Telecommunications in New Zealand

Telecommunications in New Zealand are fairly typical for an industrialised country.

Fixed-line broadband and telephone services are largely provided through copper-based networks, although fibre-based services are increasingly common. Spark New Zealand, Vodafone New Zealand, 2degrees provide most services.

Mobile telephone services are provided by Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees, although a number of smaller mobile virtual network operators also exist.

History

The first telegraph opened in New Zealand between the port of Lyttelton and Christchurch on 16 June 1862.[1] The line was constructed along the Lyttelton - Christchurch railway line.[1] The Vogel Era from 1870 saw a major expansion of the telegraph network, including an inter-island cable.[1] Telegraph lines increased from 699 miles (1,125 km) in 1866 to 3,170 miles (5,100 km) in 1876.[2] The first overseas telegraph cable between Australia and New Zealand began operation on 21 February 1876.[1]

The Electric Telegraph Department formed to manage the growing telegraph network was merged with Post Office Department to form the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department in 1881.[3]

Following early experiments with telephones on telegraph lines, the colonial government established a state monopoly in telephony with the Electric Telegraph Act 1875.[1] By 1900 there were 7,150 subscribers to telephone services.[4] Telephony subscriptions grew greatly over the next century, it was estimated by 1965 that 35% of New Zealanders had a telephone.[5]

By the 1980s there was major telephony traffic congestion on the New Zealand Post Office network.[6] In Auckland, the central exchange was overloaded and "verging on collapse"[6] elsewhere in New Zealand users often experienced network overloading and crashes.[6] The New Zealand Post Office was highly inefficient, being hamstrung as a government department and required to apply to the Treasury for capital investment.[6] As the Post Office was a monopoly, it had no incentive to improve customer service.[6]

The monopoly over telecommunications came to an end in 1987 when Telecom New Zealand was formed, initially as a state-owned enterprise and then privatised in 1990.[7] Competition began in the early 1990s, greatly reducing prices. The first competitor to market was Clear Communications, a consortium of North American and New Zealand businesses. Chorus, which was split from Telecom (now Spark) in 2011,[8] still owns the majority of the telecommunications infrastructure, but competition from other providers has increased.[7] A large-scale rollout of gigabit-capable fibre to the premises, branded as Ultra-Fast Broadband, began in 2009 with a target of being available to 87% of the population by 2022.[9] As of 2017, the United Nations International Telecommunication Union ranks New Zealand 13th in the development of information and communications infrastructure.[10]

Telephones
Further information: Telephone numbers in New Zealand and List of mobile network operators of the Asia Pacific region § New Zealand

Mobile phone system

Fixed-line telephone system
  • Number of fixed line connections: 1.92 million (2000)
  • Individual lines available to 99% of residences.
    • Operators:
      • Chorus Limited
        • A large numbers of ISPs (referred to as "retail service providers") retail Chorus' connections to personal and business customers. Chorus does not retail internet connections.

Radio

Television
Main article: Television in New Zealand
  • Television broadcast stations: 41 (plus 52 medium-power repeaters and over 650 low-power repeaters) (1997)
    • These transmit 4 nationwide free-to-air networks and a few regional or local single transmitter stations. Analogue was phased out between September 2012 and December 2013
    • Digital Satellite pay TV is also available and carries most terrestrial networks.
    • Freeview digital free satellite with a dozen SD channels, with SD feeds of the terrestrial HD freeview channels.
    • Freeview, free-to-air digital terrestrial HD and SD content.
    • Cable TV is available in some urban areas with Vodafone's broadband services.
    • See also: List of New Zealand television channels
  • Televisions: 1.926 million (1997)

Internet
See also: Internet in New Zealand
  • Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 36 (2000)
  • Internet users: 2.11 million (2002)
  • Fixed internet connections: 1.24 million (2013)
  • Country code (Top level domain): .nz

Telecommunications Development Levy
Main article: Telecommunications Development Levy

The government charges a $50 million Telecommunications Development Levy annually to fund improvements to communications infrastructure such as the Rural Broadband Initiative. It is payable by telecommunications firms with an operating revenue of over $10 million, in proportion to their qualified revenue.[23]

gollark: Say, do you have any secret scrypt ASICs?
gollark: Under heavy load.
gollark: Plus the GPU power supply seems to be broken a bit because it buzzes unpleasantly.
gollark: Anyway, I could do it on my laptop, but then I'd have to reboot *that* and it'd all be very annoying.
gollark: Remember our voice call?

See also

References
  1. Newman 2008, Chapter 1.
  2. Lloyd Pritchard 1970, pp. 131-132.
  3. Shoebridge, Tim (11 March 2010). "Mail and couriers – Mail in the steam era, 1850s–1890s". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  4. "An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand - Post Office". Te Ara: Encyclopedia of New Zealand. 1966. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  5. "An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand - Post Office - Inland Telecommunications". Te Ara: Encyclopedia of New Zealand. 1966. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  6. Newman 2008, Chapter 3.
  7. Wilson, A. C. (March 2010). "Telecommunications - Telecom". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  8. "Telecom separation". Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  9. "Broadband and mobile programmes - Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment". www.mbie.govt.nz.
  10. "2017 Global ICT Development Index". International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  11. "Warehouse Mobile".
  12. "Telecom New Zealand Website – Information about mobile network". Archived from the original on 8 March 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  13. "Digital Island".
  14. Putt, Sarah (29 September 2011). "CallPlus switches from Vodafone to Telecom for mobile". Computer World. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 11 July 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. Vodafone NZ Website – Information about mobile network and 4G LTE
  17. http://www.bw.co.nz/
  18. "More mobile choices for NZ". Stuff. 8 September 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
  19. https://www.koganmobile.co.nz
  20. O'Neill, Rob (30 March 2017). "Tasman Global Access cable lights up". ResellerNews. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  21. Ryan, Sophie (9 December 2015). "Here's what New Zealand's internet looks like". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  22. https://www.zdnet.com/article/hawaiki-cable-rollout-completes/
  23. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

Further reading
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