Orcon Internet Limited
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| Orcon Internet Limited | |
|---|---|
| Type | State Owned Enterprise |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Area served | New Zealand, Australia |
| Key people | Seeby Woodhouse, Founder Scott Bartlett, Chief Executive Larrie Moore, General Manager - Retail David Long, CFO: Mark Mackay, CIO Tony Ripper, General Manager Corporate & Wholesale Thomas Salmen, CTO |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Products | Residential and Business Broadband, Tolls and Dial Up services, Satellite, Domain Names, Webhosting, Office on Demand, Co-Location, Wholesale Services |
| Employees | 140 |
| Website | www.orcon.net.nz |
|
Orcon Internet Limited (normally just Orcon) , is a newly state owned New Zealand Internet Service Provider (ISP). It is currently ranked as New Zealand's fourth largest ISP.
[edit] History
Orcon Internet was founded by Seeby Woodhouse who started a small business (Orcon Group Limited), while at university, providing computer advice and support, as well as selling early model cell phones and accessories. Before long, demand caused the business to expand services to include PC upgrade and repair services. The business remained focused on the local market on Auckland's North Shore. By 1996 the business had expanded both its range of products and its sphere of operations. It began distributing computer accessories and supplies to small business owners and home users throughout the Auckland region and to various other parts of New Zealand as required.
In 1997 Orcon Group commenced as an ISP with three dial-in 33.6k modems. This was a very small step in what was to prove an exciting path for the business. Through the start-up phase, the market focus was on the no frills end of the market, with pricing at around half the price of the cheapest competition, Orcon was aimed at more skilled and technically minded customers.
In 2002, Orcon became a major ISP in the residential market, a new web portal was launched and marketing initiatives were put in place to continue to grow the customer base that positive word of mouth had established.
[edit] Sale to Kordia
On 12 June 2007 Kordia, a state owned telecommunications company, announced its purchase of Orcon for NZ$24.3m.
Seeby Woodhouse, an 80% stakeholder made $19.44 million from the deal, while business partner Mark McKay pocketed $4.86 million.
[edit] Competitors
Orcon operates in a highly competitive industry. Orcon's main competitors are Xtra and ihug as well as TelstraClear. All of these companies have large parent companies: Telecom, Vodafone and Telstra respectively. There is also growing competition from a few smaller ISPs. With the implementation of local loop unbundling, barriers to competition will be removed and Orcon will be able to compete on a more level playing field against its incumbent competitors.
[edit] Local loop unbundling (LLU)
Orcon issued a press release on 9 August 2007 stating that they had become the "first 100% kiwi owned telecommunications provider" to install equipment in the first unbundled Telecom exchange at Ponsonby. On 30 August 2007, Orcon released an additional press release to announce that they had successfully connected a trial customer at ADSL2+ speeds to their DSLAM via LLU. In March 2008 Orcon launched their ADSL2+ service in parts of Auckland, becoming the first ISP to commercially provide ADSL2+ in New Zealand.[1][2]
Orcon has been a key participant in recent years in New Zealand's LLU process - which is a rapid u-turn from past public statements by former chief executive Seeby Woodhouse. A Computerworld article from 2005 describing a joint letter by several ISPs to the Commerce Commission quotes Woodhouse as saying he didn't sign the letter because he didn't agree with the request for local loop unbundling. With LLU, Woodhouse says, only the bigger players such as TelstraClear, Ihug and possibly CallPlus could afford to put their own equipment into the exchanges.
