Landline marketing team takes 30 workers to join colleagues in north

By PAUL BRISLEN

The business community's drift north from Wellington continues as Telecom moves 30 more jobs to Auckland.

The jobs, with the landline marketing team, are being moved to join the bulk of the department, around 160 staff, already based in Auckland.

Rod Snodgrass, general manager of the Telecom wired division, is in Auckland, as is his boss, chief operating officer Simon Moutter.

One telco analyst said the move could help Telecom consolidate its fixed line and mobile marketing strategies.

"It could simply be that all the agencies are based in Auckland and Telecom is looking to consolidate the marketing teams for landline and mobile.

"The product teams would remain separate but the marketing overlaps in many areas."

The analyst expects more cross-over in marketing of landlines with mobile from Telecom.

The move is expected within the next six months and will leave fewer than a dozen landline marketing staff in Wellington.