This article is more than 1 year old
Vodafone NZ finishes chewing, finally swallows TelstraClear
A snap at NZ$840m
Vodafone's acquisition of New Zealand operator TelstraClear is now complete, leaving NZ with one fewer virtual operators and Vodafone with a useful chunk of spectrum.
The NZ$840m ($AU660m) deal was announced back in July, but has been chugging though the regulatory system since then and only completed this morning with Vodafone announcing that its wholly owned subsidiary Vodafone New Zealand got approval yesterday and will complete the deal today.
TelstraClear runs as a virtual operator, camped on Vodafone NZ infrastructure, and only has 50,000 customers so the mobile side of the purchase is about radio spectrum - TelstraClear has chunks at 1800MHz and 2.1GHz, the latter being ideal for 3G while both are well suited to LTE and thus attractive to Vodafone's local operation.
The deal also helps Vodafone NZ build up fixed infrastructure, and "creates a leading total communications company", we’re told.