building their respective fibre networks. So which country did it better? The results speak for themselves.

SUBMARINE CABLES VOCUS COMMUNICATIONS GIGABIT GAMERS Brought to you by Mapping our connections Life at the third largest Among the heaviest to the world service provider bandwidth consumers Contents 2016 / ISSUE 3

6

WOULD YOU LIKE ELECTRICITY WITH THAT? 18 Life at Megatel, a niche service Get ready for 5G provider with big ambitions. What can you expect from the next generation of mobile wireless technology?

12 20

LET THE GAMES BEGIN Gamers love fast broadband networks, although maybe not for the reasons you suspect.

COVER STORY: THE COST OF DIGITAL NATION BUILDING 15 Seven years ago New Zealand and 8 Australia both set out to build nationwide NO MUPPETS fast broadband networks. One of them is New Zealand's third biggest a long way ahead of the other. telco has a few simple rules.

20 REGULARS Keeping the sharks at bay Soon New Zealand will have four 1 23 VIEWPOINT submarine cables. Editorial

If anyone asks you why people 11 24 might need gigabit fibre, tell Future proof with Batman- Bye-bye to the war of the remotes them about virtual reality and style routers For some fibre users, live sport is the augmented reality. Next generation broadband killer app. needs a next generation router. 2 26 In brief 23 What Australia does better Now every town can be a Digital leaders Australia's fibre project may be behind gigatown. Also, work starts on a Tuanz CEO Craig Young looks New Zealand's, but we can learn from new trans-Pacific submarine cable. to the next generation. the things our neighbour does well.

28 28 Poets and mothers Chorus cabinets celebrate people and art. 30 29 THE BENCHMARK Oh the places you'll go Read the latest data on how When is the last time you New Zealand's broadband surfed the web? network is developing.

thedownload.co.nz The Download | Editorial 1

Editor Bill Bennett Chorus Editorial Consultants Ian Bonnar, Steve Pettigrew Contributors David Williams, Nikki Mandow, Rob O’Neill, Scott Bartley, Hadyn Green Account Director LauraGrace McFarland Designer Julian Pettitt Photography Robin Hodgkinson Publisher Ben Fahy Get real Chief Executive Officer The mobile phone industry’s annual John Baker talkfest showed why we need gigabit fibre

Published by Tangible Media, Virtual reality (VR) was all the rage at this year’s graphics you’d see in old school computer games. They ICG Ltd. PO Box 77027, Mt Albert Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. You couldn’t are more like Space Invaders than today's best game. Auckland 1350, New Zealand move at the exhibition without coming across yet Colours were far from natural and movement was www.tangiblemedia.co.nz another brand showing VR kit. anything but smooth. Some of those trying out the The few companies not showing virtual reality technology reported nausea from the jerky, disjointed offered its near cousin: augmented reality. At MWC, experience. augmented reality was the bridesmaid not the bride Virtual reality isn't new. It first appeared in the 1990s. though. Few visitors queued up to see it. Yet within Then it failed because hardware wasn't up to the job. It months it became the phone industry’s darling. made people feel sick or gave them headaches. The Download is championed by Children around the world hunted using AR Pokémon. Today's hardware is more than up to the demands Chorus PO Box 632, Wellington 6140 Samsung handed out odd-looking Gear VR headsets of VR. Even modern phone handsets have more than www.chorus.co.nz to journalists at its MWC enough processing power to press conference. At the handle VR images. It may be The contents of The Download company’s pavilion those a cliché to say an iPhone or a are protected by copyright. Please Today's hardware is who waited long enough Galaxy handset is a powerful feel free to use the information in this issue of The Download, could ride a virtual roller- more than up to the computer, but it is also true. with attribution to The Download coaster. And HTC announced demands of VR. Even What today’s phones can’t by Chorus New Zealand Limited. the price and dates for its do though is put through Opinions expressed in The Vive virtual reality viewer. modern phone handsets enough data for a great Download are not necessarily those of the publisher or the editor. Other brands offered have more than enough virtual experience. That’s Information contained in The visitors sculpted cardboard because mobile phone Download is correct at the time or plastic boxes. These processing power to networks don’t have the of printing and while all due care converted mobile phones handle VR images. necessary bandwidth. and diligence has been taken in the into crude, but inexpensive, A VR game in 720p preparation of this magazine, the publisher is not responsible for any virtual reality headsets. You'd see headset-wearing resolution needs a consistent 50Mbps. Few cellular mistakes, omissions, typographical attendees jump or jerk in reaction to a virtual world. networks can handle that. Even those that can errors or changes to product and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg used his keynote run into problems when other users start sharing service descriptions over time. speech to talk about virtual reality. His company’s the bandwidth. But soon we'll be playing 4K VR Oculus subsidiary makes its own headset and provides games. These are already in the pipeline. But not the technology for Samsung’s Gear VR. Elsewhere, you wireless pipeline. They need at least a full 500Mbps. could see cameras designed to shoot VR videos. Eventually video will be 8k. Want to guess how much Connect with us But it didn’t take long for observant visitors to notice bandwidth that will need? Facebook.com/ChorusNZ the flaw in demonstrating VR at a phone trade show. So, the next time someone asks me: “Why would Twitter/ChorusNZ Chorus NZ Limited on LinkedIn It takes a lot of data to create a worthwhile virtual anyone ever need a gigabit fibre connection?” I'll tell experience. And that data must move fast. them about my trip to Barcelona. A lot of the virtual worlds on show in Barcelona were, www.thedownload.co.nz well, chunky. They resembled the eight-bit or 16-bit Bill Bennett

2016 / Issue 3 2

In brief

Every town a Gigatown GB From October every UFB connection 120 had access to gigabit downloads. Chorus, The average amount of data consumed in October Enable Networks, Northpower Fibre by households and small and Ultrafast Fibre now all offer gigabit businesses on the Chorus wholesale services to residential and network. This figure is up from small business customers. 100GB just four months before. Gigabit services run at the fastest speeds possible on today’s network circuits. Network overheads on a broadband plan mean customers see real world download speeds of up to 970Mbps and uploads between 400-490Mbps. In practice, gigabit fibre broadband

means the fastest possible speed. Users CANOPY TOURSROTORUA

need not worry about any network performance limits. Any bottlenecks will be elsewhere. Broadband retailers are currently offering gigabit connections at between $25 PHOTO COUTESY OF to $40 a month above their 100Mbps plans. There is proven demand for gigabit UFB rollout pumps up broadband. New Zealand’s first gigabit 18 service started in Dunedin, in early 2015, BITS PER tourism businesses after the city won the Gigatown competition. Adrenalin-pumped adventure fuels many NZ tourism businesses Today, there are around 5000 subscribers in SECOND… – and the demand for greater bandwidth. the city with 1 Gbps connections. … was the data transmission People want to whip photos of themselves flying through speed for messages sent via And it’s not just Dunedin. the forest at Rotorua up on social media quickly, says Rotorua the Cook Strait Cable when it Communications Minister Amy Adams says Canopy Tours. Similarly, with those diving photos taken first transmitted 150 years ago, that between March and June 2016 a total in August 1866. At the time, it at White Island, an active volcano 50kms offshore from of 87 percent of new residential connections was only capable of a single Whakatane, and pictures of the kids hurtling down the Luge at taken up were for 100Mbps services Morse code stream. Today it Queenstown’s Skyline. or higher speeds. Nine percent of new operates at 2.7Tbps. Now they can – quickly and easily. Chorus’ Ultra-Fast connections were for 200Mbps or more. Broadband network now connects 480,000 premises – and Service providers were quick to offer a potential 647,000 customers. gigabit products. The first was MyRepublic. It’s 58 percent complete and tourism businesses say they’re It now offers full gigabit services in all UFB already enjoying benefits. Quick photo upload is particularly areas. Orcon was also early to the gigabit important to Rotorua Canopy Tours’ marketing, but staff couldn’t party and provides gigabit services in several take reservations while customers’ photos were uploaded. With towns. Spark, Vodafone and newcomer Stuff the UFB, it now takes just 10 minutes to upload 1000 photos and Fibre also offer gigabit plans. staff can now take the reservations they spark straightaway.

“1Gbps puts us on a par with many leading markets, including South Korea, Japan, Singapore and parts of the United States. This means our exporters can compete in the global digital economy, creating jobs and higher wages.” Communications Minister Amy Adams

thedownload.co.nz The Download | In brief 3

WORK STARTS ON HAWAIKI TRANS-PACIFIC CABLE

Work has begun on the $500 million 14,000km Hawaiki Key said that for a long time New Zealand had relied on a submarine cable linking New Zealand and Australia to Hawaii. single cable network. But it is an area where "you need to keep From there, it will connect to the US mainland, at Portland investing". He told guests the Hawaiki cable would increase Oregon. The cable is scheduled to start operation in June 2018. New Zealand's telecommunications security, and bring jobs When complete, it will be the fourth submarine cable and development to Northland. connecting New Zealand to the world. It joins the Southern Cross Former CallPlus owner Malcolm Dick echoed the point Cable Network, which has two cables, one running east towards about the need for resilience. He said it was important that the the US, the other running west to Australia. The Spark, Vodafone Hawaiki landing site was somewhere other than Auckland. and Telstra-owned Tasman Global Access cable is due to open for Remi Galasso, CEO of Hawaiki Cable company, said the business in January 2017. It connects Auckland to Sydney. Mangawhai Heads landing station would be ready by the Speaking at a soil-turning ceremony, at the landing site near middle of 2017. He said the site had the right mix of conditions: Mangawhai Heads in Northland, Prime Minister John Key deep water for the cable ship and easy access to existing land- underlined the importance of having an extra link to the world. based fibre networks. He also hopes the development will bring He said: “The cable is far more important to the average New jobs to the area. Zealander than they realise. We need more connectivity and Hawaiki has a design capacity of 42Tbps. This makes it the that's what Hawaiki is all about." fattest pipe between Australia, New Zealand and the US.

From L to R: Remi Galasso (CEO of Hawaiki), Hon Amy Adams (Communications Minister), Rt Hon John Key (Prime Minister), Malcolm Dick (Director of Hawaiki), Sir Eion Edgar (Chairman of Hawaiki), Russell Kemp (Chairman of Te Uri O Hau/Ngati Whatua)

2016 / Issue 3 4 The Download | In brief

Record-breaking UFB connections By the end of September more than 300,000 premises were connected to the UFB network. “Uptake nationwide has increased to 28.3 percent,” said Communications Minister Amy Adams. She said the latest regularly quarterly update, to September 2016, showed almost 50,000 connections were made in the three-month period — that’s a new record. “The overall deployment of UFB is five percent ahead of schedule at over 69 percent complete, with 13,342 new end-users added to the market this quarter. I was also pleased to confirm recently that UFB connections will be free throughout the UFB build period,” she said.

“I’d like to see fibre go up every driveway.”

