Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Internet Service Provider Telecommunications |
Founded | 1996 |
Headquarters | Auckland, New Zealand |
Key people | Mark Callander (CEO) |
Products | Broadband Dialup Telephone VoIP Mobile phone |
Parent | 2degrees |
Website | slingshot |
Slingshot is the fourth largest telecommunications company in New Zealand. [1] It has an approximately 16% market share of the New Zealand fixed telephone landline and residential broadband market. [2] There are 300+ employees who all work in Auckland CBD.
Slingshot was founded in 1996 by Malcolm Dick and Annette Presley. [3] The company was established as part of the CallPlus group of companies to provide residential customers with internet and toll calling services.
In 2016, M2 Group and Vocus Communications merged, forming Vocus Group, and in July 2017 CallPlus was rebranded to Vocus Communications. [4] [5]
On 1 June 2022, Vocus Group merged with telecommunications company 2degrees. [6]
Slingshot is the third largest ISP in New Zealand. As of 2015, it has 16% of the residential market. [2]
On 15 August 2008, Slingshot came under criticism from the public and the media about a problem with their web cache. The cache, set up to solve a known problem with YouTube, caused private information of customers to be shared among other customers. The error caused users logging into websites such as Gmail, Facebook, Bebo and TradeMe to be given access to the accounts of other Slingshot customers who were using those websites at the same time, instead of their own accounts. [18] Similar incidents occurred with Slingshot in September 2007 and May 2008 [19] [20]
In December 2013 Slingshot was fined $NZ 250,000 after it admitted transferring competitors' customers to its business without authority. Slingshot pleaded guilty to 50 charges under the New Zealand Fair Trading Act in the Auckland District Court and admitted it had transferred 27 customers' accounts from other ISPs to Slingshot without the customers' authority. [21]
Telecommunications in New Zealand are fairly typical for an industrialised country.
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