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Hi there,Welcome to the Spark Wholesale e-newsletter
Cables, satellites, cricket and dolphins: This month we have an update on the SX Next cable arriving in New Zealand, and an interesting webinar from Spark IoT on how drones and AI are helping to save NZ's very own endangered Maui dolphin.
17 July marked 50 years since the official opening of the Warkworth Satellite Earth Station. Earlier this year, we took Spark's inhouse videographer and a drone to film the facilities - you'll find the video link in the article below.
In February, Spark announced a review of infrastructure assets, with the aim of driving greater capital efficiency, increased resilience and better experience for customers. Spark has a significant infrastructure asset portfolio, and has seen an increased interest in quality infrastructure assets. If you’re looking for data centre or co-location space in NZ, get in touch with our team.
Our e-newsletter is intended to provide better visibility on wholesale products, projects we're supporting, relevant industry updates and more. We'll keep it informative and interesting, but if you'd prefer to unsubscribe you can do so at the foot of this email.
The team at Spark Wholesale
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29 July marked an important milestone with Southern Cross Cable Network for the Southern Cross NEXT cable, which will launch early next year. The new cable will be critical in future-proofing New Zealand’s global connectivity and supporting the growth of technologies like 5G and IoT.
Along with a significant capacity increase, the cable will form a third route in the Southern Cross ecosystem, connecting New Zealand with key markets including Australia, Fiji and the United States, and make a step change in connectivity for the communities and industries of Tokelau and Kiribati. It also represents the first step in a replacement strategy for the current Southern Cross cable which is due for retirement in about 2030.
Pictured above: Dean Veverka, CTO and Director of Operations (SCCN), Mark Lambourne, Product Owner - International Data Products (Spark Wholesale NZ) and Craige Slootes, Director of Product Marketing and Sales (SCCN)
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This week, Spark and CCL announced a significant expansion of our Takanini data centre in Auckland - adding 10MW to scale the site to over 13MW, alongside a data centre upgrade at the Mayoral Drive Exchange.
It reflects the massive growth in cloud in New Zealand, both private and public. It’s a big investment that means Spark will have significant capacity to continue working with Government, Enterprise and our Wholesale customers to help their move to the Cloud. And for more of New Zealand’s cloud to be hosted in secure, modern New Zealand data centres operated by a Kiwi company.
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17 July 2021 marked 50 years since the official opening of the Warkworth Satellite Earth Station (WRW SES). New Zealanders could now watch overseas events live on TV, rather than wait for footage to be flown over from Australia days later.
Today, the Warkworth SES remains New Zealand's largest, purpose-built satellite earth station and has more traffic than ever before. But the use of the site has changed over the years from its original purpose of connecting New Zealand to the world with voice communications.
Our satellite customers range from SKY TV for their satellite TV service, AUT use the largest satellite (pictured above) for astronomy research and Inmarsat connect those in remote places (like boats and planes over the Pacific Ocean) enabling communication with land and access to the internet.
For islands like Tokelau, Niue, Chatham Islands and Scott Base, Warkworth provides the only means of communication with the outside world. For other islands like Tonga, backup links are provided so locals don't completely lose communications when the single cable to Tonga Tapu fails, as it recently did when a ship anchor pulled the cable for 100m before severing it.
For those out of town or overseas, we recently put together a video, showcasing the facilities.
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Thanks to our Spark Sport team and New Zealand Cricket, we recently had the Black Caps and the mace at Spark City as part of their whistle-stop tour of New Zealand.
Along with the silverware and fresh from their ICC World Test Championship win, several of the Black Caps took time out for a few photos. Travis Scanlan, Glenn D'Souza and Vineet Pewal from our Sales and Service team tried to get their hands on the mace, however special gloves were required!
Spark Sport is a sports streaming service, owned and operated by Spark NZ, offering a range of local and international sporting options (only available in NZ).
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Our friends at Spark IoT hold a regular series of webinars with topics ranging from water management to the way we teach and learn.
In a time when we are faced with so many environmental challenges, one organisation is using the power of technology to help save the world’s rarest dolphin. MAUI63 have developed an AI-powered tracking drone to autonomously find, follow, and uniquely identify Māui and Hector's dolphins.
Tane van der Boon, MAUI63 co-founder & CEO discusses how they are using drones, AI and data modelling to help stop the world’s rarest dolphin population from dropping below 63. Tane also talks about what is on the horizon for the organisation and how they will continue to use technology to help save the species and solve other environmental issues.
You can watch Tane's webinar here or past webinars via the link below.
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Our products include:
and more
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We offer a wide range of wholesale digital services. If you'd like to learn more on how we can help your business, check out our website or get in touch to arrange a coffee or a chat.
We look forward to catching up with you soon!
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Our products include:
and more
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