Communications Minister AMY ADAMS at the Hawaiki Cable landing station ceremony

Gap opens between NZ and Oz broadband In its October report, broadband performance monitoring specialist Truenet says the customers of one of Australia’s major service providers download pages from local sites more slowly than customers of any New Zealand service provider. Truenet also says New Zealand’s average speeds are now approaching Australia’s NBN target speed of 25Mbps. TrueNet consultant John Butt says: “Our Australian-based TPG panellists’ ADSL lines in Melbourne and Sydney are worse at downloading Australian websites than any New Zealand ISP we measure.” Dunedin’s Gigabit-future takes off When Dunedin became New Zealand’s GigStart is now on its final round, with a Gigatown in 2014 the aim was to change record 21 start-ups applying for a slice of the people’s lives using gigabit technology. This is $53,000 funding available. Eight start-ups have now happening with help from the $200,000 already benefited from $147,000 in funding. Chorus and Nokia-funded GigStart Fund. GigStart was created to help people make Initiatives funded so far range hugely – from good use of the Ultra Fast Broadband service an animated program for dyslexic children that has turned Dunedin into a Gigatown. The to a global shipping-container weighing app Chorus service means Dunedin people now based in the cloud. Local jobs have already enjoy UFB speeds of up to 1Gbps. been created and Chorus is delighted the fund StartUp Dunedin says start-up company is helping turn Dunedin into a thriving tech momentum has grown fast, creating a start-up hub. dynamic new local business eco-system.

thedownload.co.nz 5

“The future of wireless is going to be dominated by things communicating over very short distances. That’s not to say 5G doesn’t have a place. But it’s not going to dominate. Right now, 3G and 4G only carry five percent, or thereabouts, of all the internet traffic. The vast majority of traffic goes over Wi-Fi, over a much shorter distance.”

Former British Telecom CTO, PETER COCHRANE, quoted in the National Business Review

TWO PERCENT 143,109 TERABYTES of data were used in the month of June on fixed broadband connections.

Free UFB fibre connection blocks will be funded to the tune of $1,000 a unit, with building owners being asked to contribute the extra. to homes continues Connecting houses sharing a right of way will be Ultra-Fast Broadband fibre will continue to be installed done on a pro rata basis – so three houses would be free to most households with the extension of the entitled to 600 metres of free cabling. 3,165 Government-backed plan. Homes more than 200 metres from their boundary The non-standard installation fund was to have finished will be connected during Phase II of the rollout, after TERABYTES in December. Chorus and Crown Fibre Holdings have 2019, but there are few of these. forged a new agreement to continue the free installs while Communications Minister Amy Adams said this of data were used in the month of June by mobile phone rolling out the UFB network over the next three years. “pragmatic solution” had been agreed without further internet connections. This should see most homes connected for free as it CFH funding. Local fibre companies Enable, Ultra- covers all houses within 200 metres of their boundary Fast Fibre and Northpower, have been installing fibre Statistics New Zealand’s Internet Service Provider Survey 2016 and apartment blocks of three storeys or less. Higher for free under similar arrangements and will continue.

Streaming video competition moves into Top Gear Amazon is stepping up its competition with Netflix in the streaming video sector. The company’s new motoring show The Grand Tour is one of the most expensive made-for-online productions to date. UK newspapers report the series cost US$250 million to make. As car fans will already know, The Grand Tour features Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May from the BBC’s Top Gear. Amazon says the show will launch globally and be available in over 200 countries worldwide. This suggests Amazon has invested heavily in the video-streaming technology and in organising the deals with peers needed for distribution, so it’s unlikely to be a one-off series.

2016 / Issue 3 6 Business | Life at a small ISP

WOULD YOU LIKE ELECTRICITY WITH THAT?

TUCKED INTO AN unexpectedly leafy part Megatel started out as a niche JJ says his model makes more sense than you of the Auckland suburb of Albany, Megatel’s would think. The ISP market is crowded and offices are those of a standard small ISP, telco, selling dial-up and cheap competitive. Even the major players are trying to with a bit of trendy Silicon Valley thrown in. international phone minutes. be nifty and entrepreneurial. But the power sector The staff are young, and headset-toting. The is different. Most of the big generator-retailers management structure is flat; the bosses sit These days it’s still niche, are still pretty conservative and cautious, he says. among the employees. There’s free fruit and with broadband, mobile and This creates an opportunity for a nimble ISP to home-made breads in the meeting room; witty profit from offering different customers various staff caricatures on the walls. There’s probably a television content packages options. A larger business might be tempted by a foosball table hidden somewhere too. cheap power offer but be happy to pay more for But in other ways Megatel is far from typical. aimed largely at local Korean broadband, for example. Whereas, households All its 23 full-time and 10 part-time employees and Chinese speakers. But tend to be price-sensitive about broadband but less speak at least one North Asian language (plus dollar-savvy when it comes to electricity prices. English). Some speak three or four. The company now a brave new venture Megatel’s latest $69 residential UFB (Ultra offers custom-developed set-top boxes and into the electricity market Fast Broadband) offer throws in a free router content packages, as well as mobile plans where and unlimited data. Add power and you get New Zealand, China and Korea are treated as the could take the company a 15 percent prompt payment discount too. same country in terms of pricing. mainstream. Meanwhile, the fibre plan is $5 cheaper than Most unusual of all, you can buy electricity ADSL/VDSL, because fibre provides more along with your fibre broadband. In fact, BY NIKKI MANDOW opportunity for add-on services. company co-founder Jisan Jang, known as JJ, Being a successful small player is about being reckons Megatel’s power subsidiary would make nifty and flexible, says JJ. He and business it into the Top 10 New Zealand energy retailer partner Jakob Lee, both New Zealanders of list. It has almost 4,000 power customers, Korean descent, founded Megatel in 2003. They including some sizeable business clients, such as began by selling dial-up and international phone the IMAX entertainment centre, on Auckland’s 2015, we launched a mainstream brand, Wise packages. Just a few years later neither product Queen Street. Pre-Pay Energy, and these days we earn more existed. Profitability (and survival) means “Launching MegaENERGY was tough – profit from power than telecommunications, keeping ahead of the competition in terms of the regulatory system is very different. You and volumes are bigger.” pricing and products, says JJ. are dealing with a market where the price Ask most people about power plus broadband Early on, the company discovered its target changes every five minutes and can have huge packages and they will tell you Trustpower was customers, Korean and Chinese Aucklanders, spikes. Initially, we grew fast by offering deals the pioneer. They’d be wrong. Megatel started used an astonishing seven times more data than to our existing customers, but now we are selling electricity to its telco customers before the average Kiwi. Not only were they heavy approaching the market directly. In November Trustpower moved its business the other way. users of devices, but when they plonked down

thedownload.co.nz 7

When the other ISPs were providing 40GB, we went MEGATEL in with 200GB. When they launched 200GB plans, we offered 400GB. PHOTO COURTESY OF

on the sofa at 7pm they weren’t watching local popular in Asia. So, we launched New Zealand’s Suddenly we became a software developer. The terrestrial channels. Instead, they watched Asian first IPTV package including set-top box, mobile first item was the TV product, and we developed television and movies via the internet. So, JJ and app and website. We signed licence deals with different versions of the set-top box and our Jakob set out to offer plans with considerably 22 Chinese and 20 Korean TV stations and own remote controls. Now we have a TV app, a more grunt data-wise. became a content provider.” mobile phone app, video-caching software and “When the other ISPs were providing 40GB, Even then, it was two steps forward, one our own billing engines.” we went in with 200GB. When they launched step back. In April this year, Megatel canned its In the constant struggle to keep ahead of 200GB plans, we offered 400GB.” Chinese television packages, unable to compete the pack, JJ says Megatel is keeping a close eye The company now has more than 5,000 with the rooftop antennae technology that gives on ultra high-definition television, and on the broadband customers. Chinese speakers access to hundreds of pirated electric and driverless car markets. What are the Another of Megatel’s strategies has been channels – for free. untapped areas where a telco-cum-power retailer to keep a close eye on trends in the Korean Another successful differentiator has been can enhance the experience for customers? market, which tends to be a few steps ahead of developing proprietary software. “Infrastructure is just infrastructure,” says New Zealand. “We realised broadband and phone services JJ. “Our job is to look for what we can provide “In 2011, it seemed every Kiwi ISP was – the infrastructure part of the business – would on top. We believe size doesn’t matter because offering the same package, but we noticed that be nothing. Our future power was in the value unique value will control the market. We need to the ‘triple play’ – phone, internet, TV – was we could deliver with clever technology. provide that value.”

2016 / Issue 3 8 Cover story | New Zealand vs Australia

43 BILLION

1.5 BILLION

Two nations, two approaches to building a nationwide network: private versus public. Which has worked out best – Australia or New Zealand? Bill Bennett investigates.

