One.Tel - History

History

One.Tel began operations in May 1995. In 1999 One.Tel's Next Generation 3GSM 1800 network was launched by joint CEO's of the mobile business, Stephen Moore and David Wright in Sydney, Australia.

The original thought process began with a simple initiative: they wanted to start a new telephone company, one that the average person would understand. The company was very people focused and focused on the residential market, as opposed to corporate business. They wanted the consumer, or everyday person in the street, to have access to the entire suite of telephony products, which is why the company was marketed with the catch phrase “100% Telephone Company”.

At that time, the Company was firmly established in the telecommunications market, with operations in Australia, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, Frankfurt and Hong Kong.

One.Tel had three core product offerings: fixed wire long distance, Internet service provision and mobile telephony.

From 1998 through to 2000, One.Tel’s customer base more than tripled to 2.2 million and revenues doubled to $653 million. The business grew rapidly in Europe.

In December 1998 Project GSM was developed by Jodee Rich, Bradley Keeling, Kevin Beck, Stephen Moore and Alicia Crisp. This initial concept became the foundation for the One.Tel Next Gen 3GSM cellular network in Australia and spawned the international hybrid MVNO concept developed by One.Tel CTO Stephen Moore.

In February 1999, News Corporation (News) and Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) injected $709 million over three years.

In March 2000 One.Tel was successful in acquiring 15 MHz spectrum across all major capital cities. The One.Tel Next Generation Network was launched nationally six months ahead of schedule. It was the most technologically advanced network in Australia and offered differentiating features via a Smart SIM including ‘Voicemail with Reply Now’, ‘Megaphone’ and location based information on demand services – features that are now commonplace today.

At its peak, One.Tel’s strengths were recognised in consumer marketing and information systems, intuitive platforms and resources based on R&D in the Australian Next Generation Network, One.Tel continued to build quality, value for money telephony products and services while remaining a low cost producer for a time.

By May 2000 One.Tel had Operations in seven countries (Australia, UK, HK, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Germany), over 1,900,000 active customers and was connecting over 250,000/month globally.