Hundreds of public safety and emergency management organisations will now have access to the emergency grade Public Safety Network (PSN) Cellular Services already being used by 25,000 frontline responders to increase coverage and reliability.

Since 2023, government entity Next Generation Critical Communications (NGCC) has been rolling-out its ‘best in breed’ cellular services to Police, Hato Hone St John, Wellington Free Ambulance, and Fire and Emergency New Zealand as part of the $1.4b Public Safety Network.

NGCC’s Director, Steve Ferguson says the government’s decision to increase the organisation’s mandate is good news for the sector with benefits flowing on to community safety and New Zealand’s socio-economic wellbeing.

“As we saw in Cyclones Gabrielle and Tam, there is a very wide network of central and local government, not for profit, and infrastructure and utilities organisations who activate in emergencies, often working alongside the emergency services. They all need to use their mobile phones and other tools to get good information to do their jobs, coordinate with each other and stay safe. We can now help them with that,” Mr Ferguson says.

The PSN Cellular Services - developed through Hourua (a Spark and One NZ joint venture) - include PSN enabled mobile phones, tablets and other emergency equipment that can roam across both Spark and One NZ networks, extending coverage and providing a back-up network if one is down. PSN enabled cellular devices also get priority access to coverage ahead of the public when there is network congestion and degradation, as can happen in large emergencies. The PSN’s cellular network visibility tool means the emergency teams coordinating responses and operations can see in real-time whether there are cellular coverage outages at a location.

“We know continuous communication is vital for organisations responding to emergencies. PSN Cellular Services will help ensure they can get the right information when and where they need it to make good decisions for people in need,” Mr Ferguson says.

“Government’s support for NGCC’s evolution establishes us as an organisation with the mandate, mission and experience to onboard others to existing services and infrastructure.

“We also offer strong potential for delivering further multi-agency projects and streamlining investment to help modernise New Zealand’s critical communications capability and sector operational performance.”

NGCC will begin to offer PSN services to eligible organisations from mid-2026.