thedownload.co.nz 9

ustralia and New Zealand set out at “New Zealand’s Government took a pragmatic company, with the help of taxpayer funds and roughly the same time to build national approach after looking at early costings. It bonds. In effect, a nationalised project — at least Afibre networks. The two countries had decided on serving cities and towns with fibre. for a time. The plan was to build a nationwide, similar motives. Each wanted to modernise and Australia’s NBN is all-embracing. This was an structurally separated network that would be reboot its respective telecommunications sector. ideological decision made irrespective of the wholesale only. Rudd said once the network was They shared the same goal of having a separate, cost. The network goes everywhere. At first the up and running the Government would sell it to wholesale network to spur competition. plan was to connect 93 percent of the population the private sector. Both governments aimed to lay down the to fibre, with the rest served by a mixture of NBN Co is a government-owned monopoly infrastructure needed for their people to meet fixed wireless and satellite. It was, and still is, wholesaler. Its job is to build and operate the the challenge of the digital future. a much more challenging project.” national network that will include fibre, wireless But that’s about all their plans had in Nothing better illustrates the difference in and satellite. NBN Co is directly funded by common. From day one the two countries project scale than the government budgets government. In the early stages it has no focus found themselves on quite different broadband which were set out in 2009. In New Zealand, on earning revenue or making a profit — that is a trajectories. How has this worked out? Let’s hear long term goal. from Nick Whigham, a journalist at news.com.au. This is quite different from the structure in In September, Whigham wrote: “New Zealand’s New Zealand, where Crown Fibre Holdings internet is about to leave us in the dust.” New Zealand’s (CFH) is the government organisation managing He said: “By its expected completion date, of the UFB. CFH owns equity stakes in the fibre 2019, at least three-quarters of New Zealanders Government took a companies but does not own them. There is also will have the chance to access ultra-fast pragmatic approach after private equity in Chorus which has the contract broadband that is far superior to the internet for 24 of the original 33 local fibre areas. The used by the vast majority of those residing on looking at early costings. fibre companies have monopolies in their areas the other side of the ditch.” It decided on serving cities and are responsible for managing the network Whigham’s story came as New Zealand fibre and towns with fibre. build and then for operating the networks. companies were readying the launch of residential CFH administers the government money set gigabit services across the entire network. Craig Skinner, Ovum aside for the UFB. It is, in effect, undertaking He compares this with the state of affairs in the project risk. Fibre companies repay CFH Australia: “Comparatively, many Australians who each time they activate a connection. They also have signed up to the NBN (National Broadband the then communications minister Steven Joyce pay for the connecting fibre that runs from the Network) currently receive download speeds earmarked NZ$1.5 billion of government money street to the house, although this gets more within the range of 25Mbps to a possible maximum for the UFB network and a further $300 million complicated with non-standard installations. of 100Mbps. Full fibre connections are expected to for the Rural Broadband Initiative. The money New Zealand’s system was designed to make up about 20 percent of the completed NBN for ultrafast broadband is, in effect, a soft loan, motivate fast building of the network. The rollout, meaning retailers will one day be able to the government will get it back. At the time, sooner a fibre connects to a house, the sooner offer 1GBps speeds to the lucky few.” Joyce anticipated the private companies building it can earn revenue. One notable difference in Australian-based Ovum principal analyst the network might spend another $5 billion or New Zealand is that the fibre companies have a Craig Skinner says you can’t make a direct so of their money. clear financial incentive to keep down the cost comparison between the Australian and New Australia’s communications minister at of connecting each home — this helps control Zealand fibre networks or the projects to build the time, Senator Stephen Conroy, set an project costs. them. He says: “Australia is a much larger initial A$43 billion budget for the National When the New Zealand Government invited physical land mass. Building a network means Broadband Network. Even given the difference bids for the UFB build, it made it clear that dealing with far longer distances.” in population size and distances that’s a far bidders would be wholesale only. This meant Skinner says the bulk of the Australian bigger spend. Skinner says much of the extra that to take part Telecom New Zealand had population is concentrated. Almost 40 percent cost comes down to the goal of reaching to divest itself of its Chorus operation. This of the nation’s 24 million people live in two more of Australia’s people with fibre. He says ensured full separation between the nation’s cities: Sydney and Melbourne. Most of the rest that has as much to do with political ideas of largest telecommunications company and the live in coastal cities or along coastal strips. A nation building and national unity than with fibre access network. small number of people live in the interior. telecommunications. In contrast, Australia went ahead and These people are often hundreds of kilometres At first the Australian Government looked to formed NBN Co without ever dealing with from population centres. partner with private industry to build the NBN. Telstra’s market domination. This gave the Australia is vast. It fills about 7.7 million By April 2009, it was clear it wouldn’t get the deal telecommunications giant a large degree of square kilometres. New Zealand is a mere it wanted. The then Australian Prime Minister leverage. It forced the Government into costly 268,000 square kilometres. Kevin Rudd announced no tenderer had made a and extensive negotiations with Telstra to get Australia’s challenge is not just its geographic successful bid to build the NBN. Instead, he said, infrastructure access. It also made life difficult scale or distance, however. Skinner says: the Australian Government would set up its own for rival telcos.

2016 / Issue 3 10 Cover story | New Zealand vs Australia

defending fibre and Coalition supporters preferring cheaper alternatives. FIXED LINE SPEED TIER MIX >100Mbps After the 2013 federal election, the incoming As at 30 September 2016 Coalition Government abandoned much of Labor’s original plan. It then moved to a multi-technology mix model. This involved Telstra and Optus’ HFC cable networks serving up to one-third of homes. Elsewhere a mix of 100% fibre-to-the-node and fibre-to-the-basement would serve apartment buildings. At the time, NBN Co executive chairman Ziggy Switkowski said portions of this new network would need upgrading within five years. New Zealand To no one’s surprise the different approaches 59% in Australia and New Zealand have led to different outcomes. Between December 2014 and December 2015, Australia boasted the Australia world’s fifth fastest uptake of fibre broadband, 13% with the numbers increasing by almost 100 percent. During the same period, New Zealand recorded the world’s highest uptake, with numbers increasing by more than 130 percent. InternetNZ deputy chief executive Andrew Cushen says Australia’s programme was more ambitious but New Zealand got more right. He says New Zealand’s project is more cost effective. “The $1.5 billion in soft loans and $300 million in industry levy funding looks like a bargain in comparison to the many, many billions the Australians are spending, particularly when the Australians aren't getting better outcomes than us. Much has been made Sources: NBNCo results Q1 results presentation. Chorus Q1 2017 connection update of the fact that the soft loans are to be repaid and the money recycled in the form of further Another major difference between the Australian build and the idea that people in soft loans. This multiplicative effect means the the two projects is political consensus. In expensive-to-connect remote areas would pay actual impact of the $1.5 billion is far more than New Zealand, both the Labour Party and the same as city dwellers meant the premium it looks at face value.” National went into the 2008 election with for a fibre service could be high. Skinner says: Cushen says New Zealand is seeing much a promise to build a fibre network. Although “Politicians wondered if people would pay faster growth of New Zealanders connecting to there has been debate over various aspects enough for NBN Co to cover its costs. At the faster internet than is the case for Australians, of the Telecommunications Act’s reforms same time, there were issues with the idea of and at far less cost. He says: “Our UFB isn't and other regulatory matters, there has regulated prices and a political constraint on perfect, but it is on time and on budget. That’s never been any quarrelling over the need the entry-level fibre price, which would need to unlike the NBN, which is late and apparently to build a fibre network. be the same as ADSL.” blowing its budget significantly.” Compare this with the NBN, which has Skinner says it became clear that the A$43 One day Australia’s NBN performance will been politically controversial from the outset. billion budgeted when the project was first catch up with UFB. It may yet achieve its goal of At first, the disagreements were over the proposed was not going to be enough to pay for reaching further into the Bush, although by then scope of the project, the amount invested fibre to everyone’s premises for 93 percent of New Zealand will be well into the second phase and Opposition uneasiness about the Labor the population. of the UFB and Rural Broadband Initiative. New Government’s decision to build what was, in Soon a debate emerged over the technology Zealand will also have got there at a far lower effect, a nationalised network. being used. The Opposition Coalition and the cost and with much less pain. In the end, both There were other problems too. Skinner says media raised questions about the necessity and countries will be better off. We’re already seeing Opposition politicians questioned whether value of building an expensive and extensive signs of what fast broadband means for the consumers would be willing to pay more for fibre-to-the-premises network. The debate economy. It’s not a zero sum game, so Australia higher speed broadband services. The scope of became politicised, with Labor supporters can enjoy some of these benefits too.

thedownload.co.nz Gigabit routers | New technology 11

If you run a VPN or smart DNS service on your router you may have extra choices to make. Most Future proof with notably, does the router support custom DNS? Beyond Wi-Fi, you may also need to connect Batman-style routers some devices physically to your router. To get the best speeds you will need to ensure the Here’s the nitty-gritty your grumpy-customer-with-the-slow- router has enough Gigabit Ethernet ports. And router needs to know. Haydn Green describes what the newest also that your device can handle it. And there is something else you need to routers can do – and what stops them dead. consider: where are you going to put it? A place close to the centre of your house BY HADYN GREEN is a good idea. That way you get maximum coverage. Routers look a lot nicer than they used YOU’VE FINALLY GOT fibre to your house and The next thing you need to look at is Wi-Fi to do, but they are still a bit ugly. But don’t be you’re looking forward to those blazing fast standards. These standards come in b, g, n and tempted to put it into a cupboard. Everything speeds. But for some reason you’re not getting ac varieties (often written as 802.11 followed you put between your router and your devices anything close to that. Before you grumpily ring by the letters). The n and ac standards are the can degrade speed. your service provider to complain, there is a very newest and currently best standards, and deliver So can your microwave. Some microwaves work good chance you need a new router. higher speeds. on the 2.4GHz frequency, meaning that re-heating Think of it like water being piped to you house Nearly all modern devices employ the n food can knock out your Wi-fi connection. with excellent pressure but it just dribbles out of standard. It works on both the 2.4GHz and Even your walls can be a problem. The the tap. You need a better system for getting that 5GHz bands, and has a top speed of 600Mbps materials used to construct your house can water out. The same can be true of your router. (Mega-bits per second). stop Wi-Fi signals dead in their tracks. Brick is The first thing to know about routers is that The newest commercial standard is ac. It only a really good Wi-Fi stopper. Some older houses they are not all created equal. The latest routers works on 5GHz and has a top speed of 1Gbps even have chicken wire in the walls holding the look like something Batman would use. Sleek (Giga-bits per second). The ac standard isn’t in insulation in place. designs covered in antennas. These antennas every device but will be found in most brand-new Of course, if push comes to shove, you can are important because you want your Wi-Fi technology devices, especially phones and tablets. always get a Wi-Fi extender. signal to reach everywhere in your house. These speeds sound incredibly impressive, The main thing to remember is this: future proof. If you have fibre then you need a dual (or triple) but they are maximums. Realistically, you can Don’t get a router that will “do for now”. New band router. The bands refer to the frequencies expect much slower speeds than this. Still fast devices are coming along running new standards. your Wi-Fi network will work on: 2.4GHz and though. This will be really noticeable when The number of internet-connected home devices 5GHz (Giga-Hertz). The 2.4GHz band can’t carry you transfer information wirelessly between like fridges, kettles and lights are increasing at a as much data but is more powerful and can go devices, something that is quite important if you fast rate, and you will need a good router to handle through more walls. The 5GHz band can carry a have internet-enabled devices, such as sound all these new devices in your home. lot of data but the signal is weaker. systems, light bulbs and power switches. Don’t be left with a “dripping tap”.

