Telecom New Zealand (NZX: TEL, ASX: TEL, NYSE: NZT) is a New Zealand-wide communications service provider (CSP), providing fixed line telephone services, a mobile network, an internet service provider (through its subsidiary Xtra), and a major ICT provider to NZ businesses (through its Gen-i division). It has operated as a publicly traded company since 1990.

Telecom is one of the largest companies by value on the New Zealand Exchange (NZX). Further, it is the 39th largest telecommunications company in the OECD.

Telecom was formed in 1987 from a division of the New Zealand Post Office and privatised in 1990. The selling price was considered by some to be extremely low, given that Telecom had a monopoly of all phone lines in New Zealand at the time.^{[citation needed]} There has been debate as to whether privatisation was in the best interests of the country's telecommunications infrastructure, although others consider that the capital requirements to modernise the network were better provided by private enterprise than the government.^{[citation needed]}

New Zealand (Māori: Aotearoa) is an island country located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses ‒ that of the North and South Islands ‒ as well as numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans.

During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of both animal and plant life. Most notable are the large number of unique bird species, many of which became extinct after the arrival of humans and introduced mammals. With a mild maritime climate, the land was mostly covered in forest. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions caused by the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates clashing beneath the earth's surface.