Telecom Corporation New Zealand - Company Overview - Background Report - mid-2010

Synopsis

Telecom Corporation of New Zealand is New Zealand’s largest telecommunications company and the incumbent operator. The company provides a full range of Internet, broadband data, voice, mobile and fixed-line calling services for customers in New Zealand, and to Australian customers through its Australian subsidiaries AAPT and PowerTel. The firm is currently passing through a transformational period in response to changing industry regulations and the announcement in 2009 of public funding for a national Ultra-Fast Broadband Network.

In this report we provide an overview of Telecom’s strategic approach, products and services, business structure, network and subsidiaries. The company went through a major overhaul of its operating structure after undergoing the process of operational separation in 2008. Since then the business unit responsible for operating the Telecom NZ network, Chorus, has made significant progress towards improving the firm’s services to the benefit of both end users and other industry firms.

We provide analysis on the investment in the XT mobile network that took place at a time when Telecom’s margins were already under pressure. We also briefly describe some of the technical problems that network in suffered from late 2009 through to early 2010.

This report provides supplementary reference operational information to our regularly updated report on Telecom New Zealand, see separate report: New Zealand - Telco Company Profiles - Telecom Corporation New Zealand - Company Overview – 2010.