2016 / Issue 3 12 Fast broadband | Gaming

Competitive gamers facing off in front of a live audience

LET THE GAMES BEGIN – BIG TIME

Fast broadband is creating a giant new internet arena and the incredibly large size of modern game downloads that eat up bandwidth. Recognising for online games and superstar gamers. The best show off this appetite, Microsoft has gone so far as to their fast-twitch skills to millions of fans around the world – engineer in the ability to watch YouTube or Netflix on the Xbox One console at the same and make an excellent living doing so. time as a gamer is playing. The upshot of all this is that for gamers BY SCOTT BARTLEY looking for an ISP there are two distinct aspects of the connection they look for: low latency, to AS UNLIMITED GIGABIT internet plans However, when it comes to the internet, the help with actual online game play; and sheer continue to roll out across New Zealand people ways in which gamers consume bandwidth isn’t bandwidth, to pull down as much data as are finding intriguing new ways of gobbling up as straightforward as you might think. Online possible in as short a time as possible. this bandwidth. One group is especially adept gaming itself — that is to say, the act of playing Josh Drummond, of ISP Bigpipe, explains at putting these shiny new fibre connections to games with others over the internet — uses what this means from the internet service good use — gamers. only a small portion of overall traffic. It’s the providers’ point of view. These power users with their hungry consoles rest of the burgeoning gaming ecosystem that’s “Online gaming traffic isn’t a huge proportion have always had close ties to the internet. The driving bandwidth heavy internet usage by of our overall traffic for very good reasons – likes of instant messaging and, now infamous, gamers. The real bandwidth hogs of the gaming online gaming doesn’t actually require all that abbreviations such as ‘LOL’ were all staples of sector are what gamers do to support their much data in going back and forth between the the gaming world long before Facebook and the passion… not actually playing the games. It’s customer and the server. Most of the processing general population co-opted them. 4K video streaming, live video broadcasting is happening client-side, on the customer’s

thedownload.co.nz 13

machine. What’s going back and forth to the have ADSL or VDSL, we’ve made the Bigpipe server is quite minimal.” app. It allows you to prioritise certain activities What Drummond is referring to is the latency on your internet connection. So, if you want to part of the equation. No matter how graphically game, just tap ‘prioritise’ in gaming mode in the intensive a game might look on screen, it’s only app and it will devote 90 percent of your pipe to the tiny packets of data travelling back and forth gaming traffic, leaving the remaining 10 percent between the computers involved in the game for all other kinds of traffic.” that matter (we’re calling game consoles such as the Xbox and PlayStation computers here). But INTERNET BECOMES HUGE GAMING ARENA gamers demand very low latency connections — Another, high profile aspect of the gaming the less time it takes those tiny packets of data world fast broadband has helped nurture is the to make their round trip the more accurate the emergence of competitive gaming or eSports. in-game experience will be. For Kiwi gamers, Freddie Tressider is tournament director for latency is difficult to avoid. Let’s Play Live! and has been working closely “New Zealand gamers have had to put up with with competitive gaming teams across both New high latency for a long time because, no matter Zealand and Australia since 2010. He was part what sort of network wizardry you’ve got going, of the team that brought live coverage of the distance is always going to create latency. We’re New Zealand Gaming Championships’ finals to very far away from the rest of the world,” says Sky Sport in 2016. This somewhat ironic twist Drummond. saw games appearing on traditional television While gigabit fibre certainly helps create low and happened because of the massive surge in latency gaming conditions, Drummond says popularity of gamers wanting to watch other the single best way to fix this issue is to deploy Who are gamers? people play games live over the internet. game servers locally, or, from Australia at the The New Zealand Game Developers “People love to watch games like they love to very least. Gaming is now being taken more Association (NZGDA) says that in 2015 watch sports. You can view them the same way,” seriously by the general population and so more alone Kiwis spent $347 million on games. says Tressider. He points out that, in addition companies (game publishers, ISPs and game Virtually all new-release games allow to bringing gaming to traditional broadcast console manufacturers such as Microsoft and you to play against other people over television this past year, the rise of competitive Sony) are investing in deploying local game the internet, using services such as Xbox gaming has created its own set of superstars. servers, he says. Most New Zealand gamers will Live (48 million free and paying users), The emergence of online stars, who’ve found likely soon be connecting to servers in Australia PlayStation Network (20 million paying fame by live streaming their game play to the and New Zealand. users, with many more free users) or world, has been driven by the ease with which One area, Drummond says, where fibre really Steam (65 million users). anyone with a fast internet connection can set comes into its own for gaming is in outright themselves up as a streamer at little cost. Perhaps download speed. the most famous streamer, Felix Kjellberg — “We see tons of traffic from video-game who goes by the name PewDiePie online — has downloads, which are getting more and more 34 millions of viewers every day and makes plenty common. Games are huge these days, with of money from streaming. Parents of Minecraft- AVERAGE AGE OF NZ GAMER AAA games [AAA games being the big budget, playing children may already be familiar with Hollywood-style blockbuster titles] on consoles the distinctive laughter of YouTube star Joseph and PCs clocking in at hundreds of gigabytes. Garrett, otherwise known as Stampylongnose, Even a lot of popular mobile games are heavy on who has eight million subscribers on YouTube data. It’s common to see spikes on the network 88 alone. The point here is that these home-made when a big game comes out and everyone grabs MINUTES PLAYED PER DAY superstars are plying a trade made possible by it at once.” ON AVERAGE game-loving fans and fast internet. In a nod toward these demanding users, Tressider points out that New Zealand has its Bigpipe is one of several ISPs specifically own array of internet stars. targeting gaming consumers. The ISP, which “We actually have content creators with huge is wholly owned by Spark, is making a play for followings coming out of New Zealand now. The the internet-savvy gaming market. One way the 48% most popular streamer in the Oceania region OF GAMERS ARE FEMALE company is doing this is via an app that allows is a guy called ‘Quin’, based in Whanganui. users to set, at the touch of a button, various Streaming live games is his full-time job. There’s parameters that suit specific usage scenarios, be also LoriiPops, who streams daily from Napier.” they gaming or Netflix. US$20.3 LoriiPops, whose real name is Lorien, is a “What fibre is really good at is making room 24-year-old gamer who has amassed some for you to do a bunch of stuff on your connection billion 83,000 followers on Twitch.tv alone. And Quin at once,” says Drummond. “But of course not FORECAST SIZE OF GLOBAL — real name Quintin — has 187,000 followers everyone can get fibre yet – so for customers who GAMES INDUSTRY BY 2020 on Twitch.tv. Stars like LoriiPops and Quin

2016 / Issue 3 14 Fast broadband | Gaming

Gamers broadcast to the world Australian gamer and live streamer Jack Huddo Dedicated video-streaming networks such as Twitch.tv, along with games in front of a live audience both online and in real life at Armageddon Auckland 2016 YouTube and Beam (recently acquired by Microsoft) mean anyone can broadcast their gaming antics to the world. The most popular can make a living from it. Xbox, PlayStation and today’s PCs all have live streaming functions built in. What’s more, in October 2016 Microsoft announced new embedded enhancements coming to Windows 10, enabling every gamer to become a broadcaster. Local PC system builders now bundle streaming kits that offer a step up in quality from built-in mics and webcams.

Young people lining up to try new games at the Xbox stand at Armageddon Auckland 2016

make money by selling monthly subscriptions to play with others over a fast, dedicated network “As technology and internet speeds increased, their Twitch.tv channels, by accepting donations — has all but died thanks to fast broadband. suddenly these gamers could do things online that from appreciative fans and, increasingly, One of the largest LANs — xLAN, which Nimmo had been more difficult to do before,” he says. through corporate sponsorships. organised for several years — reached its zenith Talking to Nimmo, who still makes a living The arrival of fast broadband has had other, in 2010 when about 1,000 gamers packed from his gaming passion, it’s obvious he less positive, effects on the gaming industry. out the Pacific Events Centre in Manukau, doesn’t see this as a bad thing, more a natural According to Craig Nimmo, who used to run Auckland. Nimmo says from this high point progression. He waxes lyrically about the growing large-scale organised gaming meetups called numbers dwindled to about 650 participants world of competitive gaming and new era of LAN (Local Area Network) parties, this once in 2012, before petering out altogether. He lays online stars such as PewDiePie and LoriiPops. popular part of gaming culture — it saw gamers the blame for the demise of large-scale LANs While fast internet may have signalled the hauling their PCs and consoles around just to squarely at the feet of fast broadband. death knell for events such as xLAN, Nimmo agrees with Freddie Tressider that a whole new internet-powered world of gaming-related Why latency matters activity has sprung up in place of events like Also referred to as ‘ping’, latency is the amount of time, measured in milliseconds, that it takes a xLAN. You only need look at the crowds attending packet of data to make a round trip from one computer, across the internet to another and back live eSports finals, and the thronging masses at to the originating computer. The data packet carries basic information regarding player location, the Armageddon Expo to see that none of that direction and so on, and is crucial to any online game played with others. How susceptible a game enthusiasm has gone, only been re-channeled. is to latency depends on the genre of the game. Fast-paced action and racing games require very But if you really want to see how fast low latency of less than 100ms (ideally, less than 30ms) to be playable, since they rely heavily on broadband has helped the gaming world evolve, reflexive movements by the gamers. Slower turn-based games will play well at higher latency levels. just point your controller at Twitch.tv.

thedownload.co.nz Vocus | Mark Callendar 15

Mark Callendar

couple of years has grown exponentially through No muppets some major acquisitions. These days it has a market capitalisation of $A3.5 billion (NZ$3.7 Vocus is our third-biggest telco. It’s little known but it has a big billion) on the ASX and is the fourth largest Australian telco, with 28,000 kilometres of fibre game-plan that sounds eerily like the All Blacks’ game-winning in the ground across Australasia. It deals with strategy – and a no muppets rule. Be prepared to hear more about more than 500 content partners. this big, quiet telco. The two acquisitions that had the most impact in New Zealand were the $115.8 million purchase BY NIKKI MANDOW of New Zealand fibre-optic cable network operator FX Networks, in 2014. This gave Vocus ASK THE AVERAGE Kiwi to list the top three KFC and other restaurants in 110 countries. access to government, business and ISP clients internet service providers in New Zealand Then there is the Altria Group, the US$17 billion in New Zealand. Then, in December 2015, came and chances are they will nail the top two – ($23.7 billion) name behind Marlboro cigarettes. a A$3.8 billion merger with fellow Aussie telco, Spark and Vodafone. But when it comes to Vocus is a Sydney-based telecommunications M2. The M2 deal significantly bolstered Vocus’ the number three player, there is a strong company whose New Zealand brands include residential broadband presence in New Zealand, possibility they will not only be wrong but some of our best-known ISPs – Slingshot, Orcon, because M2 had, in turn, bought New Zealand’s they won’t even recognise the name: Vocus Flip and Maxnet on the residential side; 2Talk and CallPlus (with its brands Slingshot, Orcon, Flip Communications. CallPlus for business. It has 22 data centres and and 2Talk) earlier, in April 2013. Vocus is one of a strange breed of large 4,200km of fibre in the ground this side of the These acquisitions mean Vocus NZ now has a companies whose brands are better known Tasman and 700-plus New Zealand employees. 14 percent share of the home broadband market. than their company name. Think Yum! Brands, It also has hardly any profile. Its New Zealand chief executive Mark Callander the US$11 billion (NZ$15.3 billion) restaurant The company began life in 2008 as an (on his third set of business cards in 18 months, company, with 37,000 Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Australian B2B telco provider, and over the last after heading – in quick succession -– CallPlus, M2

2016 / Issue 3 16 Vocus | Mark Callendar

. .

