Nokia announced that it has been selected by Spark,New Zealand’s largest telecommunications and digital services company, to support its accelerated 5G rollout, which will provide 5G coverage to approximately 90 percent of the population by the end of 2023.
The deal will see Spark deploy Nokia’s latest 5G RAN technology across a large part of the rollout, while simultaneously upgrading 4G at these sites using Nokia products. The upgraded service will provide Spark customers with 5G connectivity, bringing faster speeds and additional capacity.
Under the deal, Nokia RAN equipment will be used to upgrade parts of Spark’s mobile network using products from its latest AirScale radio portfolio, all powered by Nokia’s energy efficient ReefShark System-on-Chip technology.
These new products have the potential to help deliver up to 10x faster data speeds to Spark’s mobile and wireless broadband customers, while consuming much less energy than earlier generations of network equipment. Nokia’s AirScale portfolio equipment is also software upgradeable from 3G/4G to 5G, enabling Spark to remotely upgrade 4G sites to 5G, when required. Together this energy efficiency and upgradeability makes Spark’s network investment future proof while also lowering its total cost of ownership.
Rajesh Singh, General Manager of Value Management at Spark New Zealand
We’re immensely excited about bringing 5G to approximately 90 percent of New Zealand’s population by the end of calendar year 2023 and to provide the foundation that we believe will support Kiwi businesses across a range of industries to adapt, transform and grow in an increasingly digital world.
Rob Joyce, Chief Technology Officer of Australia and New Zealand at Nokia
By helping Spark be 5G ready and reduce its total cost of ownership with our AirScale products, it can deliver 5G much faster and further than before, allowing its consumer and enterprise customers to reap the rewards of 5G in more and more places across New Zealand.
