Mobile Service Providers

Forums › New Zealand Mobile and Wireless › Mobile Service Providers - Frequencies

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

KiwiSurfer

1722 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 993

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3439976 3-Dec-2025 22:04

Jamry23:

Nice! Benefit of having Lte900 (band 8) is from what I can see around 80% of devices that don’t support LTE700 (Band 28) support Band 8. So those grey market US /China/ India sourced phones that don’t support B28 should have better LTE coverage with that deployment. Likely 100’s of thousands of such devices out there. Should help their experience through 3G switchoff too. Wonder if other operators will follow suite or doing so already to?

These devices probably won't get VoLTE so will be risky using these as 111 calls/texts won't work -- so will not help after 3G switchoff. Any grey market US/China/India phone should go in the bin and should never have been sold in NZ. Will not be a lot of these I hope -- certaintly not the 100,000s you think.

2degrees has used L900 since they turned off G900 in 2018. It was one of the reason they managed to deploy rural LTE fairly quickly from 2018 onwards. When they turned off 2G they basically went through all their old sites swapping out G900 for L900. Newer ones generally came with L700 from the start.

PolicyGuy

1820 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1769

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3440104 4-Dec-2025 10:54

A forum post on NASASpaceFlight.com (here: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=57037.msg2739501#msg2739501) claims that One NZ has changed frequency use for Starlink Direct-To-Cell (DTC) access.

One New Zealand ceased operations on 5x5MHz 1780-1785 on August 15th.

(The quote above is unattributed in the forum post so I can't validate its authenticity)

A later post (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=57037.msg2739521#msg2739521) has this as One NZ shifting from B3 to B5 and from 5MHz to 15MHz bandwidth for DTC:

grantius

88 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 53

#3440125 4-Dec-2025 11:52

Frustrating they haven't put the add-on for the prepaid Sims yet for starlink which stopped working on the 1st, otherwise I'd test it

KiwiSurfer

1722 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 993

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3440265 4-Dec-2025 17:48

Fab info about Starlink, have added to the Band 7 details.

Also updated Band 8 to reflect the growing deployment of One NZ LTE -- now shows GSM, LTE and UMTS as configured in Northland/Auckland/Waikato/Wellington. I assume the deployment is actually much more than just those regions however.

Added Spark EARFCN 38854 to Band 40. Quite rare but I still see it every now and then where the upgrade to NR hasn't happened yet. When the NR deployment is more widespread I'll update this.

Noted that Spark has increased to 100 MHz in Band 78. Just not sure how widely deployed this is yet.

coffeebaron

6304 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3567

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3440288 4-Dec-2025 20:34

Yeah noticed One NZ Space-X started camping on band 7 (L2600) a couple of months ago.

Rural IT and Broadband support.

Broadband troubleshooting and master filter installs.
Starlink installer - one month free: https://www.starlink.com/?referral=RC-32845-88860-71
Wi-Fi and networking
Cel-Fi supply and installer - boost your mobile phone coverage legally

Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com

Jamry23

9 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#3440291 4-Dec-2025 20:58

KiwiSurfer:

Jamry23:

Nice! Benefit of having Lte900 (band 8) is from what I can see around 80% of devices that don’t support LTE700 (Band 28) support Band 8. So those grey market US /China/ India sourced phones that don’t support B28 should have better LTE coverage with that deployment. Likely 100’s of thousands of such devices out there. Should help their experience through 3G switchoff too. Wonder if other operators will follow suite or doing so already to?

These devices probably won't get VoLTE so will be risky using these as 111 calls/texts won't work -- so will not help after 3G switchoff. Any grey market US/China/India phone should go in the bin and should never have been sold in NZ. Will not be a lot of these I hope -- certaintly not the 100,000s you think.

2degrees has used L900 since they turned off G900 in 2018. It was one of the reason they managed to deploy rural LTE fairly quickly from 2018 onwards. When they turned off 2G they basically went through all their old sites swapping out G900 for L900. Newer ones generally came with L700 from the start.

Many Iphone 11’s don’t support band 28 yet support emergency calls. Suspect Still lots of these out there. Heard there was an issue in Australia with the quantity behind those too at 3G Switch off

Dyson

Shop now for Dyson appliances (affiliate link).