. .

and now Vocus) aims to lift that to 25 percent. He player, 2degrees, which has 23 percent of the challenges”, says Callander. The company does believes this is achievable over the next five years. mobile market but accumulated losses of offer mobile plans, and about 15 percent of new “Our ambitions are to connect one in four almost NZ$400 million. Nothing came of any Slingshot broadband sign-ups bring their mobile Kiwi homes and businesses, whether it’s discussions, if indeed they actually happened. business with them, he says. through our retail brands or our wholesale Lynch says a deal “isn’t on the cards as such, but He reckons a 25 percent market share is partnerships. And we are heading in the right is possible.” Callander isn’t commenting, except possible without mobile. But, in the meantime, the direction. M2 and Vocus are good at acquisition, to say, “This is the telco market, so there are company is fighting for change to give fuller and and the Kiwi brands have been good at organic always rumours.” more flexible access to telcos without a network. growth. This is now translating into Vocus being Still, he admits that right now “mobile is hard Don’t write that ambition off. They might a credible alternative to the big guys.” work. It’s a massively competitive market, and it’s just get what they want, says Craig Young, So, what’s out there to buy? Spark, Vocus and tough to compete without your own network.” chief executive of the Telecommunications Vodafone between them arguably account for Instead, Vocus has negotiated a mobile virtual Users Association of NZ (TUANZ). CallPlus, 90 percent of the broadband market, but there network operator (MVNO) agreement with under Callander’s leadership, had a reputation are plenty of small ISPs in the other 10 percent Spark, although “the MNVO market has some for creating edgy brands that disrupted the Vocus could potentially buy, says Australian market. Various CallPlus brands were pioneers telco commentator Grahame Lynch, publisher in introducing unlimited data and calling of CommsDay. packs. And it was CallPlus that challenged the Meanwhile, as an aggressive number 'Telco moves so fast you big media players’ blocking of international three player, Vocus will also be looking to need to be constantly content, by introducing the ‘Global Mode’ snaffle customers from Spark and Vodafone. bypass option. The company was also a strong Commerce Commission figures show Vocus’ scanning the horizon and force in the decade-long fight to unbundle the “qualified revenue” (the measure ComCom ready to move in a new local loop. uses to determine the development levy – “Vocus is an important player in the New see table) rose nine percent in the year to 30 direction. You need to Zealand market, and has been a successful June 2016. By contrast, revenue at Spark and build a great team, and challenger,” says Young. “New Zealand is a hard Vodafone fell slightly. market, with two larger players and a long tail One thing Vocus does lack is a grunty mobile trust in that team.' of smaller ISPs, which is not uncommon around proposition. Earlier this year industry rumours the world. But we need that competitive tension. Mark Callander, CEO, Vocus NZ suggested the Australian company might be a We need people to take on the big players. Vocus suitor for New Zealand’s third largest mobile has that desire.”

thedownload.co.nz 17

STILL TROUBLESOME unconventional, are part of the plan to attract pushing the limits of the rules of the game to Callander says being bought by Vocus hasn’t and retain staff in the business, and promote take on – and even beat – far bigger players? affected the company’s ability to be troublesome Vocus in the industry. Although Callander baulks at comparing – rather the reverse. “Our increased size has “Don’t be a dickhead”, “Don’t screw the himself with the former All Blacks rugby grown our ability to disrupt.” customer”, “Have a crack” and “Clever captain, his rules of engagement sound just a bit And it’s not just on the retail side, says Callander. company. No muppets” are all values, and they All Black-esque. While Vocus’ domestic broadband brands are more are designed to encourage staff to be disruptive “The key to winning is always understanding conspicuous in the market than the government – in a good way, says Callander. the rules of the game and using them to your and business sides of their business, the latter two “They are quite stark and they change how advantage. There’s a real element of competition bring in just under half of the company’s revenue. you deal with the customer. We want to be a to it, and it doesn’t always go your way. But how “Each of my business units has targets and company that believes firmly in winning but you respond in these situations is most important. the resources to grow. There’s no favouring one doesn’t work like other companies. We want “Telco moves so fast you need to be business unit over another – in fact, focusing on people who will do what’s necessary to push the constantly scanning the horizon and ready to a range of sectors is a strength of the business.” rules and boundaries to get to market quickly, move in a new direction. You need to build a He says the New Zealand arm is “pretty but who are going to be accountable and aren’t great team, and trust in that team. You need to autonomous” and that won’t change in the going to pass the buck when it comes to the show them what success looks like and empower foreseeable future. Nor does he plan to abandon customer,” says Callander. them to go after it. You need them to truly the company’s suite of brands in the retail and Whether Vocus succeeds in taking on the believe in what you are trying to achieve across business markets, although he wants to increase likes of Spark and Vodafone is anyone’s guess – the company, and their values need to align with the profile of the Vocus name, particularly as a it’s a big ask. But talking to Callander has weird this, otherwise there is no passion to deliver the recruitment tool. strains of interviews with senior All Blacks best for customers. The Australian company’s values (see figures of recent years. Does Callander aspire “And you simply have to want to win.” below), which can only be described as to be the Richie McCaw of the telco industry, Heard that anywhere before?

GROWING IN A TOUGH MARKET Commerce Commission figures released on October 31 showed Vocus to be the number three ISP in New Zealand, with year-on-year qualified revenue* growth of nine percent. Both Spark and Vodafone saw CLEVER COMPANY HAVE NO MUPPETS. A CRACK. qualified revenue fall. We are awesome people with We detest bureaucracy, we a great attitude, unleashed and collaborate to find a smarter way, Telco Qualified Qualified empowered to do our job. we take risks, we act decisively and revenue revenue we celebrate our wins. 2014/15($m) 2015/16 ($m) Spark 1,610 1,600 Vodafone 1,166 1,111 Chorus 938 939 2degrees 248 307 Vocus (including CallPlus)** 131 143 Teamtalk 40 39 Vector 24 24 DON’T SCREW DON’T BE THE CUSTOMER. A D!@KHEAD. * These Commerce Commission figures were gathered for the purpose of calculating We put ourselves in the customers’ We respect each other, we value the telecommunications development levy. “Qualified revenue” figures exclude money shoes, we make it easy to buy and relationships and we have the paid to other telecommunications companies for services. The figures are for the financial year ended 30 June 2016. easy to use. hard conversations. ** In 2014/15 (pre-merger) revenue figures for Vocus and CallPlus figures were $101 million and $29 million, respectively.

STOP Just as The Download went to press, Vocus became the first New Zealand telco to buy an energy company. Vocus NZ chief executive Mark Callander said its Slingshot brand would start offering customers PRESS broadband, landline, mobile, gas and electricity services on the same bill from early next year.

2016 / Issue 3 18 Next generation technology | 5G mobile

A new generation of cellular technology is on the way. Wireless companies and carriers hope to have the first 5G networks operating by 2020. What can you expect from these fast new networks?

BY BILL BENNETT

WIRELESS CARRIERS and equipment makers 5G is controlling driverless cars. Too much lag Carriers and equipment companies all say are keen to talk about 5G cellular. At this stage, in the network could prove fatal. Today’s 4G words to the effect that the 5G network will give it is still mainly talk. They can’t agree on what networks are just not up to the job. Nor can they users the impression of infinite speed and infinite 5G is yet. They haven’t even decided how much respond fast enough for data-heavy applications capacity. It’s marketing talk, but effective. spectrum it needs or which bands to use. like simultaneous language translation, which They all talk about connecting billions There are areas where everyone agrees, allows speakers of different tongues to chat on of devices as part of the so-called Internet- however. Every definition of 5G includes a their phones. of-Things (IoT). In addition to controlling promise of faster wireless speeds and shorter Huawei, the world’s largest driverless cars, the 5G network will be able response times. Most say it will be capable of telecommunications equipment maker, believes to pilot drones and connect kitchen fridges to downloads of up to 10 gigabits per second. Some its 5G network will be able to handle one million supermarkets. It will also be able to control say these speeds will be symmetric. connections in a square kilometre. That’s one robots and track remote sensors, measuring Almost every 5G plan includes a response connection per square metre, about 1000 times anything you can put a number on. time, or latency, of less than 1 millisecond. This the density of connections that today’s 4G Some industry insiders say 5G will be able is vital. One of the proposed applications for networks can manage. to stream 4k, and, before much longer, 8k

thedownload.co.nz 19

THE NEXT GENERATION As the name suggests, 5G is the fifth generation of cellular wireless technology. A new generation turns up thought about network This generation swapped circuit- From around 2010, carriers roughly every 10 years, that’s just generations. The first wave of switching for packet-switching. began moving to 4G networks. about frequent enough to keep cellular networks was strictly 3G meant we could access any These made greater use of IP telcos’ spending on a continual analogue and needed brick-sized information from anywhere that (internet protocol) which made investment hamster wheel. In phones. In the early 1990s the was in broadcast reach of a cellular mobile broadband practical. many parts of the world 4G first digital cellular technologies tower. It made clunky video Each succeeding phone networks are only just being rolled appeared. In hindsight, this was transmissions possible. Looking generation has meant higher data out now. Here in New Zealand labelled as the second generation. back, a more important change speeds. The emphasis on data over there are still areas where cellular Mobile data didn’t take off was that it became practical to voice has increased with every coverage is only 3G. until a decade later when the send high-resolution images. upgrade. Each upgrade has also When mobile phone technology first 3G network appeared in the You can blame 3G for selfies. The brought new frequency bands to was still shiny and new, nobody first decade of the new century. technology also suited social media. the mobile party.

Today’s 4G networks mainly use frequency The future is here: bands below 3 gigahertz. This is running The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion research out. As the adage goes: “They aren’t making car and its immersive user any more of it”. Moving to a new generation experience is an innovative network means tapping into higher frequencies. perspective into the future of mobility and will rely Although there are issues with higher frequency heavily on the latency of spectrum bands’ characteristics, they can be 5G technology. useful in densely populated areas. One problem is that thin obstacles can block high frequency signals. In some cases, even people moving around can interfere with data streams. video to portable devices. At the Mobile World There are other forces, pulling from different Congress 2016, in Barcelona, one exhibitor directions, at the 5G plans. For the most part, talked about enabling surgeons to perform In addition to companies planning to use 5G for the Internet- remote life-saving operations. controlling driverless of-Things don’t need high bandwidth. The IoT Another half-promise made of 5G is that it is tipped to be lucrative over the coming decade, will be a truly global network. That is, you’ll be cars, the 5G network so these companies’ money carries influence able to use the same handsets and SIM cards will be able to pilot with carriers. Typically, hardware sips tiny — assuming we still use SIM cards — in every amounts of data, but device makers want their country you visit. drones and connect products to run for years on a single battery. So, To get there you can expect plenty of kitchen fridges to they want 5G to deliver less bandwidth but to be haggling and lobbying as equipment makers, supermarkets. light on power consumption. governments and telcos work through their Media companies pull in the opposite competing ideas. Some want to take a giant leap direction. They want carriers to deliver high towards an entirely fresh technology, others bandwidth so they can stream high-resolution prefer an evolution of existing technologies. movies, sports and other video. They’re not Phone-makers like Apple and Samsung won’t standard is expensive for carriers, and mobile worried about power. And financial traders want want to commit to building devices until there is network margins are wafer thin at the best of networks to minimise latency, so market trades an agreed standard. times. The proposed 4.5G technologies are little happen instantly. Gamers also want less latency. All of this will take time. In the meantime, the more than software updates — perhaps a card Another challenge for 5G is that phone owners engineers are busy at work. Not only are they swap — on existing networks. It means carriers increasingly use wi-fi connections for calls and preparing the next generation, but they are also can go on making them pay for longer. data. So many homes, offices buildings and tweaking today’s cellular technologies in a bid to One reason why carriers will be prepared to workplaces have ubiquitous wi-fi connections via deliver some 5G advantages ahead of time. pay for the expense of network upgrades is that fibre networks. They are common in cafes and You may hear talk of 4.5G. This is an interim existing 4G networks in some parts of the world high-traffic public places. Many phone owners technology delivering some of 5G’s benefits are becoming congested. Carriers can add more choose to use these networks, often at no charge. ahead of a new standard. In part, the idea is towers and build smaller sites, but only up to a For these people there’s not much need for a to get some 5G benefits to market early, but point. Eventually this kind of expansion sees fancy new mobile data network, especially if it there is another motivation. Switching to a new diminishing returns. comes with a hefty price tag.

