Answer: Telecom New Zealand
Telecom New Zealand (NZX: TEL, ASX: TEL, NYSE: NZT) is a Wellington, New Zealand-based telephone company and, through its subsidiary Xtra, an internet service provider. It has operated as a publicly-traded company since 1990. It is also New Zealand's second largest mobile operator. 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.
