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Crown company Network for Learning (N4L) says 500 schools now have access to its “next-generation internet infrastructure”, with another 2000 due to be on the new system by May next year.

After the Managed Network upgrade is complete, every school will be on either fibre or satellite fast broadband from Elon Musk’s Starlink, N4L chief executive Larrie Moore says.

But the biggest change will be that N4L will manage services directly. “We’re bringing everything in-house,” Moore says.

Schools can choose what they filter or block under N4L’s opt-in system.

As the Government weighs a blanket social media ban for under-16s, Moore says 70% of schools managed by N4L have blocked at least one social media site, while 60% have blocked all social media sites.

If they want to tighten things up, the upgraded Managed Network set-up lets schools tweak their security or content-blocking settings straight away, Moore says.

All schools use N4L for internet connectivity, but not all use its services for filtering websites. Some choose to use private providers.

Moore is hoping the speed and convenience of the new Managed Network offering will bring in the holdouts. A parallel initiative, called MyNRL, provides a simple interface showing web browsing activity at a school.

Schools don’t have to pay anything for the Managed Network upgrade, which began in March. It is fully funded by the Ministry of Education.

2degrees and Palo Alto Networks in, Spark and Fortinet out

Late last year, N4L announced it had selected 2degrees and the multinational Palo Alto Networks – whose directors include Sir John Key – as key partners to upgrade managed network services for 2542 schools. That is, nearly every state and state-integrated school in the country.

2degrees and Palo Alto Networks displaced incumbents Spark and Fortinet, respectively, after winning competitive tenders for two separate contracts that run through to 2031.

"We're taking full ownership and direct control for the first time" - N4L CEO Larrie Moore

25% of NZ’s daytime internet traffic

They’re big contracts for a big network. N4L says the 900,000+ teachers and students on its network account for 25% of New Zealand’s daytime internet traffic.

Schools’ data consumption had increased at a rapid clip with the rise of online learning tools, video and now AI. In the year to June 30, 2020, schools used a total 42.42 petabytes of data (1 petabyte is 1 million gigabytes - so that’s the equivalent of downloading about 40 million movies via Netflix). For the year to June 30, 2025, that had increased by 50% to 62.44 petabytes.

“We’re proud to support N4L in delivering reliable, high-performance connectivity to schools across the motu" - 2degree CEO Mark Callander.

“It’s a huge deal for us,” a 2degrees insider told the Herald.

How huge? None of the parties will say, citing commercial confidence.

Moore will only say the contracts are worth “millions”.

But to give an idea of the scale of N4L’s operations: in its 2024 financial year, the Crown firm received $56.7 million in “exchange income” (that is, paid directly by the Ministry of Education on behalf of schools) for “the provision of core network services to schools, provision of licence upgrades, equipment replacement for school Wi-Fi networks, and various cyber security services” to schools.

N4L was created in 2012 after the Government realised many schools needed help getting connected to and managing new broadband connectivity under the recently started Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) fibre rollout. In 2019, it expanded to offer managed Wi-Fi.

Under N4L’s third and again expanded iteration, Moore says Palo Alto Networks is “delivering [the] next generation of on-premise firewalls, along with advanced cyber security and web filtering services”.

Palo Alto Networks NZ country manager Misti Landtroop, director Sir John Key and Palo Alto regional VP Steve Manley. "We're proud to partner with N4L to roll out the new Managed Network to schools across Aotearoa. By delivering our next-generation firewall, cybersecurity technologies and web filtering, we're providing a robust platform that enables safer, more efficient digital learning environments for students and educators nationwide," Landtroop says. Photo / ��һ�ǿ�����

2degrees will provide internet services and enable N4L to operate as a virtual Internet Service Provider (ISP). This will allow N4L to manage internet service delivery directly, for the first time, while still utilising 2degrees’ infrastructure for connectivity, Moore says.

The telco was also handling Starlink upgrades at rural schools (like One NZ and Spark, 2degrees is a reseller of the business-grade version of Elon Musk’s satellite broadband service, which comes with super-sized dishes).

Silicon Valley-based Palo Alto Networks (market cap: US$129 billion or $217b) has grown strongly over the past two years, in a world grappling with a range of new technologies and threats.

“We’ve embedded AI [artificial intelligence] massively at Palo Alto Networks. But on the other side of the coin, all the bad actors have it,” Key told the Herald this week.

“As we live in a world which is totally online, digital security becomes more and more critical.”

Upgrade ‘in a single afternoon’

Wellington’s Island Bay School, a primary school with 340 students on its roll, is one of the schools to have been upgraded. Principal Deborah Fenton says the process was quick and easy, with little or no disruption to school operations.

“On the day, there was very little impact on us, so N4L did a really good job,” she says.

“The upgrade happened in a single afternoon. N4L knew the times of day we needed to do important things, so they were able to flex to our needs and choose the most insignificant time of the school day to do it.”

Deputy principal Jacqui Innes with pupils at Island Bay School – the Wellington primary school that was one of the first to get N4L's new Managed Network upgrade.

Fenton says she also values the safety and security solutions N4L delivers, which offer an excellent level of protection for Island Bay School and its students.

“One of the biggest things that N4L provides is helping protect our ākonga [students] from accessing things like websites and social media, which is a really amazing service to have in a school. Helping us keep kids protected is the number one thing N4L does really well.”

New threats

Things haven’t been so rosy everywhere.

Last year, N4L drew flak after the Herald’s Michael Morrah reported that researchers were able to access “horrific” content at six Auckland primary schools.

Moore said it was up to schools which sites and services they blocked (schools can select recommended categories including pornography, crypto mining, drug abuse, explicit violence, peer-to-peer file sharing and extremist groups).

A whole social network or service (such as YouTube) or a website could be blocked – and more than 15.7 billion website connection requests were blocked by N4L last year. But blocking content within a website or social network that’s on the green list was more problematic.

Some services, such as YouTube or Google Search, can be set to run in restricted modes school-wide, Moore says.

Pupils at Island Bay School, Wellington. N4L says its new Managed Network will make it easier and faster for principals to request certain sites or services be blocked.

N4L recommends schools implement a Google Search option to blur suspect images and it blocks alternative search engine DuckDuckGo by default because of its features designed to block tracking and oversight – but it will unblock it at a school’s request. At the end of the day, the level of restriction is up to schools, Moore says.

The upgraded Managed Network will allow N4L to introduce new filtering and security options, Moore says. He says it’s a key element that the new platform will be in place until at least 2031 (with 2degrees and Palo Alto Networks having right of renewal).

“There are emerging threats we need to keep an eye on and we need to consider how we’ll mange them.”

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.