2016 / Issue 3 20 Future of broadband | Submarine cables

Keeping the sharks at bay New Zealand may soon have four submarine cable options, ensuring a robust connection to the world even if a fascinated shark should nibble through a cable. Local businesses are also set to benefit from the ramp up in capacity and in competition, reports Rob O’Neill.

thedownload.co.nz 21

FEW COUNTRIES RELY as much on submarine cable route to the world, via the TGA cables Another consortium, Moana Cable, is due to cables as New Zealand, but we have largely feeding into Australia. It is expected to be be rolled out in 2018. Backed by the Spanish- put our faith in a single cable system, Southern commissioned in early 2017. owned Samoan company Bluesky and Alcatel- Cross. There have been breakages since it was Beyond this, the Hawaiki Submarine Cable, Lucent, Moana plans to follow a similar path to commissioned, in 2000, but because it was laid stretching from Oregon to New Zealand and Hawaiki, via Hawaii and Samoa. as a figure eight, with two separate strands, it Australia, via Hawaii and featuring a branch to However, the consortium also plans to has never failed outright. American Samoa, is scheduled for completion provide a service to other Pacific Islands, Despite this success, there have been in mid-2018. In October, Hawaiki announced including the Cook Islands. It has also signed an persistent calls for further cable investment, and cable manufacturing had started. interconnection agreement with another cable not just to boost redundancy. Southern Cross’ Hawaiki has its doubters, but the project company servicing South-East Asia. critics have also sought to increase competition, may have been bolstered in May when So, what does all this investment mean for to reduce broadband and communications costs. Amazon Web Services bought capacity, and consumers and for New Zealand? Submarine communications have a long again last month when Norfolk Island began The good news is our international links history. The first submarine communications lobbying the Australian Government for a will be more robust and secure, and, for the cable project, which connected Ireland and connection to the cable. first time, there is likely to be real competition Newfoundland, in Canada, began in 1854. It between cable operators. This will boost access to took four years to complete and transmit the international cloud services for local businesses first telegraph signal over its copper wires. and perhaps even for risk-averse government International cables are now the backbone of 'You have to plan for what agencies and financial service providers. the internet, carrying 99 percent of international It may even boost onshore data centre traffic. Expensive and difficult to lay, and you cannot expect. Given investment and prompt global cloud providers maintain, they have to be able to operate at the criticality of digital to locate nodes in New Zealand. extreme depths, resist salt water and cope with connectivity to a country The bad news is that consumers will likely errant ship anchors and even sharks, for which notice little difference. they seem to hold a peculiar fascination. today just having two Vodafone’s wholesale and operations They also have to deliver capacity. options is not enough.' director, Steve Rieger, says the market will be Spark’s general manager for wholesale and more competitive, but much of this has already international, Lindsay Cowley, says demand is Steve Rieger, Vodafone been factored into current pricing. Southern expected to grow 11,000 percent over the next Cross has been responding to the emerging 10 years. That’s the equivalent of New Zealand’s competitive threat for some time. population growing from four-and-a-half million “The consumer won’t suddenly notice a to half a billion in the same period. massive drop in the pricing for broadband New Zealand’s Southern Cross cable system because the international component now isn’t has been the country’s backbone for 20 years a high percentage of it.” and it continues to be our workhorse, having Rieger says that while international data is had several capacity upgrades since 2000. doubling every 16 months, a lot of consumer Over the years, several consortia have tried content, from service providers such as Netflix, and failed to deliver alternatives, despite is being served locally. forging partnerships with carriers and enjoying “The answer is it will provide a bit more price backing from large users such as the advanced competition but consumption is going up at such a education network REANNZ and state-owned rate it’s not going to be highly noticeable,” he says. enterprise Kordia. “The real big benefit for the country is we Pacific Fibre, backed by local internet are beginning to look at ‘triversity’, and we are entrepreneurs, including TradeMe founder Sam on the road to having four options. It is actually Morgan, cancelled its $400 million cable in 2012, extremely comforting. shortly after a planned $100 million Kordia- “You have to plan for what you cannot backed trans-Tasman link, OptiKor, was also iced. expect. Given the criticality of digital Finally, however, it seems New Zealand’s lone connectivity to a country today just having two global link is about to be buttressed by at least options is not enough.” one and possibly two new cables. Rieger says more and more New Zealand Southern Cross, half-owned by Spark, with companies operate in the cloud, using services 40 percent being held by Singtel-Optus and from the likes of Amazon Web Services, with the final 10 percent by US-based Verizon, will applications hosted all over the world. Low definitely be joined to the $70 million Tasman latency and high quality connectivity is what Global Access (TGA) cable early next year. makes this practical and possible. The 2,300km TGA, a joint project between “It’s equally possible that New Zealand will Spark, Vodafone and Telstra, and being laid by become one of the places that could host [such Alcatel-Lucent, will give New Zealand another services],” he says.

2016 / Issue 3 22 Future of broadband | Submarine cables

Rieger has no concerns about the shape of “It’s not about cost reductions, it’s about CABLES AT A GLANCE the emerging market. It will provide product improving the quality of the supply – resiliency TASMAN 2 choice for users, and redundancy and security, and capacity to manage data growth.” Half owned by Spark, this is an old, small- not just in the number of cables, but in where Cowley says the degree to which big users capacity cable now used to provide they land, with sites being spread from Raglan have access to that redundancy will depend redundancy for corporate traffic and voice. to Northland. on the agreements their providers have, either It is expected to be decommissioned once Spark’s Cowley agrees resilience is the main directly or through the cable operators’ re- Tasman Global Access (TGA) goes live in 2017. benefit of recent cable investments. On top of sellers. Some ISPs operate at a price point where increased capacity, the TGA cable will boost lower levels of redundancy make sense. TASMAN GLOBAL ACCESS the security of our connections for a growing It’s the sort of question companies need to ask Owned by Spark and Vodafone with Telstra part of New Zealand’s internet traffic, to when contracting for data services. as minority partner. It links New Zealand to Australia and Asia. Despite the imminent arrival of alternative Australia’s East Coast. “The reality is internet bandwidth is less cable systems, Cowley says we are not there than five percent of the broadband costs,” says yet. But Southern Cross’ operators are already SOUTHERN CROSS CABLE Cowley. “Even if you made these zero, and it starting to scope its replacement. The workhorse of New Zealand’s can’t be zero, the most you’d ever get is five “The cable infrastructure challenge is real, connectivity for nearly 20 years, the percent of the cost. but it’s not immediate.” 30,000km Southern Cross has been progressively upgraded since 2000, from an initial 120Gbit/s on each of its two cables, and several times since. It has a total estimated capacity of 22Tbit/s.

HAWAIKI SUBMARINE CABLE An independent cable project promising the fastest and biggest link between the US, Australia and New Zealand, at 30Tbit/s capacity.

MOANA CABLE This project aims to serve the Pacific Islands more extensively than the rest of the Raglan landing site cables, and to serve Asia too. It has 20Tbit/s Far left: Digger breaks ground on Ngarunui of capacity. Beach in Raglan as work starts on Tasman Global Access cable. Left: Cabling ship ‘Ile de Re’ Below left: Cable comes ashore at Ngarunui Beach

thedownload.co.nz Next generation technology | Digital leaders 23

Digital leaders THE NEXT GENERATION

EDUCATION HAS ALWAYS been an important Our next generation of Tuanz’s members and noticed that, as in most part of Tuanz’s mission. When it was first set other industries, the most active, engaged people up, in the 1980s, the goal was to help people in business leaders need to be have been active for a good while. Audiences at companies using telecommunications to share events tend to be older and many of these people information and to educate their colleagues comfortable in the digital have been with Tuanz for many years. That’s not about technology. world if we are to benefit a bad thing. It shows we do the right things. But At the time, such information was hard to there is a need for renewal. find. The Post Office still had a monopoly on from telecoms and digital We know from experience that people from telecoms. It was government owned, did little technologies as they the baby boomer generation are comfortable marketing and wasn’t always transparent. with these traditional kinds of engagement. Not long afterwards, the then Government converge. Tuanz is helping They go along, take part and socialise at privatised Telecom New Zealand. This meant them develop the necessary industry events. But younger people, from the X Tuanz needed to become more of an advocate. and Y generations, want to engage in new ways. But information sharing and education skills, says CEO Craig Young. And one of the best ways to get younger remained important elements of it work. They executives involved is to ask them how they still are today. The pace of telecommunications like to engage. So, we set up a leadership and technology change hasn’t slowed. And the development programme and merged blurring of lines between telecommunications it with our FLINT (Future Leaders in and other sectors is greater than ever, as is the Telecommunications) group. We then reliance on telecoms. developed a leadership group from this Today, Tuanz shares information and youthful target audience. This group now has educates members through seminars and the ideas and decides on the approach to take, training. Our popular After Five sessions keep and how to promote its programme. Doing this members informed in an informal, social gives participants an opportunity to develop setting. They update people on the latest trends their leadership and collaboration skills away and give members an opportunity to discuss from the workplace. They do the organising, issues with experts as well as their peers. while Tuanz does the support work. When I took over as Tuanz’s chief executive, At first Flint’s members came from the two years ago, we did a strategic review of the telecommunications companies, but we have organisation. We looked at who we are, what we now broadened it to include all our members. are about and where we wanted to go. One gap Tuanz members now come from the AA, we noticed was in reaching members who were Westpac, AUT and Mainfreight, and more, as at the beginning of their career. well as from Spark, Chorus and their service We want to develop future leaders in digitally companies. We have a Flint event programme, enabled businesses. This doesn’t just mean but we also encourage Flint members to attend coders or tech-engineers. We want to help other Tuanz events, so they can network with anyone in a commercial enterprise who uses senior people from other organisations. telecommunications and digital technology We are committed to developing future in their work. We want to give them the leaders because they are the ones who will experience and understanding they need to ensure New Zealand’s businesses make the build their careers. most of the new digitally connected world. It There is also another reason for developing also means Tuanz will remain effective and this next generation of professionals. I looked at relevant as the new digital future unfolds.

