New Zealand, Chinese telecom firms sign Pacific-wide Internet agreement

WELLINGTON - New Zealand telecoms company Spark and Chinese giant China Telecom Global said Thursday they had signed a deal to boost Internet traffic between the two countries and across the Pacific region.

The deal would see the two companies partnering to carry all their respective Internet traffic between China and New Zealand and throughout the Pacific, and provide Spark with a leading position in Chinese transit services, they said.

The improvements would lower latency times between the two countries, reducing load times for web content and improving shared application performance, which was particularly important for businesses running remote applications, Spark general manager wholesale and international Lindsay Cowley said in a statement.

"This collaboration will provide the largest and most direct data transit services, not just between China and New Zealand, but throughout the Pacific too," said Cowley.

China Telecom Global vice-president of carrier business development Steven Tan said in the statement that it was China Telecom Global's first such agreement in Oceania, giving it the ability to deliver Chinese content directly to New Zealand and into the Pacific.

As China has over 600 million Internet users, Cowley said it's more important than ever for New Zealand businesses to have high quality access into the Chinese Internet market, not just for their own success, but for the wider New Zealand economy.