New Zealand offers Starlink mobile service
February 12, 2024
By Chris Forrester
New Zealand telco one.nz is offering clients a new collaboration with SpaceX to provide Starlink satellite to mobile service. Beta testing is available now for emergency messages.
“When the service goes live, there will be a Starlink satellite to mobile service for far greater coverage than available now. Whether you’re out on your boat, climbing a mountain, fixing a remote road or on your farm – we’ve got the safety of New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses front of mind,” said the operator.
“We’ll be able to provide coverage where it hasn’t been before. We will introduce a text service late 2024 and data and voice will follow in 2025. We’re taking coverage and connectivity further than ever before, with one giant leap towards the most advanced and safest network in the country,” continued one.nz. Customers will need one.nz’s ‘VoLTE’ roaming capable service.
The telco added that it is pairing its existing 4G and 5G mobile network with SpaceX “and their revolutionary satellite constellation” which means far greater coverage of the country’s 104,428 square mile geography.
The telco says that when the service is fully enabled to include voice and data (by the end of 2025) the client will still need direct line of sight to the sky in order to see a satellite. It adds that most smartphones will be able to connect.
One.nz explains that while they serve 99 per cent of the places where New Zealanders live and work, but the length and geography of the country means that almost 50 per cent of the country’s landmass still has no mobile coverage.