Russell Brown goes off the grid on Great Barrier Island to see out what it takes to get the local community online and connected. In the lead-up to Christmas on Aotea Great Barrier Island, locals were bracing for the deluge. Every holiday season, the island’s permanent population of around 900 multiplies and this summer, with … Read more
How do productive people use their phones to their advantage? In the first part of a new series, The Spinoff asks Vodafone NZ’s head of platforms Sharina Nisha how she makes her phone work for her, and the apps she considers crucial. Sharina Nisha is the head of platforms at Vodafone NZ, a short title … Read more
When it works, wifi feels like magic; when it doesn’t, it feels like the world has stalled. The Spinoff spoke to Vodafone wifi expert Mark Beaton about how its rapid evolution is changing the way we live and creating better connections. In the early years of the internet, it was all about plugging in. Surfing … Read more
The Ones to Watch programme has landed in New Zealand, providing up and coming musicians with a platform for their work and an opportunity to showcase their music to a wide range of audiences. The Spinoff talks to emerging artists RIIKI and Park Rd about where they’ve come from, and where 2020 has taken them. … Read more
The global pandemic forced millions inside and online, changing the way the world interacts and does business, and accelerating technology adoption. George Driver discovers how this year, New Zealand brought the future a little closer. March 22, 2020: I am standing at the door of my tent in a deserted campground on a Northland beach, … Read more
Some of the smartest people in the country examine the effects of the pandemic on Aotearoa’s future in 400 words or fewer. Read part one here. Beyond the horrific global death toll and the economic shutdowns, there is hope that Covid-19 will allow us to build a better society in the future. While much of … Read more
Some of the smartest people in the country examine the effects of the pandemic on Aotearoa’s future in 400 words or fewer. There are few corners of society that Covid-19 has not touched. From healthcare to the economy, education to professional sport, the pandemic has changed the way we interact with each other and the … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: SFO files charges against two people in connection with NZ First Foundation, tourism industry holding out Christmas bubble hope, and Advance NZ go to court over debate exclusion. Just days before voting starts, we got an update yesterday on the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the … Read more
A tragedy in four parts. INT. DIMLY LIT BASEMENT – MORNING Danny awakens and kicks off his Star Wars duvet. He picks up his phone to check if anyone responded to his incendiary revelation about Jacinda Ardern’s Covid-19 mind control experiment on Reddit last night. He stares at his phone in mute horror. There at … Read more
Ehara i te mea kua whakaturehia te kawenga kia aro ki Te Tiriti o Waitangi i te rāngai tūmataiti pēnei tonu i te rāngai tūmatanui. Heoi anō rā, e rongo ana te ao pakihi i ngā kura mātauranga ka hua ake i te tika o te mahi ngātahi ki te Māori. Read the English language … Read more
Engaging with Te Tiriti o Waitangi isn’t mandated in the private sector like it is in the public sector. But businesses are discovering the wealth of knowledge to be found through meaningful engagement with Māori. Read the Māori language version of this story here. Embracing te ao Māori represents an opportunity for New Zealand businesses … Read more
When Covid-19 forced New Zealanders to live most of their lives online it exacerbated the effects of digital exclusion. Jean Teng spoke to the organisations that kept vulnerable communities connected during the pandemic. From job hunting and banking to watching TV and scrolling through the news, there is hardly a corner of modern life untouched … Read more
Competition for customers is fierce among telcos, but which mobile plans offer the best value for money? We compare them to find out. When I was in high school more than a decade ago, mobile plans were about as simple as you could get. There were just two providers (Vodafone and Telecom, née Spark) with … Read more
In the 90s, the so-called information superhighway was more of a dirt road. Now it’s a multi-lane motorway. Vodafone NZ’s Sharina Nisha explains the technology that makes it all possible. They used to call it the information superhighway. Back in the heady days of the 1990s, the term was used to describe the burgeoning potential … Read more
Over lockdown, people who worked live gigs had their careers shut down. Thanks to technology, the connection between music makers and audiences grew and now, they’re more in sync than ever. In the final days of level two, Auckland venue The Tuning Fork tested the waters of post-Covid connection. Soul singer Hollie Smith was performing … Read more
