News that major telcos may soon be offering satellite connectivity over mobile phones has been welcomed by farmers living far from urban areas.
Newly branded One NZ, formerly Vodafone, announced on Monday that it had done a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX StarLink to provide connectivity to mobiles in areas without cell coverage.
This could be a game changer for people like Sam Hain and his family who owned a remote East Coast farm.
They’ve got broadband at their home and farm buildings on their property 50 kilometres west of Gisborne through a local Wireless Internet Service Provider, but the moment they’re out of reach of the wi-fi, they are out of touch entirely.
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Hain said from a safety, convenience and resilience perspective, having mobile connectivity throughout the countryside would be hugely advantageous.
“If something goes wrong when you’re out on the farm and down a gully, being able to send a text to say I’m in trouble would be incredibly handy.”
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Gisborne Farmer Sam Hain said satellite connectivity over cellphones could be a game changer
During the recent cyclone, they lost all connection to the outside world for a week.
“If something like [Cyclone] Gabrielle comes along, or an earthquake, when the cellular network goes down, we wouldn’t lose our connectivity.”
Hain said it would give him “a massive sense of security” to know his wife and daughter could contact someone with their mobiles if something happened while they were out and about.
One NZ said initially it would be offering text messaging services, including MMS, via its satellite relationship with StarLink, and would be later expanding into voice calls.
“In a lot of emergency situations a text is all you need, or just to be able to say ‘can you come and give me a tow out’, or something like that. I can see there’s real value in it for farmers and others that are outside the usual coverage areas,” Hain said
StarLink operated a network of satellites, and in recent years had become a viable option for New Zealand broadband users who were poorly served by the cellular broadband network.
2degrees announced on Monday that it would trial technology that enabled customers to connect via satellite.
Reed Hoffmann/AP
Elon Musk’s SpaceX StarLink satellites can bring broadband to most places on the planet.
Federated Farmers board member Richard McIntyre said despite the Government’s investment in rural broadband networks, the Feds’ regular surveys showed the services had been getting worse because of overloaded cellular towers.
”This is an awesome step forward, especially for those farmers who are a long way from fibre in mountainous regions and don’t have good cellphone coverage.”
One NZ said it would allow any mobile users, including Spark and 2degrees customers, to roam on its StarLink service and send emergency messages in the event of a disaster similar to the cyclone.
McIntyre said having another player in the satellite mobile connectivity space would be good for consumers.
“It will be good to have competition in that area.”
He said the “great unknown” about this week’s announcement was how much it was going to cost.
Hastings farmer Anthea Yule of Otamauri said this connectivity improvement could be “enormous” for people like her with no cell phone coverage.
She said it would give her a sense of safety when on the quad bike, and a phone with data could become their “office in the pocket”, when normally they would have to wait until they got back on their home wi-fi network.
After Cyclone Gabrielle took out her landline for a month Yule said the news of better connectivity was good news.
“With all the drama with the cyclone and the communication failings, this is going to be enormous going forward.
“That’s a pleasant surprise in what’s been quite a difficult year for us.”
