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Gone (mostly) by Friday as Telecom switches to Spark

Telecom the brand will largely vanish by the end of this week as the corporate nails its Spark colours to the mast around the country.

Jason Paris, general manager for home, mobile and business, says much of the work will begin on or overnight Friday. That includes changing out the storefront at its 71 retail sites and 29 business hubs and putting up new signs on its flagship building in the main centres and regions.

It will also introduce the brand on 150 of what it says are the most used phone boxes nationally, along with branding at 400 partner stores like JB Hi-fi and Countdown supermarkets. All phone boxes will be updated by the end of October with other Telecom signs at 8000 dairies, service stations and other third parties gone by the end of August.

Telecom and Gen-i sign written vehicles will make the switch to Spark or Spark Digital by early September. There are also more than 100 online systems to change, including the Telecom website and social media sites.

Claire Barber, general manager of change and technology, said that where possible the system changes were being staggered to minimise any issues.

“We have a team in place who will be monitoring the systems closely so that should there be any teething problems we’ll be ready to sort them out as quickly as possible.”

Changing to Spark, by numbers:

• Three public-facing websites
• 29 business hubs
• 71 stores
• 100 online system changes
• 135 vehicles
• 186 exterior building signs
• 197 supermarket locations
• 400 partner stores
• 2700 phone boxes 
• 8000 signs in dairies, service stations, etc

Telecom announced the name change earlier this year, saying it reflected a move beyond the landline to mobile data and online entertainment.

The new business units are: Spark Home, Mobile and Business (replacing Telecom Retail); Spark Digital (the new name for Gen-i), Spark Connect; Spark Wholesale; and Spark Ventures. Revera (business cloud services); Skinny (mobile); Bigpipe (broadband); Qrious (data analytics); Lightbox (internet TV); and Telecom New Zealand International won’t change their name, while the new website is spark.co.nz.

Amanda Sachtleben is an Auckland writer and social media type, who's also Idealog's former tech editor and business journalist.

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