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Spark inks IoT deal with Australia's National Narrowband Network Co

Deal helps organisations scale their IoT network deployments across A/NZ
  • Rob O'Neill (New Zealand Reseller News)
  • 12 October, 2020 07:48
Rob Zagarella (NNNCo)

Rob Zagarella (NNNCo)

New Zealand telco Spark has entered into a trans-Tasman internet of things network agreement with Australian operator The National Narrowband Network Co (NNNCo).

The wholesale agreement will enable mutual access across the respective long-range wide area internet of things (LoRaWAN) networks.

That will allow businesses on both sides of the Tasman to more easily implement cost-effective smart technology solutions without needing to establish operations in the other country.

The new agreement, for instance, means Spark can help parking app developer Parkable to expand its business in Australia.

Toby Littin, Parkable co-founder and CEO said the company wants to push harder into the Australian market and the agreement will allow it to scale across the Tasman and simplify back-end processes. 

"Using the one platform and having a single place to view and analyse data will mean our customers will get even better parking experiences in the future," he said.

Parkable now has access to growing network coverage in Sydney, Canberra, Gold Coast, Tasmania, Melbourne and regional areas in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. 

"Those markets have just been unlocked for us, so we are eager to grow and scale," Littin said.

Spark IoT lead Tony Agar said as the economy continued to be shaped by COVID-19, more such partnerships can be expected.

The deal also means customers can keep visibility and monitor their machinery, assets or infrastructure using their existing dashboards and diagnostic tools.

The wholesale arrangement has been enabled with the integration of NNNCo’s enterprise data platform N2N-DL into Spark NZ’s network core. 

Data from devices will feed into N2N-DL giving Spark NZ customers access to data on a single platform from devices enrolled in either country.

NNNCo CEO Rob Zagarella said demand for cross-Tasman roaming capabilities was growing as customers deployed IoT devices and applications beyond Australia. 

“We’re very happy to now be able to provide a seamless and consistent service with N2N-DL as a customer’s single source of aggregation for IoT devices in either country and on either network,” Zagarella said.