Telecom NZ has slashed120 Australian jobs at its ICT services unit, Gen-i Australia, as the division refocuses on large customers.
The division will shrink to about 60 employees from 180, Telecom said. The redundancies followed a strategic review of the Australia unit.
Gen-i will focus on “large corporate customers” in Australia or New Zealand “with specific trans-Tasman ICT services requirements, Telecom said. “It will be exiting from other customer activities which fall outside this refined business focus.”
“Where feasible,” Gen-i may transfer some customers to AAPT, a subsidiary of Telecom, Telecom said.
“Gen-i Australia was originally set up about 13 years ago to serve the trans-Tasman needs of existing corporate customers,” Gen-i CEO Tim Miles said in a statement.
“Over the years, it has broadened its activities within the Australian ICT services market—but we have never had the scale to compete effectively in these other market segments.”
Miles said he expects growth in the trans-Tasman ICT market “as the New Zealand and Australian economies grow closer together, facilitated by improved data connectivity.”
About 40 per cent of New Zealand international Internet traffic is between Australia and New Zealand, up from 10 per cent in 2000, he added.
Follow Adam Bender on Twitter: @WatchAdam
Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU, or take part in the Computerworld conversation on LinkedIn: Computerworld Australia