I had some involvement with (what became) TelstraClear, too. Via a stupid Telecom decision. Even though Kapiti was in the 04 toll free dialing area, Telecom decided to charge for calls between Kapiti and Wellington. The result was a startup called Kapiti Cable, they had the big satellite dish just north of Paraparaumu, offering toll free calls to Wellington, plus overseas TV content. They also served movies via a room full of VHS players, and subscribers would call in and book a movie to be streamed to their home. That morphed into Saturn communications, based out of a building on Petone foreshore They had their own fibre line running over the Paekakariki hill road to connect the two sites. My part in all this is was the IBM System 36 and peripherals that their billing system ran on. They started the HFC rollout through Wellington and the Hutt Valley, and some time later became Telstra Saturn, then Telstra Clear. The cable was starting to get in Christchurch when as you say the investors wanted return, and killed it.
Bookmarks