Proactive Investors - Vodafone’s freshly rebranded New Zealand arm, One NZ, has landed a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to roll out full mobile coverage to the country in 2024.
Using Starlink satellites, One NZ will aim to bring coverage to the country's entire landmass, up from just 50% currently, according to chief executive Jason Paris.
“This will end black spots and keep you, your family and your business safer,” Paris tweeted on Monday, unveiling the partnership as Vodafone (LON:VOD) was rebranded.
Starlink, which is made up of around 4,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit, is operated by SpaceX and can bring mobile and broadband coverage to rural areas otherwise not covered.
It aims increase this into the tens-of-thousands in the coming years, though is due to be rivalled by Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), which is looking to launch over 3,000 of its own satellites to provide coverage.
Starlink has already been rolled out to remote areas in the UK, including the North Yorkshire Moors and Snowdonia National Park, under a government trial, and is also available in Europe and much of North America.
Paris added that by dropping the Vodafone name, One NZ now had more money to invest in the technology, which he said would be made available to anyone in an emergency.
It follows a similar deal made between SpaceX and T-Mobile last August to cover areas in the US, Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico.