One NZ's Cloud Leap: Securing Voice for Aotearoa's Digital Future

PLANO, TX – December 02, 2025 – In a significant move to modernize New Zealand's telecommunications backbone, One New Zealand (One NZ) has announced a strategic partnership with U.S.-based Ribbon Communications to deploy a next-generation, cloud-native voice network across Aotearoa. The initiative represents a critical investment in securing and future-proofing the nation's calling infrastructure, directly addressing the rising tide of digital threats while positioning One NZ for market leadership.

The collaboration will see One NZ leverage Ribbon's suite of cloud-native solutions, including its Session Border Controller (SBC), Policy and Routing Engine (PSX), and advanced analytics platforms. This transition from traditional hardware-based systems to a flexible, software-defined architecture promises enhanced security, scalability, and resilience for millions of Kiwi consumers and businesses.

"Calling remains central to how Kiwis connect every day," said Ian Sutton, Head of Network Services at One NZ, in a statement. "By working with Ribbon, we're making our voice services smart, secure, and future-ready. It's about giving our customers the best possible experience today, and the resilience they'll need tomorrow."

A Strategic Play in a Competitive Market

This network overhaul is more than a technical upgrade; it is a calculated strategic maneuver within New Zealand's highly concentrated telecommunications market. The sector is a stable oligopoly dominated by Spark, One NZ, and 2degrees, which together command over 97% of the mobile market. In this competitive environment, operators are increasingly looking beyond price to differentiate on service quality, security, and innovation.

For One NZ, which holds the second-largest mobile market share with 2.3 million connections, this investment is a key part of its post-Vodafone identity. Since separating from its global parent, the company has embarked on an aggressive modernization strategy. This includes a multi-year partnership with Ericsson to deploy a 5G Core network, an ambitious plan to achieve 100% mobile coverage through a satellite partnership with SpaceX's Starlink, and a plan to sunset its 3G network to reallocate spectrum for 5G expansion.

The adoption of Ribbon's cloud-native voice technology fits seamlessly into this broader vision. It allows One NZ to enhance its core service offering while pursuing operational efficiencies that support its medium-term goal of a "mid-30s" EBITDA margin. By improving the fundamental calling experience and bolstering security, the company aims to increase customer trust and retention, key drivers of Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), which has already seen modest growth in the past fiscal year.

Fortifying the Network Against Digital Threats

A primary and tangible benefit of this partnership is a powerful new line of defense against telecommunications fraud. Ribbon's platform is already identifying and blocking an average of 500,000 suspicious calls every month before they can reach One NZ customers. This figure provides a stark glimpse into the sheer volume of attempted scams, spoofing, and robocalls targeting New Zealanders.

The system's architecture is designed for proactive defense. Ribbon's Session Border Controller (SBC) acts as a secure gateway for all voice traffic, while the Policy and Routing Engine (PSX) serves as a centralized brain for making intelligent, dynamic routing decisions. This combination is crucial for thwarting complex fraud schemes.

Furthermore, a continuous feedback loop between the SBC, PSX, and Ribbon's analytics platform enables the network to learn and adapt to emerging threats. This paves the way for integrating advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities, moving from simply blocking known bad actors to proactively identifying and neutralizing novel attack patterns. For consumers and businesses alike, this translates into a safer, more trustworthy communication environment, mitigating the financial and personal risks associated with sophisticated phone scams.

The Cloud-Native Revolution in Voice Communication

The technological shift at the heart of this partnership is the move to a "cloud-native" architecture. Unlike legacy telecom systems built on proprietary, monolithic hardware, cloud-native solutions are composed of independent microservices running in containerized environments like Kubernetes. This software-centric approach provides unprecedented agility and scalability.

For One NZ, this means it can scale call capacity up or down dynamically to meet demand without costly and time-consuming physical hardware deployments. It also enhances network resilience, as the distributed nature of microservices minimizes the impact of any single point of failure, ensuring greater uptime and reliability for customers.

This modernization delivers significant advantages for enterprise customers. Ribbon’s SBC facilitates seamless and secure integration with unified communications platforms, most notably enabling direct routing for Calling for Microsoft Teams. This is a critical feature for modern businesses reliant on integrated collaboration tools for hybrid work. As companies in New Zealand continue their digital transformation, the ability to merge traditional telephony with modern collaboration suites on a secure, scalable platform becomes a powerful competitive advantage.

This move by One NZ is part of a wider trend across Oceania, where telecom operators are increasingly abandoning legacy infrastructure in favor of cloud-native platforms to support the rollout of 5G Standalone (SA) networks and the explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

"We're proud to partner with One NZ to deliver the cloud native voice services that meet the demands of today's digital-first world to Aotearoa," commented Pierre-Jean Chalon, Vice President of Asia Pacific Sales at Ribbon Communications. The partnership is a clear signal that the future of telecommunications lies in intelligent, automated, and secure software platforms, a foundation One NZ is now actively building to better serve all of New Zealand.