MaxineN

Max
2050 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1664

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#3440292 4-Dec-2025 21:29

Jamry23:

KiwiSurfer:

Jamry23:

Nice! Benefit of having Lte900 (band 8) is from what I can see around 80% of devices that don’t support LTE700 (Band 28) support Band 8. So those grey market US /China/ India sourced phones that don’t support B28 should have better LTE coverage with that deployment. Likely 100’s of thousands of such devices out there. Should help their experience through 3G switchoff too. Wonder if other operators will follow suite or doing so already to?

These devices probably won't get VoLTE so will be risky using these as 111 calls/texts won't work -- so will not help after 3G switchoff. Any grey market US/China/India phone should go in the bin and should never have been sold in NZ. Will not be a lot of these I hope -- certaintly not the 100,000s you think.

2degrees has used L900 since they turned off G900 in 2018. It was one of the reason they managed to deploy rural LTE fairly quickly from 2018 onwards. When they turned off 2G they basically went through all their old sites swapping out G900 for L900. Newer ones generally came with L700 from the start.

Many Iphone 11’s don’t support band 28 yet support emergency calls. Suspect Still lots of these out there. Heard there was an issue in Australia with the quantity behind those too at 3G Switch off

The 11's sold in NZ do support Band 28. It's the American ones people need to watch out for when it comes to B28.

B28 in the American variants only came on the 13.

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

boosacnoodle

1275 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 859

#3440295 4-Dec-2025 22:33

KiwiSurfer:

Noted that Spark has increased to 100 MHz in Band 78. Just not sure how widely deployed this is yet.

I am seeing this in south west Christchurch.

MaxineN

Max
2050 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1664

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#3440296 4-Dec-2025 22:50

@gajan you're probably in a position to comment, is that particular site that barely covers a particular building made out of overly thick concrete on Sir William Pickering Drive now n5 enabled?

😉

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

MaxineN

Max
2050 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1664

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#3446235 22-Dec-2025 08:52

KiwiSurfer:

LOL I looked all over Auckland yesterday for n7 and couldn't find any! I did see some sites still operating L2600 so obviously still some work to do before they can roll out NR2600 more widely.

Found some more N2600 with L7 as the uplink in Matua.

ARFCN 528970

360mbps DL and 15mbps UL from my BnB.

Not bad.

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

KiwiSurfer

1722 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 993

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3446377 22-Dec-2025 14:39

MaxineN:

KiwiSurfer:

LOL I looked all over Auckland yesterday for n7 and couldn't find any! I did see some sites still operating L2600 so obviously still some work to do before they can roll out NR2600 more widely.

Found some more N2600 with L7 as the uplink in Matua.

ARFCN 528970

Interesting they're using NR2600 in a different part of the spectrum to what is currently being uitlised by L2600.

Band 7 looks to be allocated as follows:-

2500-2515 - One NZ Starlink LTE (15 MHz)
2515-2535 - One NZ NR (20 MHz)
2535-2555 - Spark for LTE (20 MHz)
2555-2570 - One NZ LTE (15 MHz)

Unfourtuate for One NZ to have Spark splitting their rights down the middle though...

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

coffeebaron

6304 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3567

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3446472 22-Dec-2025 18:27

KiwiSurfer:

Interesting they're using NR2600 in a different part of the spectrum to what is currently being uitlised by L2600.

Band 7 looks to be allocated as follows:-

2500-2515 - One NZ Starlink LTE (15 MHz)
2515-2535 - One NZ NR (20 MHz)
2535-2555 - Spark for LTE (20 MHz)
2555-2570 - One NZ LTE (15 MHz)
Unfourtuate for One NZ to have Spark splitting their rights down the middle though...

It's called a Spark-Gap :)

Rural IT and Broadband support.

Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com

grantius

88 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 53

#3468548 10-Mar-2026 18:00

grantius:

My local tower in Pokeno for One I now have n7:

And since the 3g shutdown on One, now there's no n7 on this tower :( maybe someone misclicked haha

1 | 2 | 3 | 4