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Spark and Huawei switch on New Zealand’s fastest mobile site

4 May 2016

Spark and Huawei switch on New Zealand’s fastest mobile site


Spark and network partner Huawei have enabled the first 4.5G mobile site in New Zealand at Spark’s Hereford Street exchange in Christchurch. Reaching 1.15Gbps (gigabits per second) in a speed test today, it is the fastest mobile data speed in New Zealand, and three times faster than the highest recorded speed on the Spark network.

4.5G is an evolution of the 4G technology that is already available to 90% of where New Zealanders work, live and play on the Spark network, and until now has not been trialled or commercially available in New Zealand.

Spark New Zealand Managing Director Simon Moutter says it gives Kiwis a glimpse into the future of the 4.5G mobile era and demonstrates Spark’s commitment to continually bringing the best innovation to New Zealand.

“The faster speeds of 4.5G will truly help unleash more New Zealanders’ potential, meeting our customer’s demands to do more and wait less. Today’s customers are consuming data-rich services and applications, and just as 4G was a quantum leap over 3G, 4.5G will begin to enable new technologies like 4K video, and virtual and augmented reality for our customers,” Moutter said.

The new technology has been deployed on a combination of 2300MHz spectrum - only acquired by Spark a few weeks ago - and the existing 2600MHz and 700MHz range.

Spark Network ahead of devices

There are no phones or modems in New Zealand that currently support the full range of 4.5G features, which means the Spark network is now ahead of devices.

However, a number of devices including the Huawei P9, Samsung Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6s support some of the features that make up 4.5G, so customers with these devices will be able to enjoy download speeds at least twice as fast, when they are connected to the Hereford Street mobile site.

ends

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