Comms Connect NZ 2025: conference highlights

The Southern Hemisphere’s premier critical communications event, Comms Connect, recently returned to the Land of the Long White Cloud, with the 10th edition of the New Zealand show held at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre from 4–5 June.

Over 500 visitors attended over the course of the event, which saw over 40 exhibitors and sponsors showcase their products and services on the expo floor while 35 expert speakers shared their insights across two conference streams. And on the evening of 4 June, attendees of the RFUANZ gala dinner celebrated the achievements of their peers while being entertained by MC Mike McRoberts, a respected journalist and news anchor who captivated his audience with stories from his days as a war correspondent.

Local milestones

Since the last Comms Connect NZ event in June 2024, the country has been busy with various connectivity projects — the biggest of these being the Public Safety Network (PSN) for New Zealand’s frontline emergency services. Matthew Hansen, Senior Project Manager for the PSN Program from Next Generation Critical Communications (NGCC), noted that the network’s Cellular Priority service launched in late 2024, providing emergency services with access to the Spark and One NZ cellular networks ahead of other users in cases of congestion or degradation on those networks (111 callers themselves get highest priority). As part of the service, it is now possible to capture data during outages confirming which areas have degraded networks — with Hansen noting that during such outages events, PSN Cellular Roaming enables emergency services to shift between the Spark and One NZ networks depending on which has the most reliable coverage. Meanwhile, a small-scale pilot area was last year launched in South Canterbury to trial the PSN’s new land mobile radio (LMR) network — which will provide emergency services with modern, resilient, secure radio technology — with the network proper set to roll out throughout 2025 and 2026.

Regarding connectivity for consumers, One NZ’s GM Network Services, Sharina Nisha, spoke on the recent launch of her company’s satellite-to-mobile coverage — which came about as a way to bypass land-based infrastructure, vulnerable as it is to natural disasters such as Cyclone Gabrielle. Nisha explained that One NZ Satellite was made possible through a partnership with SpaceX’s Starlink Direct to Cell — the second such partnership in the world and the first to actually go live, launching in December last year. The service enables text messaging across the entirety of New Zealand and 12 miles into territorial waters, anywhere with line of sight to the sky, so long as the user has an eligible One NZ mobile plan and compatible device — and has already seen more than 1.5 million messages sent at the time of writing. Here in Australia, Telstra recently launched its own satellite-to-mobile text messaging product using Starlink Direct to Cell, so it’s sure to be only a matter of time before we reach this milestone as well.

Locating and tracking our most vulnerable

Satellite-to-mobile is sure to be an important service for people travelling outside mobile networks in regional and remote areas, enabling them to stay in touch with loved ones as well as to reach out for assistance if needed. But what about more vulnerable people, such as those with cognitive or neurodevelopmental conditions, who may find themselves lost and be unwilling or unable to seek help? In these scenarios, Kiwis may find themselves turning to WanderSearch — a simple radio frequency tracking system that is utilised by New Zealand Police and Land Search & Rescue.

As explained by Jono Sands, Managing Director of Ignition Networks, WanderSearch makes use of radio direction finding (RDF), or the use of radio waves to determine the direction to a radio source. The vulnerable person is given a small, lightweight and robust signal transmitter, about the size of a button battery, to wear as part of a necklace, bracelet or keyring. If that person goes missing, trained Police and/or Land Search & Rescue volunteers will go out with an antenna and receiver to detect the radio-frequency number of the device by waiting for a ‘ping’ — a signal from the transmitter indicating the direction it’s coming from. They then pick another point, wait for another ping, and triangulate like this until they find the source of the signal. The technology does not use the cellular network, meaning it does not require any additional infrastructure to work, and the transmitter has a battery life of six months, which Ignition Networks is looking to extend even further. Other goals for the future include the addition of automatic direction finding with KrakenSDR software-defined radio; the ability to send a precise location based on the Internet of Things; and the development of a mobile app.

Another group of people who might find themselves in vulnerable situations is field workers, noted GetHomeSafe CEO and founder Boyd Peacock. Peacock explained that his company offers a comprehensive product suite for managing safety in various work scenarios — including working alone, remote work, and situations where coverage may be limited. Live GPS location sharing means supervisors can track the real-time whereabouts of staff when they’re out and about — and with features such as scheduled check-ins, a panic button and man-down/motion monitoring, supervisors are in the position to promptly send assistance if and when required. In a world that places increasing importance on worker safety, products such as this are likely to become more and more common.

Emerging technologies

In a panel session that closed out the first day of the conference, several of the speakers came together to discuss emerging technologies and their impact on critical communications. Artificial intelligence (AI) was a key talking point, with Fraser Paine, Head of AI at Aware Group, noting that AI agents can be used for everything from supporting frontline call staff to monitoring infrastructure for predictive maintenance. However, Paine emphasised that humans need to be kept in the loop when it comes to AI — it should not be given all the responsibility in a given situation, and it should only be automated once it has been thoroughly tested, with any faults removed. Furthermore, Paine stated that the rise of AI agents risks creating network bottlenecks due to high demand, so we need to make sure this demand is managed.

Also on the panel was Terence Wong, Head of APAC 5G Industry & IoT at non-profit trade association GSMA, who said 5G is benefiting areas including education, manufacturing and even health care — in part by working in tandem with other emerging technologies. For example, clinicians at Singapore’s National University Hospital have been using Microsoft’s mixed-reality headset, known as HoloLens 2, to view 3D hologram visualisations of images such as CT scans in order to plan and guide brain tumour extraction, resulting in faster, more accurate surgery. The initiative has been supported by Singaporean telco Singtel, which worked with the hospital to design and deploy a 5G Standalone network using the 3.5 GHz band. The resulting network, with edge cloud and network slicing capabilities, provided doctors with the bandwidth and performance they need to enhance healthcare delivery with mixed reality, and could in future be leveraged beyond the hospital premises for applications including remote patient monitoring and connected smart ambulances.

It should be noted that, as mission-critical communications (MCX) technology evolves, any new networks must be tested for compliance and interoperability. As explained by Sentil Sundram, Head of Telecommunications at Rohde & Schwarz, performance testing evaluates a system under various load and stress tests, ensures stability under extreme conditions, and identifies weaknesses before deployment — because any errors or incompatibilities discovered post-deployment can lead to costly rework, downtime or legal consequences. So, in the case of broadband MCX networks, Sundram said these should be able to communicate flawlessly with diverse devices, networks and platforms, with the ability to deliver high data rates, low latency, and consistent quality of service for applications like video transmission and real-time data transfer as well as voice. Following deployment, security risks to networks will also need to be addressed, through the use of threat detection tools and regular monitoring.

With another New Zealand show done and dusted, Comms Connect will be heading back to Australia on 15–16 October (plus pre-conference workshops on 14 October) with its flagship event at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre — and the floorplan is already filling fast. We are now also seeking case studies and technology papers to be presented at the conference, with abstract submissions closing on 11 July. For more information — including visitor registration, the call for papers and exhibition/sponsorship opportunities — visit melbourne.comms-connect.com.au.