type public traded as nzx spk asx spk industry telecommunications predecessor new zealand post office founded 1 april 1987 as telecom new zealand 8 august 2014 as spark new zealand headquarters auckland new zealand area served new zealand key people mark verbiest chairman simon moutter managing director jolie hodson cfo jason paris ceo spark home mobile and business tim miles ceo spark digital david havercroft coo spark connect rod snodgrass ceo spark ventures products mobile services broadband services landline services services fixed telephony mobile telephony internet access leased lines data transmission ict solutions streaming video on demand home automation revenue nz 3 531 000 000 2015 1 operating income nz 962 000 000 2015 1 profit nz 375 000 000 2015 1 total assets nz 3 206 000 000 2015 1 total equity nz 1 778 000 000 2015 1 number of employees 5 092 1 divisions spark home mobile and business spark wholesale spark digital spark ventures spark connect spark foundation website spark.co.nz sparknz.co.nz sparkdigital.co.nz sparkventures.co.nz sparkfoundation.org.nz spark new zealand formerly telecom new zealand is a new zealand wide communications service provider csp providing fixed line telephone services a mobile network an internet service provider and a major ict provider to nz businesses through its spark digital division . it has operated as a publicly traded company since 1990 . spark is one of the largest companies by value on the new zealand exchange nzx . as of 2007 it was the 39th largest telecommunications company in the oecd . 2 the company is part of new zealand telecommunications forum . telecom new zealand was formed in 1987 from a division of the new zealand post office and privatised in 1990 . in 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 . in 2011 the demerger process was complete with telecom and chorus becoming separate listed companies . 3 on 8 august 2014 the company changed its name to spark new zealand . 4 contents 1 history 1.1 1990s 1.2 2000s 1.3 2010s 1.4 mobile network 1.5 industry regulation and company restructuring 2 spark broadband 3 spark ultra mobile 3.1 customer numbers and market share 4 criticism 5 references 6 external links history edit the postal services act 1987 split the then new zealand post office into new zealand post limited trading as nzpost telecom new zealand limited trading as telecom and post office bank limited trading as postbank sold to anz in 1989 and all three industries progressively deregulated . the selling price of telecom was considered by some to be extremely low given that telecom had a monopoly of all phone lines in new zealand at the time . 5 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 . citation needed 1990s edit in 1990 telecom was sold to two united states based telecommunications companies bell atlantic and ameritech for nz 4.25 billion . 6 around the same time the kiwi share 7 agreement was drawn up which included a provision that the company retained free local calling for residential customers . also in 1990 clear communications later telstraclear entered the new zealand telecommunications market and so was the first network to compete with telecom . in 1991 telecom listed on the new zealand australian and new york stock exchanges . the following year telecom implemented a nz 200 million fibre optic cable connection between australia and new zealand . also in this year roderick deane was appointed ceo of the company . then in 1993 ameritech and bell atlantic reduced their share in telecom to a combined 49.6 % and bellsouth new zealand limited bellsouth subsequently acquired by vodafone set up the first mobile network to compete with telecom . clear communications reached an agreement with telecom in 1995 on local service interconnection . also in 1995 telecom created first media ltd to develop a cable television network across auckland and wellington called first tv . in 1996 telecom established a telephone exchange in the united states for international traffic and launched xtra which is new zealand s largest internet service provider today . citation needed 1997 saw telecom buy back nz 1 million of its shares . the following year ameritech sold down its 24.8 % shareholding in an international public offering and bell atlantic issued exchangeable notes that were convertible into the telecom shares that it owned . also in 1998 southern cross cables limited half owned by telecom announced plans to build a fibre optic cable linking new zealand with australia and north america and vodafone new zealand bought bellsouth and started a campaign to attract telecom customers to its network . citation needed in december 1997 8 patricia reddy was appointed to the telecom board . she remained on it until 2008 . 9 in march 2016 as dame patsy reddy she was appointed governor general designate of new zealand . in 1999 telecom established a presence in australia buying 78 % of aapt australia s third largest telecommunications company . telecom upgraded its nationwide payphone network to smart card technology . telecom s broadband internet service based on adsl technology called jetstream was launched and rolled out progressively in local exchanges . also at this time telecom began charging customers who connected to the internet using a local dial up number forcing all isps in new zealand to change to an 0867 dial up number . this resulted in complaints that this was in breach of telecom s kiwishare agreement where residential customers are allowed free local calling . the decade was rounded off with theresa gattung being appointed new ceo of telecom with rod deane moving to the position of chairman . citation needed 2000s edit the original telecom logo in 2000 xtra signed up its 300 000th customer . telecom also raised its shareholding in aapt to 100 % . evidence emerged in early 2002 of telecom having exploited an ill considered or fraudulently made to order accounting standard frs38 to inflate its year 2001 reported profit by some 263m . 