AAPT is a fixed-line
telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
company owned by
TPG Telecom
TPG Telecom Limited, formerly Vodafone Hutchison Australia and renamed following the merger with TPG, is an Australian telecommunications company. It is the second largest telecommunications company listed on the Australian Securities Exchang ...
. It owns significant fibre and internet infrastructure in Australia. Its national network offers data, cloud, voice and internet services.
History
The company was formed by the division of the communications businesses of
Australian Associated Press
Australian Associated Press (AAP) is an Australian news agency. It was established by Keith Murdoch in 1935.
AAP employs around 80 journalists who work in bureaus in all states and territories of Australia except the Northern Territory. It al ...
. In 1992 AAPIS was formed with
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...
and
John Fairfax Holdings
Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald ...
as majority shareholders, with
MCI and
Todd Capital also possessing shares in the company.
The company began operating as the first significant competitor to
Telstra
Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...
in the long-distance voice and data markets in 1991, offering point to point microwave shots to AAP's private exchanges in Sydney and Melbourne, offering STD and International Long Distance services using the AAP's leased backbone, (which at the time was one of the largest private backbone networks in Australia) and terminating calls through a hybrid of its own network and various international and domestic interconnection agreements.
In 1992 the company secured the 1414 access to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) enabling the company to pickup calls (using autodialers), transmit and pay domestic and international carriers to deliver calls off-net. Optus around the same time decided to focus on residential. APPT (thanks to guidance from its MCI Team, and a great business billing system) made the decision to focus on the Business to Business market, their advertising agency Neo One came up with a brilliant "Turn Your Back on the Big Boys" strategy and in October 1992 AAPT released FirstChoice, offering Australian businesses double digit savings on their STD bill, and invoices with graphs shoeing usage, savings and comparatives to previous months. In the next four years APPT sales and customer service team of over 300 motivated sales people engaged the business market and was able to build revenues past $300 million received from over 200,000 business clients.
The company received a full carrier licence on 1 July 1997, and began a very successful campaign to build a residential client base that peaked at over 600,000 users. The company was listed on the
Australian Securities Exchange
Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...
in November of the same year.
In January 1999 Todd Capital sold its entire stake in the company.
In 2000 the company was acquired by
Telecom New Zealand
Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications company providing fixed-line telephone services, a mobile phone network, internet access services, and (through its Spark Digital division) ICT services to businesses. It was know ...
in stages and delisted from the stock exchange.
Along with owning and operating its own national voice and data network, AAPT operated as a
Virtual Network Operator
A virtual network operator (VNO) or mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a provider of management services and a reseller of network services from other telecommunications suppliers that does not own the telecommunication infrastructure. These ...
in the mobile market on the
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...
Australia network. In 2005 CommodiTel acquired AAPT's prepaid mobile customer base, and shut down operations a few years later.
Under Telecom New Zealand ownership, AAPT required significant reinvestment from its parent company, failing to provide any returns and written down in value by NZ$1.7 billion. In 2006 Telecom considered selling the business but was unable to find a buyer.
[ In 2010, however, AAPT sold its consumer business to iiNet for over $60 million, resulting in a massive cash injection to Telecom New Zealand, who had posted a profit decline in the same quarter.
With significant take-up of DSL services in Australia and the relatively slow DSL services available for resale from Telstra, AAPT sought access to competing DSL services operated by companies investing in ]local loop unbundling
Local loop unbundling (LLU or LLUB) is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange to the customer's premises. The physical wire connection between the local exchange and ...
. In November 2006 AAPT signed a wholesale network agreement with Powertel
AAPT is a fixed-line telecommunications company owned by TPG Telecom. It owns significant fibre and internet infrastructure in Australia. Its national network offers data, cloud, voice and internet services.
History
The company was formed by the ...
to allow access to its wholesale network and installed ADSL2+
G.992.5 (also referred to as ADSL2+, G.dmt.bis+, and G.adslplus) is an ITU-T standard for asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband Internet access. The standard has a maximum theoretical downstream sync speed of 24 megabits per second ...
broadband network.[
Powertel was subsequently absorbed by AAPT for A$357 million (NZ$400 million) in May 2007 and former Powertel boss, Paul Broad appointed CEO, with AAPT retiring the Powertel name.][
In June 2011, David Yuile was appointed CEO of AAPT. David's previous role was chief operating officer at AAPT, where he successfully completed the integration of the AAPT-PowerTel businesses and was instrumental in the product and backoffice re-engineering and simplification. David resigned from AAPT in February 2014.
]
Sale to TPG
AAPT's consumer business was acquired by iiNet
iiNet Limited is an Australian internet service provider that sells NBN plans and services on its ULTRA Broadband Cable, FTTB and VDSL2 networks. It was acquired by TPG Telecom in July 2020.
iiNet was acquired by TPG in September 2015 for $1 ...
for $60 Million from Telecom New Zealand in July 2010.
On 9 December 2013, Telecom New Zealand announced that it had sold the remaining corporate, wholesale and networks which comprised AAPT to TPG Telecom
TPG Telecom Limited, formerly Vodafone Hutchison Australia and renamed following the merger with TPG, is an Australian telecommunications company. It is the second largest telecommunications company listed on the Australian Securities Exchang ...
for $450 million.
In September 2015 iiNet was also acquired by TPG Telecom.
As of 2018, AAPT operates as TPG's wholesale arm, supplying broadband services and backhaul to small, medium, large and international ISPs.
See also
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aapt
Mobile phone companies of Australia
Telecommunications companies established in 1991
Australian companies established in 1991
IiNet acquisitions
Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange
Companies based in Sydney