Paradise.net

TelstraClear's Paradise.net was a New Zealand ISP offering dial-up and high-speed internet. It was the second largest ISP in New Zealand (combined with TelstraClear's Clearnet, the umbrella brand), before being acquired in 2012 by Vodafone New Zealand.
Paradise was founded in Wellington in November 1997 by businessman Shane Cole. Initially, dialup service was offered in Wellington only. Paradise quickly became a leading dialup ISP in the Wellington region. Service was expanded to Auckland and Christchurch in 1998. A reselling agreement was also entered with Telstra Saturn in 1998, which meant that customers who subscribed to Telstra Saturn's cable telephone and cable TV service could also get Paradise included on their phone bill (either dialup or cable modem service).
Nationwide dialup access was provided in 1999, and Paradise was one of the first ADSL providers in 1999, after Telecom Xtra. The company experienced rapid expansion at this point, and staff numbers increased by a large proportion. The helpdesk began 24-hour service in April 2000.
In 2000, the company was sold to Telstra Saturn, formed after the merger of Telstra NZ and Saturn. Most of the staff were retained, and were relocated to Telstra Saturn's new purpose built call centre located near the Stadium, on Wellington's waterfront. The Paradise brand was absorbed and retained into the new company, and stayed after the purchase of Telstra Saturn by Clear Communications in December 2001, forming TelstraClear.
TelstraClear decided to merge the Paradise helpdesk with its existing Clearnet helpdesk in Auckland. Most of the Paradise helpdesk staff were made redundant. Some opted for relocation, and the helpdesk was moved from Wellington to Auckland in early 2002. Some servers remained in Wellington however.
Today, Paradise remains a brand inside the TelstraClear umbrella although a secondary one under Clearnet and has surpassed the 100,000 subscriber mark. Only a handful of the existing staff remain, most of them working in the networks side of the company.
In 2009, TelstraClear ceased accepting new subscriptions to paradise.net, instead preferring new customers to sign up to their other ISP, clear.net.
In 2010, any Paradise accounts that were not on-account (i.e. billed directly by TelstraClear) and were instead paid by credit card, direct debit or automatic payment were terminated, and the affected users offered an on-account plan with TelstraClear, which required taking landline services with them as well. This means it is no longer possible to have a stand-alone account with Paradise, as landline service with TelstraClear is a requirement.
In 2012, TelstraClear was acquired by Vodafone NZ. After March 31, 2013 all TelstraClear branding was replaced with that of Vodafone's.
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