Queenstown among first to get 5G

Queenstown will be among the first places to get 5G when Vodafone New Zealand rolls out the new network in December. 

Vodafone New Zealand's new owners have officially taken control today - promising a more nimble operation while still having access to Vodafone's technology and global roaming (though some of the gloss was knocked off the latter with a 40% roaming price rise earlier this month).

The new owners have hit the ground running, announcing the 5G network launch in Queenstown and main centres Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in December - giving it a jump on rivals Spark and 2degrees, which are mired in Huawei's political troubles. 

Nokia Networks will be its technology partner as revealed by The New Zealand Herald yesterday.

More than 120 cell sites will be upgraded to 5G, while another 400 or so will get a souped-up version of 4G called 4.9G (marked by some telcos offshore as "5G").

It also announced a series of early 5G customers including NZ Police, Westpac, BNZ and Westpac.

Details are still emerging, but the Herald understands Vodafone will utilise 3.5GHz spectrum it already owns while it waits for the Crown's spectrum auction, which has been delayed by an iwi claim.

5G (see chart below) offers many times the speed of today's 4G mobile networks and none of the lag.

Before the Infratil deal, Vodafone boss Jason Paris questioned whether 5G was worth the investment at a time when customers were not likely to pay more for 5G plans. A hologram call demo at today's 5G launch was impressive (bar a brief audio glitch) but hardly an example of workaday utility.

Vodafone says it's early customers, including emergency devices, show the technology's more practical benefits.

NZX-listed Infratil - best known for its infrastructure and utility assets such as Wellington Airport and its half-share in Trustpower - teamed with Canada's Brookfield Asset Management to buy Vodafone's NZ operation for $3.4 billion.

Vodafone NZ chief executive Jason Paris remains in charge of management, while Infratil chief executive Marko Bogoievski (Telecom CFO during the 2000s) will head the telco's board.

The company will continue to use the Vodafone brand under licence.

Paris and Marko Bogoievski say they plan to accelerate Vodafone NZ's push into "fixed wireless" or using the company's 4G mobile network - instead of a landline - to deliver broadband into a home.

And both say they're open to shared infrastructure builds to save money - opening the way to Vodafone NZ potentially working cooperatively with Spark and 2degrees as the three telcos embark on 5G mobile network upgrades.

Paris also has plans to boost the profile and market share of Vodafone TV.

Earlier this week, Vodafone NZ CFO turned new 2degrees boss Mark Aue told the Herald "it will be interesting to see how it goes after the parental handcuffs are taken off."

Paris - who earlier bemoaned his company was the last in NZ to offer an unlimited data mobile plan says we'll see faster rollouts of new products.

The ownership change comes on the heels of a sweeping restructure that saw some staff culled and roles outsourced to Indian-owned Tech Mandra.

The restructure was originally designed to whip the company into shape for an NZX listing in early 2020.

But while the company is now going private instead, Paris said the changes were necessary in any case to make the company more efficient and free up cash to invest in new technologies.