New Zealand’s direct-to-cell revolution

In this edition:Khurram Shahzad on satellite challengesWill satellites overtake fibre and mobile?Chorus TimeSyncComCom fibre reviewDatagrid signs Tasman Ring contractSpace-based cellular networks are reshaping Aotearoa’s market. Bill Bennett interviewed Khurram Shahzad, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner to get the big picture.Starlink fixes pain points and creates new onesWhile mobile networks cover roughly 98 percent of New Zealand's population, they only reach about 50 percent of the landmass.Unlike Australia's metro-centric population, New Zealand has far more people living outside major urban centres. This partly explainslow-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites have seen record per-capita uptake here.For mobile operators, direct-to-device (D2D) solves a specific problem.Shahzad says: “The biggest pain point of telcos is that they had the expectation by the regulators that they will provide universal coverage. This is just not economical. By partnering with Starlink, that burden is…