📋 Tender Overview
Spark and Vodafone have announced the establishment of Hourua a new joint venture that will provide priority cellular services to the Public Safety Network which is being established byNext Generation Critical Communications Poutama Whai Tikanga Ppho. The Public Safety Network is the new communications service that will be used by New Zealands frontline emergency responders including Fire and Emergency New Zealand Police St John andWellington Free Ambulance. Chris Hipkins Minister of Police says This infrastructure investment is significant and is what New Zealands frontline workers deserve. It will help keep them and the public safe by givingthem reliable and secure coverage in urban state highway and rural areas. New Zealands emergency services have done an incredible job in often very challenging circumstances. The new network will give them a modern network to replace a critical communications system thats getting past its best. The name Hourua can be translated as a double waka and has been chosen to represent Spark and Vodafone binding or lashing their wakas together joining capabilities to deliver this critical service to New Zealanders. By bringing together new capabilities across their two respective mobile networks Hourua will allow emergency services teams to roam across the Spark and Vodafone mobile networks to improve redundancy in the event of network impacts. Communications over the Public Safety Network will be highly secure and highly resilient emergency communications will take priority over other mobile users when networks are congested or degraded through the use of LTE Quality of Service Priority and Pre-emption QPP network features. This will ensure that emergency responders are able to keep in touch on the phone as well as using apps that are required to deliver their roles effectively. Priority cellular services will complement a new digital Land Mobile Radio network as the other key element of the Public Safety Network which is being delivered by another vendor. Mark Beder Chief Operating Officer for Spark New Zealand explains In a moment of crisis we all want to know that our emergency responders are well equipped to keep New Zealanders safe andreliable far reaching and secure communications tools are vital to them being able to perform their jobs effectively. The new Public Safety Network will support this with the roaming solution that has been created increasing coverage beyond what is available on either of our networks alone and ensuringthere is a fallback option if one network experiences disruption. Tony Baird Wholesale and Infrastructure Director Vodafone New Zealand comments It is in both Vodafone and Sparks DNA to push the boundaries of whats technically possible to solve real worldchallenges. Were proud that the Hourua joint venture will bring together the best of Spark and Vodafones mobile network capabilities to support the Public Safety Network with priority cellular services increasing their mobile coverage maximizing the reliability of services and being on hand to provide increased resources where required in an emergency situation. With Hourua now contracted as the provider of priority cellular services for the Public Safety Network work is underway to commence the network build required to turn on priority cellular services from mid-2023 onwards.