2016 / Issue 3 24 Next generation technology | Kurt Rodgers

BYE-BYE TO WAR OF THE REMOTES ROBIN HODGKINSON ROBIN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PHOTOGRAPHY Chorus nethead Kurt Rodgers is an avid rugby, soccer and You’re a self-confessed sports fan – what’s your poison? cricket fan – with three non-sport-watching youngsters at I like rugby. The All Blacks, of course, but I also support the Manawatu Turbos, from when I home. He tells Nikki Mandow how internet TV technology lived there, and the Hurricanes, from my time has put an end to the Wars of the Remotes at his house. in Wellington. And I’m in transition to a Blues allegiance, because of my five years in Auckland. Now, he can’t wait for ultra HD television to resolve that With the soccer, I’m a Chelsea supporter (I used frustrating ball blurring issue. to live in London near their ground) so I like to keep up with the English Premier League. Plus, I watch a bit of cricket.

thedownload.co.nz 25

How does Saturday night look at home? internet sports streaming with Coliseum, which games, launched Europe’s first ultra high- I’m the only sports fan in the house. That used to has teamed up with Lightbox. Although this year definition live sports channel. Ultra HD (also be a problem with broadcast TV. There would be they lost the live streaming rights, so it’s not called 4K) typically gives you four times as many a Super 15 rugby match on and either I watched clear if those matches will now be available. pixels in one space on the screen as normal HD. and my wife and kids did something else, or Which means high definition colour and no I didn’t get to watch. Then, about 18 months Will we see NZRU.TV? blurry balls in fast-moving sports. ago, we switched from a Sky Sport broadcast Who knows? Why wouldn’t New Zealand Rugby BT is delivering its service with VDSL fibre- subscription to FanPass. have an interest in maximising its revenue by to-the-node broadband technology, which having their product available to as many people is available to 80 percent of New Zealand Tell me about FanPass as possible, on as many platforms as possible? households. So, we have everything we need to It’s Sky’s online sports streaming service. The technology is there, and the market will get Ultra HD sport here. Bring it on! Who wants Basically, you get access to Sky Sports channels follow what consumers want. blurry balls? for a day ($14.99), a week ($19.99) or a month ($55.99) without being a Sky subscriber. And What about the future? you can watch on any device. At home, when The next big wave of innovation is virtual I get dibs on the TV, I use the FanPass app on We are building the reality and 360-degree video. It’s already my phone and airplay the feed to Apple TV, starting in the US. NBA has already broadcast plugged into the big screen. But if my wife or world’s best fibre a game live in 360-degree video. What they the kids are using the television, I can be on the network. It would be a do is they put a camera, with eight lenses on it, couch with them watching sport on my laptop next to the court, then they stream the footage with head-phones. bit absurd if we had the through the internet. People at home then put best motorway but no on a VR headset and it’s like you’ve got a front- $14.99 a day. Sounds expensive… row seat. The ball can bounce over your head I tend to go in and out. If there’s an AB test series decent cars on it. and you can turn around and look at the crowd or Cricket World Cup, I might take a week or a behind you. month, then I won’t pay for a while. Over the space of a year, it actually works out a lot cheaper. What’s in the pipeline for multi-screen Isn’t there a problem with people getting These days, all television watching in our family sports action? car sick with virtual reality video? is via the internet – FanPass, Netflix, Lightbox, In theory, you could have a rugby game live on That’s to do with a technical issue called latency YouTube and TVNZ/TV3 On Demand. your TV and watch replays, or different camera (delay or ‘ping time’). To avoid that, you have angles, on your iPad. If you follow a particular to use networks with incredibly low latency – But you’re a self-professed nethead – are player, you could have a player cam streamed to less than five milliseconds. High-speed fibre your viewing patterns typical? your smartphone. It’s not happening yet, but it’s broadband can provide that, no problem. In fact, I think consumers want to watch what they want possible. It just needs the content providers to I foresee VR being the driver for gigabit fibre. to watch; do it when they want and on the device work out how they can charge for it. they choose. And they’re willing to pay for that. Are you excited, as a sports fan – It’s been happening for a while with music – Does our vertically integrated content and a nethead? iTunes, Spotify – and it’s getting there with TV market disadvantage us when it comes I believe sport is going to be one of the and movies. For example, Netflix is investing to innovative content models and new segments that gets disrupted the most as in its own original productions. Sport is still technology? virtual reality and 360-degree video matures. catching up, but there is some innovation. I’m a technologist, so content rights are not my Fox Sports talks about being able to teleport expertise. The technology is there, so it’s about into a number of camera positions on the How is sport catching up? the value chain and the relationship between field, to give you your own view of a game. Both the Major League Baseball (MLB) and content owners and content distributors. And, So, you’d have various 360-degree cameras National Basketball League (NBA) in the US of course, what the market demands. I see no in different front-row seats on the pitch, and have developed paid match streaming services reason why New Zealand’s current market at home you could switch between them. The direct to their customers. American baseball structure couldn’t deliver on this. We are cameras can also be mounted above the pitch, fans, for example, can sign up to MLB.TV for building the world’s best fibre network. It would or on drones. So, you will be able to experience US$130 a year. They get to watch live games, be a bit absurd if we had the best motorway but fully immersive sports. I can see rugby fans plus re-live old matches on a variety of devices. no decent cars on it. absolutely loving that. English soccer club channel Chelsea TV does the same thing. What do you think is the most exciting Kurt Rodgers’ official title is Network Technology Direct club-to-consumer content hasn’t really international technology development Strategist for Chorus. Which is an official way of hit New Zealand yet, though the traditional for watching sport? saying he’s a nethead – someone who knows a lot model is changing. For two years, I got all my Last year, British Telecom, which has the rights about internet technologies and how they are going English Premier League soccer games through to stream some English Premier League football to change our future.

2016 / Issue 3 26 Across the ditch | Broadband network comparison

What Australia does better Behind the headline politics, Australia is quite a large nation, but 40 at the same time, corporate developers of new percent of its population of 24 million live in just real estate projects cannot sell or lease building Australia’s National Broadband two metropolitan areas. There are several other lots or units without fibre-ready facilities being Network is being rolled out large cities and many smaller centres, but there installed nearby. is a vast distance between these. As a result, all new developments must now to nearly all Australians – It's no surprise then that providing come with fibre access. Developers cannot reliable broadband to this population needs simply get away with leaving out copper cabling. wherever they live. It draws legislative support to make it happen. The They must ensure fibre is both available and on a detailed plan designed to Telecommunications Legislation Amendment ready to use. (Fibre Deployment) Act 2011 is the main vehicle In addition, this legislation means the realise big ambitions. providing this. appropriate pits, conduits and ducting must be BY DAVID WILLIAMS This Act provides the legal framework designed and built in to new real estate projects that governs broadband services for new real and developments as well. estate projects and developments. It amends The Act imposes financial penalties for BROADBAND DISCUSSION in Australia may the existing telecommunications legislation, non-compliance of up to A$250,000 for focus on service complaints, billing grievances stipulating significant obligations developers corporations and $50,000 for individuals for and partisan politics, but that’s not the whole must meet (as well as penalties for non- each offence. The Act also gives carriers access story. Beneath the surface, there is a lot of compliance) to ensure new real estate projects are to fixed-line equipment owned by non-carriers, thoughtful design and careful planning going fibre-ready and free of legacy copper cabling. to keep everything moving. on. And, when it comes to the details, everything Developers are now prohibited from installing There is an exclusion clause if an NBN Co is very well done indeed. fixed-line services that are not fibre optic, and, (National Broadband Network) broadband

thedownload.co.nz 27

"The focus is on bridging the digital divide between city and bush."

provider has said it cannot install fibre optic It was this same principle that first led to from Christmas Island to Lord Howe Island. As lines in a project area. In this case, the area the National Broadband Network being set with fixed wireless, Sky Muster should be able will be connected to the NBN using non-fibre up. Yet, in the vast country that is Australia, to deliver speeds of up to 25Mbps/5Mbps to technology. providing a fibre optic service to all areas is not Australians in regional and remote Australia. There are some other fine points in the economically viable. And, while fibre-optic services must be legislation, but, basically, the Act provides the So, in addition to becoming a fixed-line fibre deployed to specific areas on a practical legal framework supporting the Government's optic pioneer, Australia has also had to become schedule, Sky Muster can prioritise access. original aim to connect 93 percent of all a global pioneer in providing mobile and fixed Priority has been given to remote schools, to Australian premises to fibre. The Act came into wireless services. provide much needed educational resources effect on 27 September 2011 – just over five Accordingly, Telstra has recently announced and video-conferencing. Students and teachers years ago – and had immediate effect, covering it will trial 5G in partnership with Ericsson – will soon be able to connect, no matter how all new real estate development projects from one of only a few such test-beds in the world. geographically isolated they may be. that date, where a contract had not already been Trials using the 800MHz spectrum revealed NBN Co's 2017 plan details the prioritisation signed. This included intended building lots or download speeds of 20GBps were possible, of these under-served areas. The focus is on units, as well as urban renewal projects. with lower latency than on 4G networks. bridging the digital divide between city and Extra legislation modified the Competition and Telstra's 5G work is helping define the 5G Bush. The meticulous plan also features a Consumer Act 2011 to set up a level playing field, standard as it emerges. product release roadmap, which includes details making it illegal for a superfast network operator Meanwhile, NBN Co is busy implementing about fibre to the premises and the node, hybrid supplying residential or small business users to fixed wireless services to homes and businesses fibre/coaxial (HFC), satellite and fixed wireless. build a network if the operator wasn’t wholesale where fixed broadband access proves Another big distinction between Australia only. It also needs to supply a Layer 2 service uneconomic. This technology offers download and other countries is the plan to turn off all on an open access, non-discriminatory basis. speeds of up to 25Mbps and upload speeds of up legacy networks where fibre has been built to Operators breaching this law may be prosecuted to 5Mbps. This isn’t a mobile service but it does the home. NBN Co, which is a government and fined up to A$2 million. A superfast network use mobile technologies, again with the aim of enterprise, will gradually become the sole is presently defined as broadband with download providing access to broadband irrespective of network provider for the entire Australian speeds of 25Mbps or greater. where people live. continent as more and more premises are Introducing these laws, the then Prime The same motive lies behind the NBN Sky switched over to one central service. Minister Julia Gillard said: "All Australians Muster Satellite service, which has now seen should have access to the benefits of broadband, two successful satellite launches. This is not David Williams is CIO for an Australian of fast broadband and of access to the benefits the satellite internet service of the past, but one mining company and a part-time freelance of a digital economy." that delivers a combined 135Gbps of capacity journalist for ITWire.

2016 / Issue 3 28 Community | Cabinet art

Poets and mothers – Chorus’ cabinets celebrate people and art Chorus started a nationwide art project in 2010 that’s seen around 120 street telecommunications cabinets transformed every year since.

