Telecom New Zealand (NZX: TEL, ASX: TEL, NYSE: NZT) is a New Zealand-wide communications service provider (CSP), providing fixed line telephone services, a mobile network, an internet service provider (through its subsidiary Xtra), and a major ICT provider to NZ businesses (through its Gen-i division). It has operated as a publicly traded company since 1990.
Telecom is one of the largest companies by value on the New Zealand Exchange (NZX). Further, it is the 39th largest telecommunications company in the OECD.
Telecom was formed in 1987 from a division of the New Zealand Post Office and privatised in 1990. The selling price was considered by some to be extremely low, given that Telecom had a monopoly of all phone lines in New Zealand at the time. There has been debate as to whether privatisation was in the best interests of the country's telecommunications infrastructure, although others consider that the capital requirements to modernise the network were better provided by private enterprise than the government.
On 31 March 2008, Telecom was operationally separated into three divisions under local loop unbundling initiatives by central government – Telecom Retail; Telecom Wholesale; and Chorus, the network infrastructure division. This separation effectively ended any remnants of monopoly that Telecom Retail once had in the market. On 30 November 2011 the demerger process was complete, with Telecom and Chorus becoming separate listed companies.
Read more about Telecom New Zealand: History, Telecom Broadband, Telecom Mobile, Criticism, Local Loop Unbundling
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