Manning told the Herald: “We have advertised the business for sale as a going concern. All interested parties should contact the liquidators as a priority. We are currently liaising with several interested parties.”

The first liquidator’s report, released today, lists total assets and Evolution’s total deficit as “unknown” at this point.

Funds on hand at the time of the liquidation were $5963 with debts – still being assessed – somewhere north of $462,000.

There are two secured creditors: ANZ Bank, owed $82,446, and Cheryl Renouf Ltd (owner of MTF Finance Whakatāne), owed $32,443.

The preferential creditors are employees, owed $21,031, and Inland Revenue, due $17,775 in PAYE and GST.

Unsecured creditors include Stratus Blue Loan, owed $55,976, trade creditors owed $225,564 and former shareholder the Ōpōtiki District Council, which extended a $27,000 loan.

The Ōpōtiki District Council took a 30% stake in Evolution in its 2018/19 financial year to “increase connectivity within the district and wider Eastern Bay of Plenty”.

“Evolution specialises in providing high-speed wireless internet connections to remote rural areas other internet service providers have ignored.”

In October last year, the council discussed Evolution in a meeting from which the public were excluded.

In July this year, the council’s shares were transferred to Tauranga entrepreneur Tony Snow – a director of Evolution since 2016 – and the firm’s sole director and shareholder at the time of its liquidation.

The council’s 2023/24 annual report lists its Evolution investment as worth $120,000.

‘Don’t rely on a billionaire’

While the sums involved are modest, Jesse Archer, owner of another Bay of Plenty internet service provider, Full Flavour, says Evolution’s collapse represents broader challenges for wireless internet service providers.

“Broadly, things remain stable across wisp-land. The latest Commerce Commission rural market-monitoring report [released in July] shows wisps continuing to grow their share of the rural broadband market, up roughly one percentage point year-on-year despite Starlink’s arrival,” Archer said.

“Where we do have real pressure is spectrum. The sector urgently needs another 40MHz of 3GHz band released to keep up with capacity demands, along with access to 6GHz spectrum – as has already happened in Australia and the United States.”

In 2023, the previous Government forwent its usual airwaves auction in favour of granting Spark, One NZ and 2degrees 80MHz of free spectrum each in the 5G-friendly 3.5GHz band – with the quid pro quo that each would spend at least $24m, on top of their existing budgets, on expanding their rural coverage.

Wispa to a scream

Wispa has been pushing for a meaningful spectrum allocation for its 30 members, too, arguing that small, nimble players are best-placed to fill rural gaps.

In March, Wispa chairman Mike Smith told the Herald: “Access to unused and incredibly valuable spectrum is being roadblocked and in my view strangling regional operators, wisps who have built infrastructure to utilise this spectrum.”

“The 40MHz current allocation is not enough to be useful, this means operators are less likely to invest as the return-on-investment just doesn’t stack up.

“Making a further 40MHz available is a logical and economically beneficial move that can be fast-tracked to deliver much-needed capacity for local wisp operators in the regions to provide the full noise-capacity that the technology offers.”

Smith added, it turned out prophetically: “There is a serious risk of operators closing up shop if spectrum that is sitting idle is not made available soon.”

Archer said earlier this week: “Two years into the current Government, the consolidation and resourcing cuts within MBIE and RSM [MBIE’s Radio Spectrum Management unit] have slowed policy work and, in my view, pushed rural connectivity down the priority list”.

“It would be a real shame if the Government’s plan for rural broadband simply relies on a global billionaire to solve the problem.”

The industry veteran added, “Many of us remember what happened when Microsoft ‘bought the market’ with cheap hosted email – smaller local providers were wiped out, and prices ultimately rose once local competition disappeared.”

Starlink grows from 37,000 to 58,000 NZ users in a year

The Commerce Commission’s June report says in its rural connectivity section: “The fastest-growing provider is Starlink, which has overtaken 2degrees to become the third largest rural provider.”

Farmers are voting with their wallets. Starlink, which launched in NZ in 2021, has increased its connections over the past three years from 12,000 to 37,000 to 58,000, according to the regulator’s report.

Wisps have been able to grow as a category, too, thanks to the overall growth of various wireless solutions as rural users abandon copper (which Chorus is aiming to decommission altogether by 2030).

The new Starlink connections are overwhelmingly rural, the commission says.

Farmers out of reach of fibre or cut off by cellular data limits have turned to Musk’s solution. Starlink has also been adopted by the Crown-owned Network For Learning as its connectivity solution for rural schools.

The regulator did add that Starlink’s growth “now appears to be slowing” and that Musk’s network faces pending competition from the Amazon-owned Kuiper network of low-earth orbiting satellites, which is still in its early days but due to launch its first service in Australia in “mid-2026″ with NZ expected to follow shortly afterwards.

The first Kuiper ground station in NZ is now under construction after Amazon earlier secured eight satellite transmission licences for New Zealand.

Rural diversity – for now

The commission said while just three players – Spark, One NZ and 2degrees – account for nearly all urban connections (with power company bundles and Sky starting to nibble around the edges), the rural scene has some 52 players, including 15 with fewer than 5000 customers and 30 with fewer than 1000.

Snow did not respond to Herald requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Ōpōtiki District Council said it would likely not be in a position to comment until Friday or Monday.

Starlink to chip in

Starlink pays a token $150 per radio licence per location for its half-dozen NZ ground stations. (Its latest, and largest, was approved for construction by the Christchurch City Council last month.)

But in October last year, the commission said Starlink would have to contribute to the $12m annual Telecommunications Development Levy – a tax on the industry, levied in proportion to market share, that goes toward paying for emergency calling and public-private rural broadband improvements.

Chorus has been lobbied for the TDL to be increased to its previous rate of $50m per year.

A spokeswoman for the commission said Starlink had been cooperative and opened its books to the regulator.

Wisps also want to see Starlink compelled to join the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution service and subject to other local regulatory measures, which Wispa says would help level the playing field.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.