One New Zealand Group Limited, also known as One NZ (formerly known as Vodafone New Zealand Limited), is a New Zealand telecommunications company. One NZ is the largest wireless carrier in New Zealand, accounting for 38% of the country's mobile share market in 2021.
Corporate history
Vodafone New Zealand (1998–2022)
One NZ is based in Auckland and was formed in 1998 as Vodafone New Zealand, after Vodafone purchased BellSouth's New Zealand operations. The company employs over 3,000 people and has operations nationwide, with its main offices based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The company is part of the New Zealand Telecommunications Forum.
The company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its mobile network, improving capacity in congested urban areas. It has New Zealand's first 4G LTE network and continues to maintain its 2G network. In February 2013, Vodafone New Zealand launched New Zealand's first LTE mobile network which is currently available to 96% of the population. In June 2014, Vodafone New Zealand was ranked the fastest mobile network on the planet by speed-testing service Ookla. In December 2019, Vodafone New Zealand launched New Zealand's first 5G mobile network which is currently available in more than 70 towns and cities across New Zealand. Vodafone New Zealand currently operates New Zealand's largest 5G mobile network and New Zealand's only 2G mobile network. In March 2022, Vodafone New Zealand was awarded the best mobile network in New Zealand by umlaut. In August 2022, Vodafone New Zealand announced that from August 31st 2024, Vodafone New Zealand will start to switch off their 3G mobile network to allow further expansion of One NZ's 4G/5G mobile network, Vodafone New Zealand have assured customers that 3G coverage areas will be upgraded to new technologies such as 4G.
In October 2006, Vodafone bought ihug, New Zealand's third largest Internet service provider at the time, to provide Internet service under the Vodafone name. In 2012 Vodafone bought TelstraClear, making it New Zealand's second largest Internet service provider.
In June 2016, Sky TV and Vodafone agreed to merge, with Sky TV purchasing 100% of Vodafone NZ operations for a cash payment of NZ$1.25 billion and issuing new shares to the Vodafone Group. Vodafone UK was to get 51% stake of the company. However, the proposed merger was rejected by the Commerce Commission, resulting in a plunge in Sky TV's shares.
It ceased to be a subsidiary of the London-listed company Vodafone Plc on 31 July 2019, when its sale to a consortium comprising Infratil Limited and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. was settled. The sold company would continue to use the Vodafone brand under a commercial arrangement with Vodafone plc.
One NZ (2023–present) On 28 September 2022, it was announced that Vodafone New Zealand will change its name to One New Zealand in early 2023.
Stuff News reported that the naming change could save the company between $20 million and $30 million that it would otherwise be paying in licensing fees. Vodafone NZ claims that customers' ability to roam on networks overseas will be unaffected by the name change.
Stuff published an article titled "Could Vodafone's rebrand to One New Zealand backfire?", stating that the naming change could be tarnished by the name's association with the defunct NZ political party One NZ. The company's CEO, Jason Paris said on twitter "One NZ stands for the best of NZ (diversity, inclusion, trust, innovation etc),"
Vodafone NZ's website started to redirect users to the one.nz website on 28 March 2023.
On 3 April 2023, Vodafone NZ had officially announced their change to One NZ, while also announcing a deal with SpaceX to provide 100% mobile coverage through their Starlink satellite internet service, which was announced to be released in late 2024.
On 7 June 2023, Infratil announced that they would be taking full control of One NZ, with buying out all shares from Canadian partner Brookfield Asset Management. It brings the total amount of shares Infratil owns to 99.90%, with a small amount of executives retaining ownership of small amount of shares. In August 2023, One NZ was over $3 million for breaching the Fair Trading Act by misleading consumers about their FibreX service. One NZ incorrectly told people that FibreX was the only broadband service available at their location.
Market share
One NZ has 2.4 million customers. According to the Commerce Commission's Annual Telecommunications Monitoring Report from March 2022, One NZ's market share in the mobile market was 38%, Spark 41% and Two Degrees Mobile 19%. The remainder of 2% the market is made up of mobile virtual network operators.