It’s the end of telephones as we know it.
New Zealand, along with America and the United Kingdom, are phasing out traditional copper phonelines in favour of the new ultra-fast broadband (UFB) network. With greater speeds and less maintenance needed, the new fibre network is a move to future-proof our country’s communication.
The traditional copper phoneline network in New Zealand is being phased out over the next few years.
The NZ Government is predicting over 87 percent of New Zealanders will have access to UFB by the end of 2022. That’s 1.8 Million homes and business in over 411 towns and cities. And their target is to reach 99.8 percent access to improved broadband by the end of 2023*.
That is a lot of new phones and phone systems needed by businesses across the country who haven’t transitioned to digital yet.
New Technology Developments
With the end of the traditional copper network in our future, there will be some major changes in the telecommunications industry. Panasonic Business Communications, a long-standing global leader in telecommunications, has announced they are exiting the industry by the end of 2020. In a letter to their partners, one of the predominant reasons has been stated as 'a sharp decline of the market and rapid shift to cloud-based solutions,' as well as 'lagging behind our competitor’s R&D activities.'
Research and development of new technology to replace traditional business telephones and systems is bound to advance with greater speed than ever. Quicker recharging times and increased battery life will continue to be an advantageous feature for manufacturers, as well as flexibility and durability.
A great example of this is the continuing innovation by Yealink, who are now a global brand. Their rugged Yealink W59R digital phone has been specifically developed for challenging environments. With noise-reduction, alarms and hands-free ability as well as impressive shock, dust and water resistance, they definitely had the loud and busy working environment in mind.
It will be interesting to see the advanced innovation in features and flexibility of business systems, business phones, mobile phones, internet and unified communications emerge, and perhaps even some new big players in the industry.
*Sourced from the Crown Infrastructure Partners’ Quarterly Connectivity Update, Q4 2020.
Sherma Kala
Sherma Kala is the Managing Director of A1 Comms. He is committed to helping businesses with over twenty years’ experience in the communication industry in New Zealand.
Sherma is also a proud supporter of local community initiatives such as UpstreamNZ.