ISP Orcon has recently been purchased by the State owned Kordia™ Group (formerly BCL the transmission arm of TVNZ) .
Orcon was New Zealand’s 4th largest and fastest growing ISP and telecommunications company. In October 2006, Vodafone bought ihug, New Zealand’s 3rd largest Internet service provider.
In the past 12 months Orcon has committed to building a $30m next generation LLU network with global communication technology provider Siemens, signed a wholesale agreement with Vodafone to become New Zealand’s third mobile player, and most recently announced the purchase of a $2 million soft switch to deploy advanced digital voice solutions.
Orcon was firmly committed to a quad-play future (Mobile, IPTV, VoIP, ADSL) and mounting a serious challenge to the incumbents.
To me it appears this is a way for the Government to gain access with flexibility in delivering and trialing next generation interactive mobile multimedia across new generation handsets and technologies which are more compatible on the GSM/GPRS network of Vodafone. There are some interesting perspectives about possible reasons why Kordia Group have made this move, and many personal opinions left as comments on Rod Drury’s Blog, and I guess we may find out more over the next 18 months.
Maybe now TVNZ could have a partner for a much needed vehicle to deliver their proposed Inspiring On Every Screen Strategy to diverge into new media deliveries such as Mobile, IPTV and WiMAX Screen Based Devices over the next four years.