Download Weekly: Kordia Exits Public Safety Network Contract

Friday, 9 August 2024, 12:41 pm
Article: Bill Bennett

Tait takes control of Next Generation Critical Communications network build

Kordia has pulled the plug on the joint venture it formed with Tait Communications to build the Next Generation Critical Communications network.

The move leaves Christchurch-based Tait holding the contract to build the network.

To reflect the change of ownership, what was formerly the Tait-Kordia Joint Venture Company has been renamed as Tait Systems NZ.

Kordia says it will continue to work on the land mobile radio network project as a subcontractor.

The LMR network will replace the communications systems used by Police, Fire and Emergency, Hato Hone St John and the Wellington Free Ambulance service.

Tait Communications CEO Yoram Bent says Tait Systems has the right structure to deliver the project on schedule. It is due by the end of 2026. He says it has scaled up and reshaped operations while adding experts and additional resources.

LMR is an encrypted digital radio network that will be shared by New Zealand’s emergency services. It will replace the existing network which uses older technology that, in some cases, is increasingly hard to support and nearing end of life.

Kordia’s interim CEO Neil Livingston says the move means his company will now be able to focus on bringing its core strengths in infrastructure and network services the to the project as well as locating equipment on Kordia-owned sites.

Tablet shipments leap in second quarter

New iPad Pro and iPad Air models featuring the company’s M3 and M4 processors played a starring role in Apple’s third quarter 2024 result. Revenue for the company’s tablets was up almost 24 percent year-on-year to US$7.2 billion.

In its results call to journalists and analysts, Apple said the increased sales of these new models indicate strong demand and customer interest in the latest iPad offerings.

Apple sells more tablets than any other brand, so good times for the iPad can mean good times for the sector as a whole. Data from research company Canalys says worldwide tablet shipments increased 18 percent in the year to the second quarter of 2024, which is the same period as Apple’s third quarter.

Rival research company IDC counted a 22.1 percent growth in the same period. IDC says Apple’s iPad sales climbed everywhere except China where it faced competition from local players Huawei and Xiaomi.

As with the phone market, Apple and Samsung dominate tablets. The Korean company has a 20 percent market share. Beyond the two leaders are three Chinese companies, Lenovo, Huawei and Xiaomi in that order.

InternetNZ doing the .kiwi mahi

The owner of the .kiwi top level domain is now buying registry services and support from InternetNZ.

It’s a curious move because InternetNZ, the organisation behind the .nz namespace, is a not-for-profit operation, while
.kiwi is a privately owned operation that has been in business for a little over a decade. The two compete in the same market and will continue to be competitors.

InternetNZ says it signed the contract to provide services to .kiwi after receiving legal advice about competition law.

The two may be competitors, but they are not remotely close in size. InternetNZ manages over 700k .nz domains while there are around 11k .kiwi domains. The majority of .kiwi domain owners also have a .nz or .com domain.

Datagrid fills executive ranks

Alfred Au Yeung, Pierre-Emmanuel Goiffon and Pauline Martin have joined Southland-based Datagrid as the company moves forward on plans for a data centre development in Makarewa near Invercargill.

Alfred Au Yeung will become the company’s senior vice president of sales and business development. Au Yeung has recently been working as a consultant and before that was head of strategic projects and network infrastructure investments for Telstra.

Incoming chief technical officer Pierre-Emmanuel Goiffon previously worked in the corporate and government team at Vocus New Zealand, (now 2degrees). While senior energy manager Pauline Martin has had roles with Genesis, Mercury and Mighty River Power.

In other news...

Intel: Our balance sheet is a smoking ruin, but we think our new chips work
The headline on Simon Sharwood’s story at The Register pulls no punches as what was once the world’s leading chip maker attempts a comeback. Or at least tries to catch up with rivals who have been eating the company’s lunch.

Turn off 2G support on your phone if you can, to avoid SMS Blaster attacks
Timely and important advice from Juha Saarinen at interest.co.nz although he makes it clear that many people reading the story won’t have the option of turning off 2G support.

Data centres are guzzling up too much electricity. Can we make them more efficient?
At The Conversation academics Paul Haskell-Dowland and Bogdan Ghita start with some startling statistics which go some way to explaining why New Zealand’s Datagrid makes so much noise about the sustainability of its data centre project:

The International Energy Agency reports global data centre electricity consumption could double in a few short years, reaching 1,000 terawatt hours (TWh) by 2026. That’s roughly the same as generated by the whole of Japan per year.

Some predictions estimate 8–10% of the planet’s electricity production will be needed to sustain the relentless growth in data centres.

These figures are not uniformly distributed across the globe. In Ireland, where the sector is incentivised, data centres are predicted to exceed 30% of the country’s electricity demand within the next two years. Similar reports predict an increase in Australia from 5% to 8–15% of electricity by 2030.

Mobile Backhaul Transport Market Forecasted to be US$24.5 Billion Over Next Five Years
The Dell’Oro Group estimates that mobile backhaul transport equipment demand will reach US$24.5 billion from 2024 to 2028. It says slower 5G rollouts have seen the numbers revised down, but the longer term picture remains solid.

Tech with Bill Bennett
Hear me talking about how the Foreign Investment Fund (FIF) tax rules are a barrier stopping talented professionals from staying or returning to New Zealand on RNZ Nine to Noon with Paddy Gower. We also cover last week’s AI-linked crash in tech stock prices and the ruling that Google acted illegally to maintain its search monopoly.

© Scoop Media

Bill Bennett

Freelance journalist.

Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.

His emphasis is on telecommunications, but he also covers other aspects of technology and business. You can find his features in the New Zealand Herald and hear him regularly on RNZ Nine to Noon and the NZ Tech Podcast.

Bennett's The Download Weekly newsletter is published every Friday. You can sign up for it here. If you want to support his work, you can make a donation to his PressPatron account.

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