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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 9]
Benoit Felten on the UFB fibre upgrade
Saturday, 19 March 2022, 11:06 am | Digitl
In late 2021 New Zealand's fibre wholesale companies boosted standard speeds on their networks from 100mbps to 300mbps. In this guest post, Paris-based analyst Benoit Felton puts the move into perspective: More >>
Download Weekly: Cell towers on the block
Saturday, 19 March 2022, 11:04 am | Digitl
Vodafone says it is preparing to spin out its cell tower network, Spark announced similar plans a month ago. Why is this happening? More >>
Technics EAH-A800 noise cancelling over-ear headphones
Saturday, 19 March 2022, 11:01 am | Digitl
They are not cheap, but Technics EAH-A800 Bluetooth headphones offer superb sound quality, great noise cancelling and a long 50 hour battery life. More >>
Download Weekly - First copper cabinets decomissioned
Saturday, 19 March 2022, 10:58 am | Digitl
Chorus turned off the first batch of copper cabinets while the Commerce Commission cleared the Orcon-2degrees merger. More >>
Bumper year ahead for NZ IT sector
Tuesday, 25 January 2022, 1:01 pm | Digitl
Gartner says New Zealand spending on technology products and services will grow 7.4 percent this year. The company’s latest forecast says the market will total NZ$15.3 billion in 2022. More >>
Standard mobile handsets at evolutionary dead end
Monday, 24 January 2022, 12:10 pm | Digitl
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 FE 5G press release leads with the phone’s case design. More >>
hy Alexa, Amazon's smart speaker, is not winning friends
Monday, 24 January 2022, 11:59 am | Digitl
If you got an Amazon Echo smart speaker this Christmas, there’s a good chance you lost interest in the device and the Alexa voice technology before the holidays ended. More >>
Selling broadband and energy together
Monday, 24 January 2022, 11:55 am | Digitl
Connections between telecommunications and the energy sector are not new. They could soon become more important. More >>
Traditional PC sales boom as market resets
Monday, 24 January 2022, 11:43 am | Digitl
After a decade of falling sales, the Covid pandemic has seen traditional PC sales reach the highest level in that time. More >>
Ten years of Markdown and iA Writer
Monday, 24 January 2022, 11:40 am | Digitl
It may not work for everyone, but switching Microsoft Word for a Markdown editor boosted my productivity. More >>
Typora markdown editor review
Monday, 24 January 2022, 11:14 am | Digitl
Typora is a great Markdown editor that brings distraction-free writing to Windows and Linux. More >>
Phone sales peaked five years ago
Monday, 24 January 2022, 10:46 am | Digitl
In 2016 the industry shipped a shade under 1.5 billion phones. By 2020 that had slipped to under 1.3 billion. More >>
Google ends free legacy G Suite accounts
Monday, 24 January 2022, 10:42 am | Digitl
Google says customers with legacy free edition G Suite accounts will soon need to pay for Workspace apps. That is bad news for many people. More >>
Unemployable but doing fine
Thursday, 6 January 2022, 6:25 pm | Digitl
Many of us work in the part of the economy where there are no jobs, just clients and projects. We market our services, try to find interesting opportunities and finance our larger interests with the revenue. We’ve been out of the hierarchy for so long ... More >>
RCG flips switch on Chatham Islands 4G network
Thursday, 6 January 2022, 5:45 pm | Digitl
Chatham Islanders, one of the most remote communities in New Zealand, is now connected to the rest of the world. RCG flips switch on Chatham Islands 4G mobile network A new 7.5 metre satellite dish and five mobile towers mean Chatham Islanders now ... More >>
Supply chain woes see printer sales down 20 percent
Thursday, 6 January 2022, 5:42 pm | Digitl
IDC reports manufacturing constraints and logistical issues are behind a 20.4 percent drop in printer sales in the third quarter of 2021. More >>
The year we filled in the telecommunications gaps
Thursday, 6 January 2022, 3:06 pm | Digitl
In the first part of this week's technology segment on RNZ's Nine to Noon show I talk with Kathryn Ryan about some of the big trends in tech this year, starting with plugging gaps in broadband coverage, the work done by the Rural Connectivity Group ... More >>
Sky cost cutting delivers, Vodafone drops TV
Thursday, 6 January 2022, 3:02 pm | Digitl
Vodafone is pulling the plug on its short-lived Vodafone TV service [/caption] Sky cost cutting delivers profit upgrade Sky doubled its profit guidance for the 2022 financial year. More >>
ComCom finalises fibre regulations
Thursday, 6 January 2022, 2:54 pm | Digitl
Some concessions, but Chorus has not got the final regulatory ruling it wanted from the Commerce Commission. ComCom finalises fibre regulations Chorus will be able to earn a maximum revenues of $690 million next year under new rules set by the Commerce ... More >>
How the Orcon-2degrees merger affects market competition
Thursday, 6 January 2022, 2:50 pm | Digitl
Simple answer is ‘less than you might think in the short term, but watch this space’. More >>
