TelstraClear Homeplan

TelstraClear is the alternative telephone company in New Zealand. It is a far second from the dominant Telecom New Zealand (much like PLDT in the Philippines). It is the New Zealand subsidiary of Telstra, Australia's biggest telecommunications firm.

Before, TelstraClear land line and cable tv services (Saturn TV) are limited to Wellington, the Kapiti Coast and Christchurch where it has built its own network. Since November last year it can now serve almost everyone in New Zealand. It can do this by leasing the local phone network of Telecom New Zealand. This new service is called Homeplan.

Starting from NZD 39.85 (PHP 1582.00) for line rental, local calling and white pages listing. The incentive of joining this service is that the more toll calls you make the lesser the phone line rental gets. For example, toll calls from NZD 20.00 to 39.99 attract a NZD 5.00 discount on line rental. Toll calls worth more than NZD 200.00 attract free line rental.

The jury is still out whether this scheme will make Telecom customers switch to TelstraClear. It should be noted that Telecom through its Australian subsidiary AAPT has a similar land line rental service.