SPK - Spark NZ

[Otago K]

If Starlink was a threat then wouldn't CNU be suffering? Instead it's near ATH.

I'd read it as shouldn't rather than wouldn't
or perhaps the market is all knowing and all seeing umm not sure I believe that.
I would be SELL on CNU today expressing it differently.

Personally I've this month moved to Starlink, $85 plan for 3 months promo price of $55.10, plus $19.10 freight on the set-up. Still to resolve the mounting as Starlink shop looks a bit expensive for what I need. Previously had a Fibre offering off a localised Rural ISP by Air ( akin to terrestrial TV for simplicity of comprehension) as I have no copper or fibre within 12km of my residence. Say six months ago it would've been $599 set-up and $120 odd monthly for a somewhat lesser bandwidth with Starlink. 20 days in and I'm a Starlink fan even if I can't say much positive of Elon Musk.

[Red Baron]

Personally I've this month moved to Starlink, $85 plan for 3 months promo price of $55.10, plus $19.10 freight on the set-up. Still to resolve the mounting as Starlink shop looks a bit expensive for what I need. Previously had a Fibre offering off a localised Rural ISP by Air ( akin to terrestrial TV for simplicity of comprehension) as I have no copper or fibre within 12km of my residence. Say six months ago it would've been $599 set-up and $120 odd monthly for a somewhat lesser bandwidth with Starlink. 20 days in and I'm a Starlink fan even if I can't say much positive of Elon Musk.

I've recently moved from OneNZ to Starlink for Broadband service, the kit was supplied free of charge (sat-receiver and house mountings, modem/router, power block, 15m CAT6 cable), a kind of zero cost rental arrangement, i.e. supposed to return it if you cancel your sub. In my case I doubled my previous down/up-load speeds (from a VDSL service) and the service has been rock solid reliable, at about 30% saving in my monthly costs.

Above are two examples vrom vhat zound like zeni-rural properties vithout local vibre.  (note to Otago K, you can't claim to have been on 'vibre' eef ze nearest vibre cable eez 12km from your house!  It zounds like you vere on a 'vireless' broadband scheme.)

Zhese two cases are exactly ze cases vhere 'Starlink' has a place.   Zhis does not mean zhat 'Starlink' is zet to 'rum amuck' een urban environments though.  Yes eef you read Elon's 'SpaceX prospectus', he theenks he eez on ze brink of a tidal wave of 'urban switchover'.   But een ze same document he eez also claiming zhat big benefits vill vlow from hees prospective passenger zervice between ze Earth and Mars!

p52
"SpaceX .... became the first to deploy a large-scale LEO satellite-to-mobile constellation, before reaching approximately 10.3 million Starlink Subscribers in 2026."

p121
"We generally expect Starlink Subscriber ARPU to continue to decline over the next few years as the portion of our subscriber base outside North America continues to grow, as we add lower priced service plans, and as we adjust the monthly service plan fees we charge for broadband offerings. However, we expect these dynamics to be offset by increased scale and technological advancement in our launch, satellite, and user terminal operations, ultimately supporting overall revenue growth and cost reduction."

Zhis looks like 'build it and zhey vill come' economics to me.

p129
"For launches of our Starlink satellites, the Company does not recognize any inter-segment revenue, rather those launch costs are capitalized in satellites in Property, plant, and equipment, net. We allocate a significant amount of launch capacity to our Connectivity segment."

Zhis zounds good and produces a respectable net profit margin (refer post 529).

Net profit Margin' (connectivity) for FY2025/CY2025 vas: $2.834b/$11.387m = 24.9%

But vhat about ze 'non-launch costs'?  Capital to develop ze rocket design and ze on ground launch facilities?   I zuspect zhat eef you include zhose, ze 'net profit margin' vor 'Starlink communications' eez nothing like 24.9%.    Vhich eez precisely vhy Elon eez 'talking big' about zcaling up hees operations (more users over vixed cost base lowers costs per user).

I remain unconvinced, especially as I am in ze midst of zetting up my own 'flying broadband operation' een my home area - ze rural Alsace region of Germany.  I have a lot of 'Vrench rural varmers' as neighbours.  I eentend to offer a 'one hour per day discounted broadband zervice', as I do my daily one hour 'training vlight.'

Vith ze telecommunications equipment I have packed eento my Fokker Triplane, I can offer zhis at ze same time as my free 'roundup veed control' zpraying zervice, vhich offers 100% land coverage.   For zhose varmers zigning up to 'Fokker broadband', I vill voluntarily remove zhem from my veed control operations vor no charge!  Zhis business approach has been very zuccessful vor me, vith 100% of my neighbours zigning up to 'Fokker broadband'.  And I can assure you zhat ze cost of my Fokker triplance vlight program eez orders of magnitudes less zhan ze real cost of Elon firing off just one of hees rockets!

RB

[Basil]

Starlink becomes N.Z's largest rural ISP
Spark steadily losing market share in rural and residential area's.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/starlink-becomes-nzs-largest-rural-internet-provider-as-some-local-players-suffer-tech-insider/premium/UFCCHFU64FEMLGTKRJI6Q4NMAQ/