NBSN Telecom Limited is an Auckland company in a research and laboratory stage. The work is to find out what it takes to build a mobile operator in New Zealand — in writing, and on a lab bench where a claim can be tested.
We are not a network operator. We do not offer a service to the public.
Each track is written research: the question, then how far it has been checked.
53 research reports written. 13 requests for information drafted for vendors and host networks. The reports are kept in a private research repository.
Reseller, light and full MVNO models, compared on what each one owns: brand and billing only, or also the subscriber database, voice and messaging. A minimal 4G core with IMS, and the interfaces it would need from a host network.
Status: written research.
How an operator would issue and manage its own SIM identities, and whether one card can serve both consumer and IoT profile management. Interoperation between vendors is treated as something to test rather than taken from a claim.
Status: written research; issuing a test eSIM has also been run on the lab bench.
How the other profile is brought up after the active one loses the network — six approaches on paper, and two limits that apply to all of them. Where a bootstrap profile gets a long-lived data path, and who is allowed to install it. Satellite as a fallback: four independently produced desk-research reports, cross-checked in October 2026, on what was on sale in New Zealand and what a 3GPP non-terrestrial path would still have to settle before it could connect to an operator's core.
Status: written research; dual-profile fallback has not yet been run on the bench.
Three service ideas, on paper: calling from an app on the same number when the SIM is offline; an assistant that answers missed calls; and after-hours routing for business landlines.
Status: written research; the offline-app call has a test plan, and bench work has not started.
Read from the statute, not offered as advice: what would make a provider a network operator, interception capability and network-security notice under TICSA, emergency calling, number portability under the Telecommunications Act 2001, and privacy under the Privacy Act 2020 where a call is recorded or transcribed. A separate note on how a 4G-only core changes those duties, and a split between compliance work done once and work that repeats.
Status: written research, not legal advice.
A per-subscriber cost model for the software of a minimal 4G core, with the inputs left as parameters. A blank scorecard, so vendor replies can be marked on one sheet. A due-diligence list of compliance and technical checks that sit before any large spend.
Status: written research; no prices are published here.
A desk map, dated 12 November 2026, of New Zealand mobile brands and the host network that carries each, from public sources only. A separate reading of overseas operators that keep their own core and buy radio access only: what those operators actually own, and what the host still runs.
Status: desk research from public sources.
A paper claim that can be tested is tested on our own bench. The three states below are kept apart, so that a lab result is not mistaken for a service in operation.
The working principles behind the research, so that a conclusion can be traced to its evidence.
Start from standards, statutes and regulator text, then read the commentary.
Where a topic matters, have it researched independently more than once, write down the disagreements, and check them against the source.
Put what only a supplier or a host network can answer into a request for information, so the replies can be marked on one sheet.
Where a claim can be tested, test it on our own lab network and keep the run log.
List the compliance and technical checks before any large spend, and keep an open check marked as open.
Peers, suppliers and possible partners are welcome to write and compare notes on the research.
info@kiaoramobile.co.nz