Spark New Zealand announced a three-year strategy, through its fiscal year 2026, in which it will invest in data centers and new technologies to fuel growth in Spark’s core markets and across its growing high-tech portfolio. Over the next three years, it plans to invest as much as $188 million in the high-growth data center market and close to $30 million in 5G Standalone.
Spark says that investment will create new commercialization opportunities across its core mobile and broadband markets, while providing a foundation for growth in new high-tech solutions.The company is using a portion of the proceeds from the sale of its tower business in July. Spark sold a 70 percent stake in its 1,263 towers for $563 million to Canadian investment firm Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Inside Towers reported.
Spark CEO Jolie Hodson said the new strategy positions Spark for success in an increasingly uncertain environment, while empowering the people and businesses that represent the country’s future. In mobile and broadband, Spark will leverage its data capability and 5G investment to deliver digital experiences that can be personalized for its customers. Through the first half of FY2022, ending December 31, Spark served 2.6 million mobile connections and 704,000 broadband connections, with fiber and fixed wireless as the fastest growing segments.
“We have really strong momentum in mobile and have stabilized our broadband base in a highly competitive market,” said Hodson. “Our dual brands of Spark and Skinny serve different ends of the price spectrum, we have a unique ability to target the right product to the right customer at the right time through data, and our 5G coverage is densifying.”
“We know the inflationary environment is hitting small businesses hard, and we are in a strong position to support our customers to unlock revenue generation and efficiency improvements.” Hodson added. “In enterprise … we will upweight our focus on hybrid cloud, where our deep expertise, local knowledge and service differentiates us, and capital investment is lower. We will then invest to further expand our data center capacity.”
Spark’s high-tech portfolio comprises IoT, 5G Standalone, data and AI, and digital identity and is a focus for growth over the next three years.
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