Vodafone New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications company. It was a subsidiary of the London-listed company Vodafone Plc until 31 July 2019, when its sale to a consortium comprising Infratil Limited and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. was settled. Vodafone is based in Auckland and was formed in 1998, after Vodafone purchased BellSouth's New Zealand operations. The company employs over 3,000 people and has operations nationwide, with its main offices based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The company is part of New Zealand Telecommunications Forum. Vodafone is the largest wireless carrier in New Zealand, with 2.5 million subscribers as of July 2019. The company has invested millions of dollars in its 3G network, improving capacity in congested urban areas. It has New Zealand's first 4G LTE network and continues to maintain its 2G network. In February 2013, Vodafone New Zealand launched their LTE network which is currently available in 54 centres in total. In June 2014, Vodafone was ranked the fastest mobile network on the planet by speed-testing service Ookla. In October 2006, Vodafone bought ihug, New Zealand's third largest Internet service provider at the time, to provide Internet service under the Vodafone name. In 2012 Vodafone bought TelstraClear, making it New Zealand's second largest Internet service provider. In June 2016, Sky TV and Vodafone agreed to merge, with Sky TV purchasing 100% of Vodafone NZ operations for a cash payment of NZ$1.25 billion and issuing new shares to the Vodafone Group. Vodafone UK was to get 51% stake of the company. However, the proposed merger was rejected by the Commerce Commission, resulting in a plunge in Sky TV's shares. In September 2022, Vodafone announced it will rebrand to One New Zealand in early 2023. Market share Vodafone has 2.4 million customers. According to the Commerce Commission's Annual Telecommunications Monitoring Report from March 2022, Vodafone's market share in the mobile market was 38%, Spark 41% and Two Degrees Mobile 19%. The remainder of 2% the market is made up of mobile virtual network operators. Acquisitions BellSouth BellSouth had 138,000 customers when it was purchased by Vodafone in November 1998. BellSouth's main rival was Telecom New Zealand (now Spark), New Zealand's second largest telecommunications company behind Vodafone. Telecom had the advantage that it had a 6-year head-start on BellSouth, however this advantage slipped away in recent years. After Vodafone took over Bellsouth, it expanded network coverage to compete more effectively