carrier see powertel u.s. cellular carrier 1998 2001 . powertel limited former type private industry telecommunications fate acquired by telecom new zealand successor aapt limited founded 1979 defunct 2007 headquarters sydney new south wales australia products internet access leased lines data transmission revenue a 199.4 million 2006 website www.powertel.com.au powertel was an australian telecommunications company that operated urban and inter city fibre optic networks across australia between 1998 and 2007 . history edit the company was launched in august 1998 and received its carrier licence from the australian communications authority that year . in february 1999 powertel began building a fibre optic atm network in the central business districts of sydney melbourne and brisbane and a long haul fibre backbone between each city . 1 powertel had the right to use electricity network ducting for its fiber network owned by energyaustralia citipower and energex through rights held by downtown utilities pty a joint venture between the three electricity companies which owned 34.99 % of powertel . 2 the atm and frame relay network was launched on 25 october 1999 . 3 in 2002 powertel secured fifteen year access agreements for fibre optic network capacity linking their eastern state network to south australia and western australia . 1 the company also formed an alliance with macquarie telecom that saw powertel take a 10 % shareholding in macquarie and for macquarie telecom to use powertel s network for the delivery of traffic . 1 in 2003 powertel developed accessadvantage which used shdsl technology to provide integrated voice and broadband service . the service was launched following the local loop unbundling of telstra s network mandated by the federal government . accessadvantage was developed as an alternative to powertel continuing to build its own fibre optic network across australia . 1 in 2004 powertel acquired the australian operations of ntt for a 15 million 4 at which time they had dsl equipment in 106 telephone exchanges across australia and over 2 500 km of optical fibre . powertel was acquired by telecom new zealand in 2007 for a 320 million 5 and merged into aapt limited . 6 notes and references edit a b c d prospectus pdf . powertel . 2003 09 17 . retrieved 2007 07 21 . announcement pdf . downtown utilities pty limited . 2003 07 01 . retrieved 2007 07 21 . powertel launches atm & frame relay services . powertel . 1999 10 25 . retrieved 2007 07 21 . powertel to acquire ntt australia . the sydney morning herald fairfax limited . 2004 10 26 . retrieved 2015 01 06 . aapt in merger talks with powertel . the age fairfax limited . 2007 01 21 . retrieved 2015 01 06 . aapt re emerges in consumer market . aapt limited . 2008 07 02 . retrieved 2015 01 06 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title powertel & oldid 641372623 categories telecommunications companies of australiacompanies based in sydneycompanies established in 1979hidden categories use dmy dates from november 2011use australian english from november 2011all wikipedia articles written in australian english navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 7 january 2015 at 07 54 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view