Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Spark New Zealand Enhances Rugby World Cup Mobile Experience with Cisco

25/02/2020

News Summary:

Spark deploys Cisco Ultra Traffic Optimization (CUTO) software to enhance mobile experience at Rugby World Cup, and prepare its network for 5G

CUTO software is a cost-effective, easily deployed solution for managing mobile network congestion, and preventing burdensome network renovation

San Jose, Calif., and Auckland, New Zealand, February 25, 2020 Cisco announced today that Spark New Zealand deployed its Cisco Ultra Traffic Optimization software to improve its mobile network capacity and fan experience at the Rugby World Cup.

According to the 2020 Cisco Annual Internet Report, mobile connections continue to grow across the globe with a projected 13.1 billion connections by 2023, nearly half of which will be video capable. Video traffic is considered heavier flow and can block other kinds of mobile traffic, like e-mail and social media, during times of network congestion. At a major sporting event like the Rugby World Cup, user experience can be greatly impacted if traffic congestion is not properly managed.

Traditionally, in order to reduce traffic congestion in a radio access network, mobile operators are obligated to boost their network with additional radios and spectrum to remediate the situation. This kind of build out can cost millions of dollars, and cost nearly a year's time.

The CUTO software increases radio site capacity and improves quality of experience through instant stabilization, and maximizing per-subscriber throughput. As an added benefit, the CUTO software is fully operational in around two hours preventing a loss of subscribers you might normally see during an extended network overhaul.

The CUTO solution developed by Cisco on their mobile packet core has provided immediate gains in radio network capacity and performance, said Campbell Fraser, Tribe Leader of Technology, Spark. We deployed the solution nationwide prior to the Rugby World Cup when the streaming of live games created peaks of network demand. We wanted to maximize the user experience for mobile customers, but also ensure critical services - like voice - were protected.

Spark is a leader in delivering live multi-media experiences from a mobile network, said Kishen Mangat, Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Mobility. Cisco is pleased to be on the roster of Spark's technology partners as they continue to push the boundaries of mobile technology and enter the 5G era.

Supporting resources

Cisco 5G

Read the CUTO Whitepaper

Cisco Annual Internet Report

For more information about Cisco service provider news and activities, visit the SP360 blog or follow us on Twitter @CiscoSP360 and LinkedIn.

About Spark New Zealand

As New Zealands largest telecommunications and digital services company, Spark's purpose is to help all of New Zealand win big in a digital world. Spark provides mobile, broadband and digital services to millions of New Zealanders and thousands of New Zealand businesses. http://www.spark.co.nz/

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Ciscos trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.
LINK: https://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&artic...
See more stories from cisco

North America Stories

03/12/2025

FCC Sets Deadlines for Comments on Nexstar Acquisition of Tegna

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has opened a docket for comments on the proposed $6.2 billion Nexstar acquisition for Tegna and set deadlines f...

03/12/2025

Brightcove Unveils New AI Features

MILAN, Italy Brightcove has released seven new features designed to expand global reach, improve audience engagement, enhance live-streaming quality and streaml...

03/12/2025

Great American Media to Launch Pure Flix Familia in 2026

NEW YORK Great American Media said it plans to launch Pure Flix Familia, a dedicated Spanish-language platform, in 2026....

03/12/2025

FanDuel Sports Network Launches on Vizio

SOUTHPORT, Conn. Main Street Sports Group has announced that the FanDuel Sports Network app is now available directly on Vizio and on smart TVs with Vizio OS. T...

03/12/2025

Telia Taps Harmonic for Broadband Upgrade in Norway

SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced that Telia, the second-largest telecom operator in Norway, is modernizing its broadband network with the company's c...

03/12/2025

Todd Ziegler to Take Reins of Sinclair's Green Bay, Wis., Stations

GREEN BAY, Wis. Sinclair said Jay Zollar, vice president and general manager of WLUK-WCWF here, will retire Dec. 31 after 26 years running the stations. Station...

02/12/2025

Case Study: How Mid-Atlantic Sports Network Moved to All-IP Distribution in 60 Days

Case Study: How Mid-Atlantic Sports Network Moved to All-IP Distribution in 60 D...

02/12/2025

2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Lee Corso, Coach, Commentator, Firebrand

2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Lee Corso, Coach, Commentator, FirebrandBy Ken Kerschbaumer Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 7:00 am Print This Story | S...

02/12/2025

SVG All-Stars: Dan Nabors, Senior Director, Remote Engineering, TNT Sports

SVG All-Stars: Dan Nabors, Senior Director, Remote Engineering, TNT SportsThe veteran tech leader is helping guide Warner Bros. Discovery's at-home' re...

02/12/2025

National Lacrosse League Opens Season With New Cloud-Based Official Replay-Review System

National Lacrosse League Opens Season With New Cloud-Based Official Replay-Revie...

02/12/2025

Platinum White Paper: The Cinematic Look in Live Production - Bridging Aesthetics and Real-Time Broadcast Technology with Grass Valley

Platinum White Paper: The Cinematic Look in Live Production - Bridging Aesthetic...

02/12/2025

SVG India Announces Advisory Board; JioStar's Prashant Khanna Named Chairman

SVG India Announces Advisory Board; JioStar's Prashant Khanna Named ChairmanBy Ken Kerschbaumer Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 11:15 am Print This Story |...

02/12/2025

SVG Summit 2025 Preview: New AI Production Tools Workshop' Features ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports NEXT, PGA Tour, PlayOn, and USGA

SVG Summit 2025 Preview: New AI Production Tools Workshop' Features ESPN, F...

02/12/2025

Release Rundown: What to Watch in December, From Atropia to Endless Cookie

Written and directed by Hailey Gates, Atropia won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival....

02/12/2025

Revolutionizing Defense: L3Harris' Advanced Counter-UAS Cutting-Edge Technologies Offer Scalable Solutions for NATO

The lightweight and highly portable CORVUS-RAVEN, recently demonstrated at the V...

02/12/2025

L3Harris Enhancing Marine Corps' Resilient, Multi-Orbit SATCOM Operations

The lightweight, rugged Panther 2 tri-band VSAT delivers high-speed data communications for Internet, VPN connectivity and video transmission over commercial an...

02/12/2025

Nielsen Global Impact Day 2025: Expanding our global impact

NGID volunteers in the United States NGID volunteers in Mexico NGID volunteers in India NGID volunteers in Spain NGID volunteers in Australia NGID voluntee...

02/12/2025

FCC Issues Reminder on Audio-Description Rule Deadlines

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has issued a reminder that stations in DMAs 111 through 120 must implement its audio descrip...

02/12/2025

Sony Unveils Alpha 7 V Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera

SAN DIEGO Sony Electronics today introduced the Alpha 7 V (ILCE-7M5), the fifth generation of its Alpha 7 full-frame mirrorless lineup, powered by the newly dev...

02/12/2025

FCC Sets Comment Deadlines for Nexstar-Tegna Merger

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has opened a docket for comments on Nexstar Media Group's proposed $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna and se...

02/12/2025

Veronica Rodriguez, Matt Schnaars and Jeff Warshaw Join NAB Board

WASHINGTON The National Association of Broadcasters has added a trio of media executives, Veronica Rodriguez, Matt Schnaars and Jeff Warshaw, to its board of di...

02/12/2025

Brightcove Unveils New Features

MILAN, Italy Brightcove has released seven new features designed to expand global reach, improve audience engagement, enhance live-streaming quality and streaml...

02/12/2025

BCNEXXT and NPC Media Sign Partnership Agreement for Vipe...

BCNEXXT, the developers of the advanced playout platform Vipe, today announced a new Service Provider Partner agreement with NPC Media, the Australian managed p...

02/12/2025

DPA Microphones N Series Wireless Mic System Now Availabl...

DPA Microphones today announces the immediate availability of its new N-Series Digital Wireless Microphone System for customers throughout the U.S. In addition ...

02/12/2025

Hiltron Reports a Well Attended and Successful Space Tech...

Hiltron Communications reports a well attended and successful Space Tech Expo exhibition, held at the Messe Bremen from Tuesday November 18 through Thursday Nov...

02/12/2025

The HELM powers Riverfire with flawless timecode precisio...

The beginning of September saw Riverfire by Australian Retirement Trust, in association with Channel 9 and Triple M, kick off the 2025 Brisbane Festival in spec...

02/12/2025

SGM Lighting and ACT Entertainment Announce Exclusive US...

SGM Lighting is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with ACT Entertainment, under which ACT will serve as the exclusive distributor for SGM's ne...

