“Bigger, better, and fit for the future,” was how One New Zealand’s SME & Consumer director Chris Fletcher described the newly opened Napier retail store earlier last week.

“We’ve relocated the store into an iconic location at the top of Emerson Street. With heaps more floor space to show off all the latest tech, and a team ready to serve Napier residents, we can’t wait to get locals connected.”

Crucially, Napier is One NZ’s first ‘resilient’ store, with an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) battery backup, and its own small cell (think mini cell tower), meaning should grid power fail, as happened in February’s Cyclone Gabrielle, the store can continue to operate – offering customers a way to reach loved ones, and charge their phones, tablets, and other connected tech. The need to focus on resilience and connectivity, as well as having the local store, was highlighted by locals during One NZ's cyclone response and support in the region.

“When the cyclone hit and the power went out, Napier residents struggled to keep in contact, and the lack of power meant we couldn’t open the store, despite wanting to help. We’ve learned from this, which is why we’re investing in additional technology like UPS and generators, so that should the worst happen again, we are ready to pitch in and keep customers connected.”

One New Zealand has also announced a collaboration with SpaceX which will allow customers to use satellite technology to keep connected across New Zealand, using their existing smart phones. This deal will allow One New Zealand customers to keep connected like never before from late 2024 in the event of the regular mobile network being impacted by weather events or outages.

“We believe this resilience in store is a first in New Zealand, and it’s great to offer peace of mind to Napier residents first. Of course, we hope we never have to use it but it is great to know we have this ability and are prepared for whatever the future throws as us”.

• One NZ’s Napier store contains 2 x UPS batteries which will keep point of sale stations running in a grid outage, along with our SD WAN network and store guest Wi-Fi.
• UPS will run for up to 48 hours allowing time to set up the external diesel generator which would then take over and allow standup of a small cell site.
• Our new store address is: Tenancy 01, 49 Emerson St, Napier, 4110.