10 this standard required holding companies to incorporate profits and losses of associate companies into their group accounts by way of equity accounting except when the associate is insolvent . being insolvent has been wrongly taken as substantial evidence that the holding company will no longer share in the associates profits and losses . the associate company southern cross cables paid telecom 263m in dividends as per note 2 of telecom s 2001 annual accounts 11 us200m as per southern cross s annual accounts . 12 southern cross opened for limited business in november 2000 and its income from operations to 30 june 2001 was only us13m us55m for the 2002 year . southern cross were insolvent to the extent of us24m as at 30 june 2000 and this increased to us280m as at june 2001 as a result of the dividends and other net expenses 328m in 2002 . the dividends were treated as income in telecom s accounts there being nothing in frs 28 to say that they should not be although such inclusion did breach an overall requirement that the accounts present a fair view . in 2003 a new logo was launched . 13 better source needed in 2004 telecom purchased gen i ltd in may and computerland ltd in september . the company also won the roger award for the worst transnational corporation operating in new zealand . in 2005 telecom introduced bitstream a 256 kbit adsl service sold at wholesale prices at approximately 10 % below the retail price to other isps . telecom also posted a profit of nz 916 million . the company also launched online retail store ferrit launches with about 150 retailers . 14 2006 9 may an audio clip recorded on 2 march was released involving telecom ceo theresa gattung admitting the use of confusion as a chief marketing tool in the industry . the march recording also dismissed the new zealand government as too smart to do anything dumb with regards to regulation . 15 late may roderick deane resigns as chairman and is replaced by wayne boyd the following month . july matt crockett is appointed ceo of telecom s newly formed wholesale division . 16 all computerland branches around new zealand are rebranded as gen i. 2007 16 january the librarians association of new zealand put in a complaint about a telecom advertisement where 3 young school children state that only dumb kids read books brainy kids have broadband . originally telecom stated that is the views of the young children and not telecom and the advertisement was unscripted later that week telecom choose to edit the advertisement to remove the comments made by the children . citation needed 19 january it is reported that paritai drive orakei one of the richest streets in auckland is still not capable of receiving a broadband dsl service and there are many other well populated areas around new zealand still not capable of receiving broadband . opposition woosh wireless immediately tested their service in the area and gave residents the opportunity to join their wireless broadband service . 17 18 5 february telecom announces that from march 2007 they will begin rolling out adsl2 more than a year after originally stated for roll out . may 2007 british telecom have been in discussion with the new zealand government regarding telecom s monopoly control of the nz broadband network . three to four years previously british telecom were in a similar position to that which nz telecom are now in ; the british broadband network has since been broken up and the nz government are keen to learn and possibly copy the development regulatory investment model used by the british firm . the auckland chamber of commerce publicly stated that if telecom did not invest in a next generation high speed network comparable with that of other western nations they would fund a private fibre optic based service in the 100 megabit speed range . the proposed coverage of this would be within 200m of a path running south from auckland cbd situated to allow as many businesses as possible to connect . any company or private individual within this range would be offered a connection . 28 june telecom announced that dr paul reynolds ceo of bt wholesale has been selected as the new ceo to start on 27 september . 19 simon moutter was appointed as acting ceo in the interim . 20 30 june theresa gattung steps down as ceo 21 with a reported leaving payment of 5.125 million . 22 27 september dr paul reynolds starts as ceo of telecom . 21 november mark ratcliffe chief operating officer for technology is appointed ceo of telecom s soon to be spun off network division . 2008 a van with the chorus livery . 16 january telecom announces the formation of chorus its new network infrastructure division . 23 24 31 march telecom officially separates into three divisions chorus telecom wholesale telecom retail 1 april russ houlden a colleague of reynolds at bt is appointed chief financial officer . he replaces marko bogoievski who joined infratil . 2009 12 january telecom announces the closure of its online retail store ferrit . 14 august an industrial dispute emerged between chorus and the engineering printing and manufacturing union after servicing contracts in the auckland and northland regions are awarded to australian company visionstream which planned to change technicians employment contracts to a dependent contractor model . 25 26 in october a new logo was announced . 2010s edit spark s