The company set up by Spark to manage its passive mobile tower assets, TowerCo, will be renamed Connexa after the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board acquired 70 per cent of the assets.
Spark veteran and TowerCo chief executive Rob Berrill said the Connexa name reflects the power of connectivity.
Connexa is gearing up for a substantial expansion programme of new tower builds.
"Connexa already has over 1200 mobile sites across Aotearoa, and has been commissioned to deliver New Zealand's largest forward-looking new site build programme, of over 670 new sites ove the next ten years," Berrill said.
Spark said Connexa is New Zealand's first independent mobile tower company.
The telco incumbent added that the independent tower industry model is still in its infancy in New Zealand, but it has been around for some time in overseas markets.
There, tower companies have played a key role in enabling and accelerating the rollout of critical infrastructure and new technologies such as 5G, according to Spark.
Samsung is currently expanding Spark's 5G network on the southern side of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, working its way up north as the programme continues.
The network expansion will be used for fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband service, with Samsung equipment.
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