Spark New Zealand amps up nationwide holiday coverage

Media release
22 December 2014

Spark New Zealand amps up nationwide holiday coverage

With the holidays almost upon us, Spark New Zealand has put the finishing touches on its biggest ever series of mobile capacity upgrades to over 250 holiday spots around the country to cope with the expected surge in demand over the festive season.

The upgrades cover sites all over New Zealand including in the Coromandel, the Bay of Plenty, East Coast beaches, the Waikato, the lakes of central North Island, and popular South Island holiday areas such as the Queenstown Lakes and Wanaka regions and the Nelson and Blenheim areas.

In anticipation of the influx, Spark New Zealand is also powering up around 80 brand new 4G mobile sites across the country just in time for Christmas Day, on both the 700MHz and 1800MHz radio spectrums, and is also using mobile cell-sites at key locations and special events to give locals and holiday-makers better access to mobile data throughout summer.

Spark Connect Chief Operating Officer David Havercroft says, “We are seeing a big change in consumer behaviour as more and more customers are using smartphones in new and innovative ways. This is particularly noticeable in the holiday season. Last year some parts of the Spark Network saw 500 percent increases in data uploaded than the year before.

“Rather than sending the odd ‘happy new year’ text, many customers are now uploading data rich content like photos and videos and using mobile and social media apps instead of texting or calling.

“Better access to mobile data makes it faster and easier for customers to do the things they already love to do on their smartphones such as watching videos, streaming music on the go or uploading photos to social media, whether they’re at the beach or minding the sausages on the BBQ.

“While it’s not always easy to cater for some of the extreme and seasonal spikes in demand that can occur in relatively remote locations, we’ve been investing tens of millions of dollars and working hard upgrading capacity to help keep customers connected all summer long - and help New Zealanders share that perfect selfie of themselves on New Year’s Eve.”

Spark New Zealand anticipates demand for mobile data in holiday areas will be higher this year than last and has doubled the amount of capacity upgrades on its existing mobile network to cater for the expected spike.

Spark has also installed portable mobile sites in Mangawhai, Pauanui, Raglan, Mt Maunganui and Wanaka to ensure customers who spend their summer break in these popular spots have better mobile coverage despite the big spike in the population over the Christmas and New Year period.

Portable mobile sites will also be installed at many of the special events and concerts taking place over the holidays, including at Rhythm & Vines, and Rhythm & Alps, where Spark is teaming up with global music giant Spotify to bring festival goers access to the world’s best festival tech on their wrists. In a New Zealand first, every Rhythm & Vines, Rhythm & Alps and BW RFID (radio-frequency identification) wristband will allow attendees to connect, collect and share their festival experience, as part of the #MyFestivalStory initiative.

ENDS

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