Spark New Zealand is one of the country's largest telecommunications companies It is New Zealand's biggest provider of fixed phone lines as well as providing mobile networks broadband and mobile internet connections Spark has large premises in Auckland Wellington and Christchurch as well as offices in the Waikato region The company also has small retail mobile phone stores in most main centres in New Zealand Spark has its origins in the Electric Telegraph Company which became the New Zealand Post Office then Telecom in 1987 before changing its name to Spark in 2014 History Spark has its origins in the earliest telecommunication operations in New Zealand The country s first telegraph line was established between Christchurch and Lyttelton in 1862 The Electric Telegraph Department was formed in 1865 by the government This was New Zealand s first telecommunications division The Electric Telegraph Department was merged with the New Zealand Post Office in 1881 which meant it offered both postal and telecommunications services and the New Zealand Post Office operated like this for many years providing telegraph facilities alongside its postal service and later providing telephone exchanges and public telephones The Country Telecommunications Act was passed in 1912 This Act provided greater public access to telephone networks and by the 1920s many New Zealanders had home telephones In the 1930s telecommunications extended outside the domestic market with the first international call being made to Australia in 1930 and then to Great Britain in 1931 In the 1980s discussions about deregulation came to the forefront of political and business debate In 1987 the New Zealand Post Office was separated into three state owned enterprises Telecom New Zealand Postbank and New Zealand Post These three profit driven enterprises were the first step towards full privatisation New Zealand became the first country in the world to deregulate the telecommunications market when they did so in 1988
