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  • TelstraClear second-half loss widens

    TelstraClear has posted a loss of $19 million for the second half of 2010, due mainly to expenses associated with outsourcing call centre operations to the Philippines. The figure compares with a loss of $9 million for the same period in 2009.

  • CA buys Australian firm, cites NZ customer reference

    CA Technologies has acquired Sydney-based Torokina Networks, which specialises in providing service assurance management to 3G, 4G and Long Term Evolution (LTE) providers.
    According to a statement from CA announcing the buy, "The acquisition enables CA Technologies to expand the support of its service assurance portfolio for the advanced network devices and equipment leveraged by CSPs (communications service providers) for their rapidly-growing mobile voice and data environments.
    The statement quotes TelstraClear as a customer reference, with TelstraClear principal systems architect Dilsan Perera saying: "The challenge with a majority of performance and fault management tools is that they are limited in their out-of-the-box capability and manage only part of the total network.
    "Making a performance and fault management solution work end-to-end, across both IP and non-IP networks, requires significant investment in both cost and timeframes. The CA Technologies-Torokina value proposition is to overcome this challenge within a single solution set, taking away the complexities by leveraging these complementary technologies."
    IDC program director for network software Elisabeth Rainge is also quoted in the statement, saying: “Increased consumer and business demand for mobile email, video, social networking and other data-intensive services are driving a new level of investment by CSPs in 3G/4G/LTE networks that often presents unique management challenges.
    "At the same time, these companies are under pressure to merge customer facing networks with internal IT to be more efficient and justify expenditures. Acquisitions such as this by CA Technologies supports their strategy to offer one solution that supports the internal and external performance management needs of CSPs.”
    Torokina Networks’ operations and employees are now part of the Service Assurance business at CA Technologies.

  • Telecom Wholesale's rivals offer faster services

    Unbundled plans - that is a broadband service from an ISP that has put in its own equipment into an exchange - provide web browsing speeds that are faster than plans from Telecom Wholesale, according to a Commerce Commission audit of broadband from January to June 2010, released today.

  • TelstraClear loses seasoned manager

    TelstraClear has confirmed that its head of business and government, Michael Boggs has resigned and will be leaving the telco in the New Year.
    Boggs’ resignation comes ahead of TelstraClear’s owner, Telstra, facing enforced structural separation in Australia.
    The group manager of communications at TelstraClear, Diane Robinson, says Boggs is leaving to assume a senior role with another New Zealand business, but wouldn’t say which one.
    “While it’s sad to see somebody of Michael’s calibre leave our team, we believe this is indicative of the high esteem in which TelstraClear executives are held by New Zealand’s business community,” Robinson says.
    A chartered accountant by training, Boggs is a telco veteran, having started in finance roles at Clear Communications and Smartel in the nineties.
    After a year-long stint with Panasonic, Boggs moved back into telecommunications in 2000 as Telstra purchased Clear Communications and Saturn, and took on finance general manager roles for the telco.
    TelstraClear’s head of networks and operations, Andrew Crabb, has been appointed the acting head of business and government. The appointment is effective from January 1 next year, Robinson says.

  • UFB will widen availability of T-Box package: TelstraClear

    TelstraClear has acknowledged the opportunities presented by the Government’s UFB project in a media statement announcing the imminent availability of T-Box, an IPTV-enabled set top box.
    In the statement, TelstraClear notes “The T-Box is another example of the new range of products and services, including our market-leading broadband services, that TelstraClear is developing to deliver to New Zealanders as fibre reaches their homes”.
    T-Box is currently available to TelstraClear InHome customers in Wellington, Kapiti and Christchurch. Its availability will be extended as the UFB network is built.
    Installations of T-Box in areas that can already be connected begin on Monday.
    TelstraClear has also begun trialling an ultra-fast broadband package to a group of residential customers in Wellington, with speeds of up to 100Mbit/s.
    The trial is being carried out on TelstraClear’s HFC (hybrid fibre coax network) in Wellington.

