The United States’ Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved SpaceX’s satellite-to-smartphone technology for commercial use in that market via a collaboration with T-Mobile, paving the way for its launch in New Zealand under a partnership with One NZ.
One NZ had promised “100% coverage” for text messaging across New Zealand via the ‘direct-to-cell’ service before the end of 2024, and the company said today the FCC approval “gets us one step closer to launching the One NZ Satellite TXT service”.
It is still conducting field testing as the satellite constellation continues to be built-out, the company said.
“With the Starlink Direct-to-Cell constellation now having over 300 satellites and continuing to grow, we’re seeing week-over-week improvement in testing as we fine tune the experience.
“We’re aiming to launch the One NZ Satellite TXT service shortly, which will enable our customers to send and receive texts on eligible plans and devices within a matter of minutes.”
Visitor numbers across Skyline Enterprises’ gondola and luge sites was 95% of pre-pandemic numbers, with luge rides across multinational sites hitting five million for the first half of the year to September. The Queenstown-based gondola and luge operator, which trades on the Unlisted securities exchange, posted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation of $46.9 million, up 23.4% on the comparable period. Revenue across the firm’s New Zealand, Asian, and Canadian adventure sites was at $124.9m, up 21.8%, it said. Chair Peter Treacy, who resumed his role with the company recently after a brief medical leave of absence, said the Queenstown and Rotorua operations had booked 584,000 gondola riders, with revenue at $49.8m, up 29.8% on the prior year. A sluggish six months for Christchurch Casino, however, saw traffic down 2.3% at 255,000 and revenue down 4.6% at $24.7m. The new Kuala Lumpur site had helped push revenue by a third for its offshore business to $45.4m.