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Bill Bennett
Freelance journalist.
Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
His emphasis is on telecommunications, but he also covers other aspects of technology and business. You can find his features in the New Zealand Herald and hear him regularly on RNZ Nine to Noon and the NZ Tech Podcast.
Bennett's The Download Weekly newsletter is published every Friday. You can sign up for it here.
If you want to support his work, you can make a donation to his PressPatron account.
Bill Bennett - Latest News [Page 18]
Rural broadband surge for Farmside
Sunday, 14 June 2020, 7:11 pm | Digitl
Vodafone's rural broadband unit Farmside says a wave of new customers joined immediately after June 1. That's Moving Day in the dairy farming calendar. The day when farmers traditionally move equipment, stock and people to new farms. More >>
UK plans anti-Huawei 5G alliance
Sunday, 14 June 2020, 7:09 pm | Digitl
According to The Times , the UK plans to form an alliance of democratic nations to create a 5G alternative to Huawei. More >>
A century for the Rural Connectivity Group
Sunday, 14 June 2020, 7:05 pm | Digitl
I had to look the place up on a map before writing this story. That’s kind of the point. More >>
Apple’s timely shift to value
Sunday, 14 June 2020, 7:03 pm | Digitl
Sometimes the stars align. Apple set out its hardware stall in early 2020 with advanced, yet lower priced, iPhones, iPads and Macs. The the pandemic hit. More >>
Phone sales tumble as pandemic bites
Thursday, 4 June 2020, 1:57 pm | Digitl
.Global sales of smartphones to end users declined 20.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020, according to Gartner, Inc. The global shelter-in-place combined with the economic uncertainty brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic led to demand for smartphones ... More >>
UFB uptake closes on a million as 58 percent connect
Thursday, 4 June 2020, 1:50 pm | Digitl
Crown Infrastructure Partners reports a total of 966,773 homes and businesses were connected to the UFB fibre network at the end of March. More >>
Working from home: Networks for beginners
Thursday, 4 June 2020, 1:40 pm | Digitl
Working from home may mean you need a better domestic data networks. That way you can Zoom with colleague while others watch Netflix or give the Playstation a workout. Here’s what you need to know before you upgrade. Basics Before we get down to details, ... More >>
InternetNZ’s digital inclusion plan
Saturday, 30 May 2020, 3:02 pm | Digitl
Twenty organisations have pulled in behind InternetNZ’s call on the government for greater digital inclusion . More >>
Turns out I’m almost certainly a bot
Saturday, 30 May 2020, 2:56 pm | Digitl
According to Botsight , I am “almost certainly a bot”. Or at least my Twitter account is. More >>
5G tower attacks: It's not protest, it's sabotage
Saturday, 30 May 2020, 2:47 pm | Digitl
Police are investigating after two fires in Ōtāhuhu and Favona in the early hours of this morning. More >>
Rural Connectivity Group adds 29 sites in lockdown
Saturday, 30 May 2020, 2:27 pm | Digitl
During the Covid–19 lockdown the Rural Connectivity Group switched on 29 new sites. The new sites connect about 2000 homes and businesses to fixed wireless broadband and increase the reach of the mobile networks. This includes mobile phone coverage ... More >>
Lockdown broadband performance: Fibre, copper delivered, fix
Saturday, 30 May 2020, 2:19 pm | Digitl
Demand was off the scale. Yet New Zealand's fibre and copper broadband networks almost never skipped a beat during the 20200 Covid-19 lockdown. More >>
Aussie scientists hit fibre speeds of 44.2 Tbps
Saturday, 30 May 2020, 2:15 pm | Digitl
Tech is perhaps five years away from actual deployment, we're told At the Register: Record-breaking Aussie boffins send 44.2 terabits a second screaming down 75km of fiber from single chip. The news from Monash University shows there is still plenty ... More >>
Sky has a broadband mountain to climb
Saturday, 30 May 2020, 2:10 pm | Digitl
After months of speculation Sky says it will enter the broadband market next year . The move is one of the industry’s worst kept secrets. More >>
NZ device sales fall, would have collapsed but for Covid–19
Saturday, 30 May 2020, 2:08 pm | Digitl
Gartner’s latest New Zealand shipment forecasts makes for grim reading if you are in the device business. More >>
Government bill to tackle extreme, violent content
Saturday, 30 May 2020, 2:03 pm | Digitl
The Films, Videos, and Publications Classification (Urgent Interim Classification of Publications and Prevention of Online Harm) Amendment Bill introduces new criminal offences. It hands power to a chief censor who can make immediate decisions to block ... More >>
Benedict Evans on the virtual reality winter
Thursday, 14 May 2020, 11:48 am | Digitl
In The VR winter Benedict Evans writes about virtual reality and its failure to take off: We tried VR in the 1980s, and it didn’t work. The idea may have been great, but the technology of the day was nowhere close to delivering it, and almost ... More >>
Covid-19 highlights UFB investment wisdom
Thursday, 14 May 2020, 11:44 am | Digitl
Our networks have been pushed well beyond expectation. For the most part, they have not been found wanting. More >>
Smartwatch sales grow, Apple dominates
Thursday, 14 May 2020, 11:41 am | Digitl
Strategy Analytics, a research firm, says smartwatch shipments grew 20 percent annually to 14 million units in the first quarter of 2020. More >>
Phone makers face difficult year
Thursday, 14 May 2020, 11:40 am | Digitl
IDC reports shipments 1 of new phones dropped 11.7 percent year on year in the first three months of 2020. That’s a total of 275.8 million phones. More >>