02/12/2025

Harmonic Powers Telias NextGeneration Broadband Upgrade i...

Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that Telia, the second largest telecom operator in Norway, is modernizing its broadband network with the company's i...

02/12/2025

Keepit and TIM AG enters distribution partnership for the...

European cloud data protection specialist Keepit is expanding its sales network in the DACH region and has gained TIM AG, one of the leading value-added distrib...

02/12/2025

Calrec pushes beyond traditional broadcasting with flexib...

Featured products at ISE 2026 This year s ISE 2026 theme "Push Beyond" reflects Calrec s direction of travel. The company is dedicated to supporting the AV an...

02/12/2025

Czech TV Implements Landmark LiveU OB Project in Central...

Czech Television, the national public broadcaster, has deployed one of the largest LiveU live production projects in the region for live sports and news coverag...

02/12/2025

Leader expands cinematic camera support for Live Producti...

Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, has announced the release of v8.2 software for its ZEN and ZEN-W Series, bringing advanced cinematic camera se...

02/12/2025

Accedo and Magine Pro agree to merge SaaS businesses

Global provider of video streaming software and services, Accedo, and OTT platform provider, Magine Pro, have signed a binding agreement to carve out and merge ...

02/12/2025

Skandha Media Services New VP Sales Role Signals Bold Gro...

With proven success in broadcast, OTT, and content supply chains, K.S Avinash set to scale Skandha's service-first approach across APAC Skandha Media Servi...

02/12/2025

AJA Video Systems Joins RAVENNA Community

AJA Video Systems has joined the RAVENNA community, a network of partners devoted to advancing the RAVENNA standard for distributing real-time audio over intern...

02/12/2025

Report: ATSC 3.0 Would Boost Wireless Efficiency, Sustainability

HUNT VALLEY, Md. Sinclair and its wholly-owned subsidiary One Media Technologies have released a new report focused on how ATSC 3.0, the IP-based NextGen TV sta...

02/12/2025

FCC Issues a Reminder on Audio Description Rule Deadlines

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has issued a reminder that stations in DMAs 111 through 120 must implement its audio descrip...

02/12/2025

ATSC Members Elect 4 to Board of Directors

WASHINGTON Members of the Advanced Television Systems Committee have elected four industry veterans to three-year terms on the organization's board of direc...

02/12/2025

Survey: Younger Gen Z Consumers Spend 5.1 Hours a Day on Social Media

A new survey from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan highlights how important social media is for younger consumers, with Gen Z spending 5.1 hours a day on so...

02/12/2025

Faculty Notes: Fall/Winter 2025

Faculty Notes: Fall/Winter 2025 Recent accomplishments, releases, and events by Berklee faculty. December 1, 2025 By Editorial Staff The cast of Kind of M...

02/12/2025

NVIDIA Partners With Mistral AI to Accelerate New Family of Open Models

Today, Mistral AI announced the Mistral 3 family of open-source multilingual, multimodal models, optimized across NVIDIA supercomputing and edge platforms. M...

02/12/2025

Ring In The Holidays With Our Biggest Sale Ever On Ivory II Pianos!

Ring In The Holidays With Our Biggest Sale Ever On Ivory II Pianos!From now until December 31st, you can save 50% or more on every Ivory II piano and collection...

02/12/2025

Made in America: How Stranger Things' Electrified the US Economy

Back to All News Made in America: How Stranger Things' Electrified the US Economy Entertainment 02 December 2025 GlobalUnited States Link copied to cl...

02/12/2025

NVIDIA and AWS Expand Full-Stack Partnership, Providing the Secure, High-Performance Compute Platform Vital for Future Innovation

At AWS re:Invent, NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services expanded their strategic collab...

01/12/2025

L3Harris and PentenAmio Formalise Agreement to Advance Key Management and Secure Communications Technology

L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...

01/12/2025

Artemis II: A Mission of Veterans, Firsts and Lunar Dreams

Artemis II is NASA's first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The crew, from left: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Vic...

01/12/2025

Wooden Camera Releases Accessory Collection for Canon EOS C50

IRVINE, Calif. Wooden Camera has introduced its new Accessory Collection for the Canon EOS C50. The new lineup includes a low-profile, gimbal-ready cage, expand...

01/12/2025

FCC to Vote on LPTV Rules at December Public Meeting

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for its Dec. 18 Open Commission Meeting that will include a vote on a report an...