international toll market with more than 170,000 customers. The latter had increased to 200,000 by the time of Clear's third birthday on 4 September 1993, the day the shareholder's agreement was signed. The employees had grown to more than 500 in number. In August 1993 Clear was selected as one of the finalists for the inaugural NZ Quality Awards. Chief Executive Andrew Makin succeeded George Newton in August 1993. By the end of 1993, the North American contingent was down for the original 66 to eight. In November 1993 New Zealand Rail acquired 3.1 million shares in Clear, as part of an option gained by New Zealand Rail for use of its fibre optic cables. 1994 In September 1994 Clear began to provide an 0800 freephone service in competition with Telecom. Prior to this, its freephone service had used the code 0508. In addition to utilizing digital microwave telecommunication links owned by Broadcast Communications Ltd, Clear initially leased, then purchased, from New Zealand Rail (in return for a 15% stake in the company, which New Zealand Rail then sold in 1994) fibre optic cables linking Auckland and Wellington. It also leased fibre optic capacity between Wellington and Christchurch from Electricorp. The company also had digital microwave links with the major provincial cities of New Zealand. It installed further fibre optic capacity between Wellington and Auckland to increase transmission capacity and provide route diversity. Fibre loops and duct lines were installed in the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch central business districts. Clear and Telecom had 25 actual and 19 notional points of interconnect (POI) throughout New Zealand. In the areas served by a notional point of interconnect, calls from Clear's customers were trunked to the nearest Telecom telephone exchange with billing facilities, at which point they were physically handed over to Clear. After conveying the call on its own network, Clear linked back into Telecom's network at the appropriate POI. 1995 In September 1995 Clear reached a new agreement on local service interconnection with Telecom which culminated in a formal local telephone service interconnect agreement in March 1996. This agreement also included new toll bypass interconnect arrangements. 1996 In March 1996, British Telecom (BT) acquired Bell Canada's 25% stake in Clear. Clear launched its internet service, ClearNet, later in 1996 and had about 10,000 customers by May 1997. It also provided the first commercial ATM service and had an ISDN offering. 1997