Dense Air NZ Ltd

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Dense Air NZ Ltd

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#261361 23-Nov-2019 08:20

https://www.sparknz.co.nz/news/Spark_switches_on_5G_wireless_broadband/

“We’ve used our own 2600 MHz spectrum allocation and have worked with Dense Air, a large 2600 MHz spectrum holder in New Zealand to enable us to deploy 5G services. 5G has already launched in this band in the USA, and will be a major 5G band in Asia. This has allowed us to set up a 5G network for a limited number of customers in Alexandra with more locations to come. We will continue to deliver 4G services to Alexandra, but over our other spectrum bands,” Beder said.

Wondering if I can safely assume that all Dense Air New Zealand Ltd RSM licenses ultimately end up being Spark services? Eg:

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#2359732 23-Nov-2019 13:38

It will probably depend of what Dense Air's long term plan is. Are they planning on setting up their own open access network or something? So anything may change long term, especially once the spectrum is auctioned off.

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#2359738 23-Nov-2019 14:04

Yep valid.

Another way to phrase the question would be, are they working with anyone else currently or should I treat all RSM Dense Air Ltd cell licenses as used by Spark until further notice?

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#2359745 23-Nov-2019 14:20

I don't think this will necessarily be exclusive to Spark. If you look at their intentions, they plan to be open access / wholesale.
https://www.computerworld.co.nz/article/649939/dense-air-wants-expand-nz-cellular-networks-small-cells/

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#2359751 23-Nov-2019 14:35

Alright - I'll add them as a separate entity for now.

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#2359959 24-Nov-2019 09:06

The tie up between Dense Air and Spark is intersting.. And from what I've been told is definately not as clear cut as Spark are trying to say it is ("we're just using Dense Air's spectrum")

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#2360760 26-Nov-2019 08:48

Yeah starting to appreciate that. Would be nice if they put the provider they're enabling in the location name like the Westport location above so people know what service is what, unlikely to get that sort of consistency though.

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#2362350 28-Nov-2019 15:25

http://denseair.net/dense-air-acquires-2-6-ghz-spectrum-assets-in-new-zealand/

Googling around it seems that Dense Air plan to be a fourth network operator that wholesales access to other providers (the AT&T of New Zealand ??) and isn't fussy.

Paul Senior, CEO of Dense Air said “We are very excited about the opportunity to bring completely new type of wholesale service to New Zealand network operators. Dense Air’s service offering will complement the existing 4G investments carriers and the planned 5G deployments. By adding neutral host 4G and 5G small cells, running in licensed spectrum to networks at cell edge, either outdoors or indoors we can dramatically improve the service experience to end users, increasing speeds and network capacity. Importantly Dense Air doesn’t and won’t compete in any way with existing retail service providers. Our mission is to help MNOs and MVNOs improve their business case for pervasive 4G and 5G networks by densification”.

What is Dense Air?

An optimised network densification and network extension service.
Solution delivered using Indoor and Outdoor Small Cells
Service operates in licensed, dedicated spectrum
Dense Air small cells provide services on a “Neutral Host” basis
We support 4G LTE and soon for 5G NR networks
Services are offered on a wholesale “Carrier of Carriers” basis
We DO NOT compete with Mobile or Fixed Operators or other retail Service Providers
Our services are delivered in Urban, Suburban or Rural areas
The focus is on mobile use cases, including eMBB, IoT, Public Safety

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#2362351 28-Nov-2019 15:33

They should team up with Chorus, buy heaps of spectrum at the next auction and build a massive network!

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#2362358 28-Nov-2019 16:06

coffeebaron:

They should team up with Chorus, buy heaps of spectrum at the next auction and build a massive network!

Dense air are much smaller than Chorus, what would they bring to the table?

But on the point of Chorus buying spectrum,

Has anyone speculated if Chorus might "bid up" the price at auction, especially when Spark and VF have made it clear they see fixed 5G as an avenue to compete with UFB ( particularly for light users) ....

The supermarkets do it all the time, buying up the sites around their competitors so when they want to redevelop they are forced to build expensive multi story buildings as opposed to cheaper tilt slab sheds surrounded by acres of bitumen,

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#2362360 28-Nov-2019 16:11

coffeebaron:

They should team up with Chorus, buy heaps of spectrum at the next auction and build a massive network!

Chorus are too much of a fan of their 60ghz options to do that ;)

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#2362366 28-Nov-2019 16:37

coffeebaron:

They should team up with Chorus, buy heaps of spectrum at the next auction and build a massive network!

Wholesale a wireless fibre network to RSP's?

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#2362413 28-Nov-2019 20:16

sbiddle:
coffeebaron:

They should team up with Chorus, buy heaps of spectrum at the next auction and build a massive network!

Wholesale a wireless fibre network to RSP's?

Correct!
Chorus have been making noise about all the 5G spectrum should go to them to build the 5G network. Would be interesting to see if they stump up some cash to actually build one.

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#2362512 29-Nov-2019 07:25

Been having a play around on my local dev version of the site. Have added Dense Air as their own provider:

This tower has been setup that it's pretty obviously Spark, nicely named and the gear has been installed on the Spark tower. Some of the other ones aren't like that. Going to be a mixed bag eventually to figure out what service is available from their equipment I imagine.

Will make all of this live at some stage over the weekend.

edit uploaded image properly

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#2364566 2-Dec-2019 12:30

Frustratingly... Some of the Dense Air licenses have been registered against their own location even if the physical location happens to be an existing one, eg in the Westport example above they have been installed on a Spark tower but it's a Dense Air location. Others have been registered against an existing Spark location. Suspect this is down to the RSM representative doing the work. Just makes a bit harder to programmatically derive/present what is going on.

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#2367801 3-Dec-2019 21:10

Have updated the live site now with Dense Air, this is a visual representation of what I was talking about above:

There's some stacked Dense Air towers, eg at Alexandra.

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