Rumours about Spark NOC ?

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decibel

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#321510 23-Aug-2025 16:10

I have heard a rumour (in the pub; where else?) that Spark are shifting their NOC out of Hamilton to India !

Now I have nothing against India, after all, they do speak English and do play cricket but I would have thought that this was a step too far.

Anyone able to enlighten me? Enlighten us all?

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#3406809 23-Aug-2025 16:46

Wouldn't be surprising, they seem to be having layoffs every other week in IT services at the moment.

freitasm

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#3406812 23-Aug-2025 16:49

Not a "rumour".

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/spark-confirms-jobs-will-go-as-it-outsources-to-ai-networking-partner/H423GM5DAVHPNPBSDZUDZ77EWM/

Spark has confirmed it is close to another major outsourcing deal - this time affecting its networking and operations team - but won‘t confirm the number of roles that will go.

A source told the Herald a deal with Nokia could result in 200 jobs going from Spark, “replaced by workers in India and AI”, leaving just 14 in-house roles in the division.

In April, Spark announced an expanded contract with Indian outsourcing giant Infosys. The spokeswoman said the latest contract was with a different party.

Nokia - which could not be immediately reached for comment - has been Spark’s primary mobile network partner since 2019.

The telco switched to the Finnish telecommunications infrastructure company for its 5G upgrade after the GCSB blocked a plan to go with its incumbent, China’s Huawei.

Nokia has “global delivery centres” in the Indian cities of Chennai and Noida, which deliver a portfolio of services to key customers globally.

https://www.thepress.co.nz/a/business/360794782/spark-reins-back-broader-digital-service-ambition-after-17-profit-drop

Spark has reported a 17% drop in its annual net profit to $260 million and its board has approved a five-year strategy that will see it move away from “a broader digital services ambition”.

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toejam316

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#3406957 23-Aug-2025 23:56

Without going into too much detail for fear of stepping in the proverbial, I can confirm as an impacted individual myself and many of my colleagues have either lost their job entirely (the majority), taken up a new role under Nokia (a minority), or changed into an alternative role within Spark (a very small number).

There's a small onshore contingent of those who were offered roles under Nokia, with the expectation being that 99% of operational function will be handled offshore or by AI. I will reserve my thoughts on the matter, but greatful for the time spent working with the impacted individuals. Unfortunately I can say with confidence Spark lost a lot of talented indivduals, and the way it was handled has almost certainly burnt a few bridges with those talented individuals.

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insane

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#3406963 24-Aug-2025 06:58

Sorry to hear that, that must be gutting!

Not that many SOCs in country either, let alone Hamilton so this will be very impactful to those families :(

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#3407093 24-Aug-2025 18:41

Definitely a few families impacted, if anyone happens to want to hire Transport/OTN Engineers, Network Engineers, Mobile Network Engineers, or Network Operations Engineers, I can pass on some contact details, I know a few people looking.

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#3407097 24-Aug-2025 19:14

Sad news indeed 😢

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lucky015

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#3407748 27-Aug-2025 05:53

Ah, going for the full Enable experience after it's gone so, so well for them I see. (Although not mass migrations in this instance)

decibel

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#3411089 4-Sep-2025 14:23

While I find the loss of many talented engineering staff regrettable, my other concern was the fact that network control was passing to an overseas country.

A while back, the government was concerned that government data might end up in some overseas "cloud" and made moves to have it kept onshore.

No such concern here apparently.

Does any minister care or even know?

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#3411149 4-Sep-2025 15:08

decibel:

Does any minister care or even know?

The latter.

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freitasm

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#3411157 4-Sep-2025 15:19

decibel:

Does any minister care or even know?

Yes.

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yitz

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#3411162 4-Sep-2025 15:25

The FBI already paid a visit about a month ago...

So much is already run by overseas vendors, for example the DCEFS internet filtering is run by Allot an Israeli company.

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decibel

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#3411262 4-Sep-2025 15:51

In 2014, New Zealand was one of the five founding members of the D5 group of nations.

Today, there is a small website about it on www.digital.govt.nz

[ rant deleted ]

We are going to end up as digital slaves in our own land.

MaxineN

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#3411264 4-Sep-2025 15:55

decibel:

While I find the loss of many talented engineering staff regrettable, my other concern was the fact that network control was passing to an overseas country.

A while back, the government was concerned that government data might end up in some overseas "cloud" and made moves to have it kept onshore.

No such concern here apparently.

Does any minister care or even know?

Whilst I'm not affected by this directly... The fact that less jobs are appearing and it's being offshored is not just soul destroying for those affected... It's heart breaking for those who wish to join or rejoin the sector (such as me).

We need more jobs in the country in this sector... Not less... And you need people who are extremely passionate and dedicated...

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

yitz

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#3411312 4-Sep-2025 19:55

I would imagine a lot of the 200 roles going would have been related to copper shutdown because copper ran on a completely separate access and transport network to fibre due to the Telecom/Chorus split. Not saying there was not additional restructuring or outsourcing to that but just shows how hands on copper technology was.

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#3411313 4-Sep-2025 20:01

The moral of the story here is look after yourself because noone else will and certainly not the government or large corporates.

WFH Linux Systems and Networks Engineer in the Internet industry | Specialising in Mikrotik | APNIC member | Open to job offers | ZL2NET

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