PowerTel was an Australian telecommunications company that operated urban and inter-city fibre optic networks across Australia between 1998 and 2007.
History
The company was launched in August 1998 and received its carrier licence from the Australian Communications Authority that year. In February 1999, PowerTel began building a fibre-opticATM network in the central business districts of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and a long-haul fibre backbone between each city. PowerTel had the right to use electricity network ducting for its fiber network owned by EnergyAustralia, CitiPower and Energex through rights held by DownTown Utilities Pty a joint venture between the three electricity companies which owned 34.99% of PowerTel. The ATM and Frame Relay network was launched on 25 October 1999. In 2002, PowerTel secured fifteen-year access agreements for fibre-optic network capacity, linking their Eastern State network to South Australia and Western Australia. The company also formed an alliance with Macquarie Telecom that saw PowerTel take a 10% shareholding in Macquarie and for Macquarie Telecom to use PowerTel's network for the delivery of traffic. In 2003 PowerTel developed AccessAdvantage which used SHDSL technology to provide integrated voice and broadband service. The service was launched following the local loop unbundling of Telstra's network mandated by the federal government. AccessAdvantage was developed as an alternative to PowerTel continuing to build its own fibre optic network across Australia. In 2004 PowerTel acquired the Australian operations of NTT for A$15 million, at which time they had DSL equipment in 106 telephone exchanges across Australia and over 2,500 km of optical fibre. PowerTel was acquired by Telecom New Zealand in 2007 for A$320 million, and merged into AAPT Limited in many respects, however the business connectivity section continued to operate as Powertel. TPG then bought AAPT, but AAPT and Powertel continues to operate with those names while owned by TPG.