  • TelstraClear tests 100Mbit/s in Wellington

    TelstraClear will trial a 100Mbit/s broadband service in Wellington next week and step up its efforts to persuade the Government that it would be wasting taxpayers' money overbuilding its cable networks in Wellington and Christchurch with fibre-optic cable.
    Chief executive Allan Freeth said it would invite about half-a-dozen people to test the service, which will provide download speeds of 100Mbps and upload speeds of 10Mbit/s, hoping that would generate debate about the uses of ultrafast broadband.
    Depending on demand, TelstraClear could launch that as a commercial service by June, he said.
    The 100Mbit/s trial was intended to send a message to both the Government and Crown Fibre Holdings that their aspirations had been achieved here, he said.
    It will coincide with a billboard campaign that claims Communications Minister Steven Joyce can "put his feet up" as ultrafast broadband is already coming to the capital.
    The Government has proposed investing $1.35 billion in a fibre-to-the-home UFB network that would provide minimum download speeds of 100Mbit/s and upload speeds of 50Mbit/s.
    Dr Freeth said overbuilding TelstraClear's HFC networks would be "an irrational economic move".
    "We have a very popular triple-play service which we are continually upgrading. But people seem to develop philosophy-driven perspectives and may just believe they have to have [fibre-to-the-home] everywhere, in which case that has some pretty serious consequences for us and we will compete ferociously in the market." A Crown Fibre spokesman said Wellington and Christchurch were included in the UFB scheme. "TelstraClear's decisions or comments related to UFB are theirs to make."
    TelstraClear was genuinely interested in testing demand for a 100Mbps service, Dr Freeth said. In addition to the trial, the company would invite people to join an online debate. "It truly is of interest to us and the network guys to say `just how is this going to be used out there?"'

  • TelstraClear future uncertain despite reasonable result

    TelstraClear turned in a respectable annual result, earning $16 million before interest and tax, but said the industry faced an "uncertain and unstable" future.
    The result was down $2m on last year and revenues fell 1.4 per cent to $693m.
    Chief executive Allan Freeth said consumer sales were up 8 per cent and the revenue drop reflected the winding-up of some large government and corporate contracts that the company lost a few years ago.
    TelstraClear had since won more business from enterprise customers and that would start to be reflected in its accounts from the end of this year.
    Dr Freeth said the earnings were pleasing given the company had spent tens of millions of dollars unbundling Telecom exchanges and upgrading its cable networks in Wellington and Christchurch.
    Staff numbers had held steady at about 1400 as it transferred some administrative functions to Australian parent Telstra but bolstered its sales teams.
    In the "next month or so", TelstraClear would begin offering 100Mbit/s download speeds to its 80,000 cable customers in Wellington and Christchurch, where it claimed more than half of the broadband market.
    It was also almost ready to begin customer trials of T-Box, a MySky-like personal video recorder (PVR) for its cable customers, after a series of long delays and had "finally got most of the bugs out of it".
    T-Box will let customers on its cable network pause and rewind television and record programmes straight to a built-in hard drive. A spokeswoman said TelstraClear was not considering offering compensation for a series of missed deadlines releasing the device.
    "We do acknowledge that customers have a choice around opting to wait for our PVR and are thankful for the loyalty they continue to display with regard to this issue. T-Box is a great product and it's important that any minor bugs in its manufacture are fixed before its broader take-up in the market."
    Dr Freeth said the industry faced considerable uncertainty as the Government finalised its $1.35 billion ultrafast broadband plan to connect three-quarters of the country with fibre-optic cable. But there was no economic case for anyone to overbuild TelstraClear's Wellington and Christchurch networks with fibre. "You would be an incredibly brave person."
    TelstraClear would consider becoming involved in the Government initiative only "if people talked realistically about value and customer-worth".
    Parent Telstra reported a 4.7 per cent drop in net profit to A$3.9b, with sales falling 2.2 per cent to A$24.8b. The result was broadly in line with expectations.
    Macquarie Equities Research said Telstra had been affected by customers abandoning fixed-line phones and a dropoff in advertising in the printed Yellow Pages.

  • Customs opts for TelstraClear

    TelstraClear has won the five-year contract to supply New Zealand Customs with fully integrated data and voice communication services.

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