With little warning, Covid-19 has meant many New Zealand businesses can no longer operate in the way they previously knew. Charles Anderson spoke to some of these businesses about rapidly adapting to a new normal. Recently on a Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stood in a room full of socially distanced journalists and name-dropped … Read more
Whether to connect with friends and colleagues, catch up on news, or stave off the boredom with bingeable TV, we’ve all been on our devices a lot more than normal. Vodafone has released a summary of its traffic stats for the past six days, which compares phone calls, broadband, and mobile data use against the … Read more
Richard MacManus finds out how 5G will help Auckland smarten up by building better relationships with its citizens. In its latest Smart Cities Index, Swedish company EasyPark ranked Auckland 58th out of 100 worldwide cities. Decidedly average. But it gets worse, I’m afraid. In the same list, Auckland was ranked 85th out of 100 cities … Read more
At Vodafone HQ on the North Shore, a multinational team is working to build a network which will change New Zealand. Duncan Greive watches the birth of 5G. The fridge is basically the same as those at workplaces across New Zealand, groaning with beer and little else. It looks like any other modern double door, … Read more
NZ phone companies and the government are setting up a system that will identify scam callers within hours and, they hope, stop them in their tracks, the Spinoff can reveal. We’ve all received them. The calls from strange corners of the world at odd times of the day. After I made the mistake of answering … Read more
Vodafone TV is yet another damn thing to plug into your television – but one you really should take a look at, says Duncan Greive. What is it? A small box – about the size of a sandwich – which you plug into an HDMI port on your television, along with a simple remote to … Read more
New Zealand’s biggest ISP said it would prefer to see intervention by the censor’s office, but in light of 8chan’s role in terrorism from Christchurch to Texas, access would be blocked should the site resurface. New Zealand’s biggest internet service provider says it will block 8chan after the extremist website was implicated in the white … Read more
Vodafone just announced that they’ll be flicking on the new generation of mobile signal in four centres before the end of the year. Hold the phone. What just happened? In an all singing, all dancing, all hologramming extravaganza at its Auckland HQ, Vodafone announced that it will be switching on a 5G network in December … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Doubt cast on full rollout of fees free tertiary education policy, Vodafone NZ sale analysed, and Tamihere proposes partial port privatisation. The fees free policy for tertiary students may not get fully rolled out. Currently, the first year of study is free, and funding for the next … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Measles cases surge in Canterbury, Vodafone reportedly outsourcing jobs to India, and Shane Jones says Kupe facility funding story is a beat up. Measles cases are surging in Canterbury, and there are warnings that the highly infectious disease is now “circulating widely in our community.” The local DHB said late … Read more
Imagine you didn’t get paid for a month or two for your work. Big businesses have used this tactic to keep cash in the bank – but how long do our corporates take to pay? Rebecca Stevenson investigates. This post was originally published 17 February 2018 In New Zealand, they account for 97% of businesses. … Read more
Imagine you didn’t get paid for a month or two for your work. Big businesses have used this tactic to keep cash in the bank – but how long do our corporates take to pay? Rebecca Stevenson investigates. In New Zealand, they account for 97% of businesses. In Australia, 97%. In the UK, 96%. Small … Read more
This week the Commerce Commission is set to rule on the wedding of two companies, brought together in the name of rugby, reckons Paul Brislen. The people behind the planned merger of Vodafone and Sky TV are heralding a brave new blended world of content and delivery mechanism, an alliance that will position both companies … Read more
The only universally understood business in Auckland today is housing. So what better metaphor for Tim Murphy to use to describe the motivations and implications of today’s Sky-Vodafone deal. The Parable Vodafone New Zealand and Sky TV are happy next door neighbours. Two houses. One with a view, the other with a sprawling yard. Both valuable. Both relied on by … Read more