Telstra Clear - History

History

TelstraClear had its beginnings in New Zealand with Kiwi Cable in the Kapiti Coast district, Clear Communications in 1990, and Telstra New Zealand in 1996.

Telstra NZ slowly expanded its operations in the business market bundling Telecom New Zealand services distributed as a reseller with its own network services. It installed switches in Auckland and Wellington to manage incoming and outgoing international traffic and maintained an interconnect agreement with Telecom New Zealand and is likely to have had others with companies such as Clear Communications.

In 1999 Saturn Communications was sold by its parent company, Austar United Communications to a new joint venture with Telstra that became known as TelstraSaturn.

TelstraClear was then created by the merger of Telstra's TelstraSaturn and Clear Communications in December 2001. Austar United Communications held an initial investment of 42% in TelstraClear before selling it back to Telstra.

In 2004 TelstraClear made its first acquisition in the IT market with the purchase of Sytec mainly for its IP telephony and security skills, in particular the specialist managed security subsidiary DMZGlobal. In 2007 Sytec was formally introduced into the TelstraClear's Enterprise and government division and the brand retired, but the DMZGlobal brand has been retained and invested in.

In July 2012, Vodafone New Zealand announced plans to acquire TelstraClear. Vodafone approached Telstra to purchase TelstraClear for a payment of $840 million and $450 million that TelstraClear has in its accounts. On 30 October the Commerce Commission approved the takeover bid, and on 31 October the sale was completed. The 31st of March 2013 is the final trading day of TelstraClear.