TelstraClear

By CIO New Zealand staff | Monday, January 11 2010

TelstraClear has struggled to make a profit in the shade of Telecom New Zealand, despite several product and service initiatives over the years. For 2009 however, the Telstra subsidiary’s results saw a small profit of $7.5 million, in the midst of a severe recession.

HQ: Auckland
Website: www.telstraclear.co.nz
Global leader: Dr Allan Freeth, CEO
Core activity: Telecommunications
Revenue: NZ$703 million (FY09)
Key customers: Canon, BP, University of Auckland, Whitcoulls, TSB, Pizza Hut; residential customers
Employees: 1500 full-time employees

TelstraClear has struggled to make a profit in the shade of Telecom New Zealand, despite several product and service initiatives over the years. For 2009 however, the Telstra subsidiary’s results saw a small profit of $7.5 million, in the midst of a severe recession.

CEO Alan Freeth attributed this to cost-cutting and the robustness of its broadband market. The challenges next year for TelstraClear will be to grow in line with the expected economic recovery, as well as dealing with the potential fallout from the structural separation of its owner, Telstra Australia.

Like other New Zealand vertically-integrated telcos, TelstraClear may not be able to benefit from the government’s broadband initiative to any substantial degree, unless it agrees to divest its infrastructure assets as required under the rules of participation.

This year saw a $10 million upgrade to the DOCSIS specification for the company’s residential, hybrid, fibre-coaxial network in Wellington and Christchurch, to deliver up to 100Mbit/s downloads.