Spark NZ sells international voice business to MNF
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Spark NZ sells international voice business to MNF

Spark New Zealand has announced that after attaining governmental approval it has concluded the sale of its international voice business to retail and wholesale voice-over-IP (VoIP) provider MNF Group for AU$22 million.

The acquisition of the global wholesale voice business of Telecom New Zealand International (TNZI), originally purchased on April 23, 2015, enables the MNF Group to access a global voice network and a portfolio of over 220 international carrier relationships and interconnect agreements in Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania.

TNZI sells voice, data, mobile, and digital services in six counties, and last year reported carrying more than 2.8 billion voice minutes.

MNF rebranded from MyNetFone late last year and has already made moves into the New Zealand market. In March 2016, MNF-owned IP voice communications provider Symbio Networks announced plans to construct a nationwide voice network and wholesale it to service operators and over-the-top (OTT) providers.

At the time, CCO Jon Cleaver said MNF had identified a gap in the market left by the bigger national telcos which are choosing to focus on their own retail networks as opposed to developing the wholesale layer to lease off to the low-cost OTT operators entering the market.

“With MNF Group's recent acquisition of TNZI and its focus on investment in infrastructure, the time is now right to step up our activities in New Zealand in order to offer service providers and OTT players a next-generation wholesale provider,” Cleaver said.





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