BY HOLLY CUSHEN

BOTH ESTABLISHED and budding artists from across the country are invited to get their creative juices flowing in a bid to display their talent. The programme has had wide benefits: aspiring artists have shown off their work publicly, and the cabinets – previously the perfect canvas for would-be taggers – now beautify the streets and, in some cases, have become meaningful, iconic local landmarks. While each cabinet is worthy of acknowledgement, Floyd Garland’s cabinet, on Wellington’s Britomart Street, is of special significance. It’s a tribute to his mother, who Poetic Dunedin Seven local poets are depicted in Victoria Heatherbell’s cabinet artwork passed away earlier this year. The colourful cabinet mural was initially intended to be a maternal depiction of a woman holding her The cabinet features seven famous local poets baby, but Floyd says the work morphed into an from around the region: Charles Brasch; Hone image of his mum. Tuwhare; Lauris Edmond; John A Lee; Denis “The image started to look more and more Glover; Janet Frame and James K Baxter. like my mum, and through the process I’ve been Victoria was amazed by the community able to feel more connected to her,” he reflected. spirit the cabinet mural evoked. As she painted Since completing the painting, Floyd has the piece she was delighted by the number of been commissioned to produce other art works. passers-by who would stop, sometimes daily, to Something he’s very excited about and which discuss her progress and reminisce about the bodes well for the young artist’s goal to make a literary figures depicted. career out of his passion. “While from an aesthetic perspective, it is pleasing to see otherwise drab cabinets DUNEDIN – THE POET’S CITY transformed into works of art, it’s also wonderful Victoria Heatherbell’s cabinet painting honours that the art project allows artists like Floyd and Dunedin’s special literary ranking. It also rallied Victoria to contribute meaningful works of art to together the community of Highgate, in Roslyn. their neighbourhoods,” says Chorus. In 2014, Dunedin became New Zealand’s first UNESCO Creative City when it was granted For more information on the Chorus Cabinet ‘City of Literature’ status – only 19 cities around Art Programme, or for information on how you Love for a mother Floyd Garland’s cabinet the world can boast this, and the privilege is one can become involved, visit our cabinet art blog at painting honours his recently deceased mother Victoria chose to honour with her work. https://blog.chorus.co.nz/cabinet-art-gallery.

thedownload.co.nz Opinion | Metaphors and the internet 29

Oh, the places you’ll go When was the last time you surfed the web? How long since you told someone you planned to travel the information superhighway? What about visiting cyberspace?

THESE DAYS, few people use these terms in a You can blame science fiction writer William His version sounds more like eating the wrong non-ironic way. Yet their legacy lives on. Gibson for a lot of this. In the 1980s, Gibson kind of mushrooms than an evening of Netflix It’s not surprising people use metaphors to talk wrote Neuromancer. The book is largely forgotten and chilling out, or doing the online banking. about computing or the internet. Heaven help us, outside of geek circles, but not the language he Gibson can take the blame for the idea that some of the ideas are hard to understand. Yes, used. Gibson came up with the term cyberspace. computers, computing and the internet are a I’m looking at you Bitcoin and blockchain. We’ve been stuck with it ever since. place. It wasn’t always so. Before Gibson it was Metaphors are useful when they aid Gibson described cyberspace as a “consensual common to talk about electronic brains. understanding. Try explaining bandwidth to hallucination experienced daily by billions of In the early days of information technology, the average lay-person and you’ll soon find legitimate operators... A graphic representation users looked at computers and saw their own yourself talking about pipes. And the Dark Web of data abstracted from the banks of every reflection. Or at least a version of themselves. neatly sums up a big, complex idea in just seven computer in the human system. Unthinkable These versions weren’t all good. Hence all the economic characters. complexity. Lines of light ranged in the non- angst about robots and artificial intelligence Some internet or computing metaphors don’t space of the mind, clusters and constellations of taking over the world. This is one reason make sense. And a few are as baffling as the data. Like city lights, receding.” why the prefix cyber- often carries negative, concepts they attempt to describe. At times, they That’s not what most people think of today threatening implications. make understanding harder, not easier. when they hear the term. Well, not all of us. Today, these places are everywhere on the internet. You sometimes hear Facebook, Twitter and other social media services being called meeting rooms or the town square. At least one social media service has even pitched itself as a global village. And it’s probably not escaped your attention that the popular social media service names Facebook and Twitter are themselves metaphors that don’t really describe what they are. As metaphors go, cloud is one of the most misleading. The idea it conjures up is of your data floating blissfully in a kind of cyber-heaven. In reality, your data is imprisoned in a giant, over-heated, noisy, energy-hungry data centre somewhere on the other side of the world. The closest thing to an electronic vision of hell.

Ever feel the need to voice your opinion about something that’s going on in our industry? Now’s your chance – every issue, The Download will turn over a page to an anonymous contributor to let us all know what’s on his or her mind. Think that could be you? Drop us a line at steve.pettigrew@ chorus.co.nz. The only rules are: You can’t write about your own organisation; you can’t be named; the language has to be suitable for prime time; nothing defamatory and nothing personal.

ILLUSTRATION WADEILLUSTRATION WU Otherwise, rant away.

2016 / Issue 3 30 The Benchmark | Numbers, facts and metrics THE BENCHMARK The numbers behind the rise of New Zealand’s digital economy.

DOING CHORUS MASS MARKET FIBRE BASE BY SPEED THE TON 100Mbps is the 76% new normal for New Zealand 63% 100Mbps FIBRE PLANS 50% have become the most common connection type Now 50 percent – up from 30 30% 42% percent a year ago 24% SIX OUT OF 10 fibre connections are 7% 8% 100Mbps or higher 0.03% EIGHT OUT Dec-13 Mar-14 Jun-14 Sep-14 Dec-14 Mar-15 Jun-15 Sep-15 Dec-15 Mar-16 Jun-16 Sep-16 OF EVERY 10 30Mbps 100Mbps 200Mbps+ new fibre connections are for 100Mbps or more Fibre plans of 100Mbps- plus consistently accounted for over 80 percent of monthly net additions in the SPEED IS OF THE ESSENCE September quarter Data demand Average broadband speeds are 33Mbps VDSL is surging. In growth GigCity Dunedin September the doubled in now has over Statistics New Zealand reports that of average monthly half the third broadband connections are now on unlimited plans. household data quarter 5,600 usage was 1Gbps connections In 2015 it was one-third of connections of 2016. 117GB There were This is up from Fibre productivity is increasing. In the third 20,000 103GB in June. quarter of 2016 there were around new VDSL We forecast it connections 38,000 new connections. will reach This compares with 31,000 170GB in the previous quarter in 2018

In the last three months, there were 360,000 broadband checks on made on Chorus’ broadband checker (www.chorus.co.nz/broadband-checker)

thedownload.co.nz 31

AVERAGE BROADBAND SPEEDS HIT 33MBPS The average connection speed across our network is 33Mbps, up from 30Mbps in June, as fibre and VDSL uptake grows.

1,400,000 33 35 At the start of Mbps the UFB project 1,200,000 30 the average was Average Connection Speed (Mbps) 10Mbps, 1,000,000 25 today it is 33Mbps 800,000 20 The average connection speed 600,000 15 across all Chorus

Active Connections networks as of 400,000 10 September 2016 is 10 Mbps 33Mbps 200,000 5 – up from 30Mbps in June 0 0 – as fibre and May-11 Nov-11 May-12 Nov-12 May-13 Nov-13 May-14 Nov-14 May-15 Nov-15 May-16 VDSL uptake grew ADSL ADSL2+ VDSL2 GPON Average Connection Speed

STRONG GROWTH IN INTERNET TRAFFIC UFB take-up and streaming services are producing an exponential growth in internet traffic. 120 0.75

0.70 110

0.65 50 percent growth 0.60 100 Average throughput per user

Average Monthly Data Traffic (GB) 0.55 WatchMe debuts Traffic growth now at 100% per Broadband Connection 90 0.50 Freeview launches streaming service April 2016: 200,000 UFB connections 0.45 80 0.40 100,000 UFB connections Data traffic (GB) 0.35 70 Netflix launches in NZ Internet traffic is now 0.30 growing at roughly Mbps March 2012: Traffic growth 0.25 Quickflix 60 100% becomes NZ's tracks PER YEAR first movie & around 0.20 50% twice the pre-UFB rate. TV streaming Growth is driven by factors service 50 such as: 0.15 • Broadband penetration, August 2014: • Proportion of faster 0.10 Spark launches 40 connections Lightbox • Streaming video 0.05 Traffic data not available 0.00 30

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

2016 / Issue 3 32 The Benchmark | Numbers, facts and metrics

FIBRE CONNECTIONS USE MORE DATA

200 In September, the average copper 180 connection used 102GB 160 of data; the average for fibre 140 connection used

120 193GB

We estimate that by 100 July 2017 the average across all connections 80 will reach around 170GB 60 Almost half of 40 all homes now have unlimited 20 broadband ) per broadband connection usage (G B ) per broadband monthly data Average data plans 0 Oct-15 Nov-15 Dec-15 Jan-16 Feb-16 Mar-16 Apr-16 May-16 Jun-16 Jul-16 Aug-16 Sep-16

Copper Fibre Average

UNLIMITED PLANS ARE NOW THE NORM Share of residential connections by data cap1. In June 2016, 100% 51 percent of residential broadband 90% customers were on unlimited plans. 80% This is up from 33 percent in 2015 and eight percent in 2014 70% Around 90 percent 60% of customers using the Glimp comparison site to choose 50% broadband plans switched to unlimited plans 40% 117GB September 30% average monthly household data usage 20% (up from 103GB in June) 102GB average on copper and 10% 193GB on fibre

Our data suggests average 0% 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 ~170GB by July 2017 Note: Two hours streaming Unlimited 100GB or more 50GB to 100GB 20GB to 50GB 5GB to 20GB Under 5GB per day is average for Netflix subscribers – one hour of HD Notes: (1) Source Stats NZ ISP survey June 2016 video uses 2GB to 3GB

thedownload.co.nz BLENHEIM AND NELSON LEAD THE PACK

UFB UPTAKE BY REGION 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

1 BLENHEIM

2 NELSON

3 AUCKLAND

4 ROTORUA

5 P.NORTH

6 DUNEDIN

ONE 7 TIMARU THIRD 8 WAIUKU of customers connected to the 9 ALL CHORUS AREAS UFB networks in Blenheim, Nelson 10 ASHBURTON and Auckland have taken up the service 11 MASTERTON Blenheim 12 NAPIER/HASTINGS REMAINS THE 13 WELLINGTON LEADER

14 INVERCARGILL Fielding, Waiuku, Waiheke Island, 15 OAMARU Pukekohe, and Nelson show the 16 GREYMOUTH strongest increase in uptake during the 17 TAUPO last quarter

18 PUKEKOHE A BIG INCREASE DURING THE 19 QUEENSTOWN SEPTEMBER QUARTER MEANS 20 WAIHEKE IS. OVERALL UPTAKE NOW APPROACHES 21 WHAKATANE

30% 22 FEILDING

23 LEVIN

December 2015 24 GISBORNE March 2016 June 2016 25 KAPITI September 2016

2016 / Issue 3 N O