Spark confident in future streaming with 5G

AUCKLAND: Spark has confirmed its fullyear guidance and new chief executive Jolie Hodson has reiterated that 5G remains a key focus of the company.

Spark told the annual shareholders’ meeting that it continued to expect earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and investment (ebitdai) income of between $1.1 billion and $1.12 billion in the current financial year. It also said its dividend guidance was still 25c per share — at least 75% imputed.

Ebitdai was $1.09 billion in the year ended June 30. The annual dividend was 25c.

Spark’s shares last traded up 1% at $4.425 and up 6.3% year to date.

Chairwoman Justine Smyth said the company was well advanced on its threeyear plan and expected to provide more detail in the first half of the 2020 calendar year.

‘‘You can expect to see us deepen our focus and investment in selected capabilities, such as smart networks, to unlock more value in our core telco business,’’ she said.

Ms Hodson, who took the reins on July 1 from Simon Moutter, said her immediate focus was on developing the firm’s ambition and strategy. She wanted to ‘‘ensure the business continued to lead in service and technology, while investing in the right capabilities to remain competitive into the future’’.

She said one of the cornerstone partnerships for Spark’s 5G development was its relationship with Emirates

Team New Zealand.

‘‘The America’s Cup is increasingly a technology race. By partnering with Spark, the team now have Spark 5G while on the water — they can run multiple live video streams and realtime data back to their base,’’ she said.

She noted 5G would not be a ‘‘switch we turn on’’, but rather a continuous evolution.

The spectrum band designated for 5G by the Government is partially allocated until late 2022 which means longterm rights to use it will not come into effect for some time. In the interim, the Government has commenced an accelerated process to open up access to some of that band’s spectrum on a shortterm basis.

This would help bridge the gap until the full range of spectrum was available, Ms Hodson said.

In the meantime, Spark had completed the biggest upgrade of its wireless network, which had increased capacity by about 80% over the past two years. The upgrade included new cell sites and an extensive roll out of 4.5G, which significantly enhances network performance and capacity relative to 4G.

In relation to sport, Ms Hodson said ‘‘we believe that we have demonstrated that streaming is a successful solution that has delivered a great viewing result for the majority of customers’’.

Spark ended the Rugby World Cup 2019 with 200,000 Spark Sport Rugby World Cup subscriptions.

Ms Hodson said that while there were issues with coverage of the New ZealandSouth Africa pool match and a ‘‘small percentage of customers’’ who had persistent issues with streaming on Spark Sport, ‘‘when we consider the tournament as a whole, we are pleased with the way we delivered the Rugby World Cup to New Zealand’’.

She said the announcement that Spark Sport would be the official rights partner for all New Zealand Cricket matches played in New Zealand meant the company had ‘‘cemented our place as a significant player in New Zealand’s sports viewing landscape’’.