KEY POINTS:
Late last year Paul Hayes was casually flicking through the recruitment section of Britain's Sunday Times when a half-page ad caught his eye.
Telecom New Zealand was hunting for staff for its wholesale division, luring wannabe employees with promises of career and a lifestyle.
Despite not even being in the market for a new job let alone one on the other side of the world, the Briton was attracted by a role which combined his product management and wholesale experience.
The closest he had come to New Zealand was a couple of trips to Australia, but that didn't stop him packing his skis, windsurfer and family to become of head of product management at Telecom Wholesale.
Hayes is now the man charged with delivering local loop unbundling, unbundled bitstream, ethernet and high-speed network services to the company's wholesale customers which include Telecom's own retail arm and other phone and internet companies.
"Telecom Wholesale is about providing the building blocks, the underlying network connectivity."
Previously Hayes worked for NTL:Telewest - a telecommunications company offering wholesale services to rival companies without being required by regulation.
"They did it because it was good business," said Hayes.
"The way it was explained to me when I joined that organisation was it gave the company a second bite of the cherry, so to speak."
His new job requires Hayes to balance requests from individual wholesale customers with the demands of meeting regulatory benchmarks put in place by the Government.
The Government is undertaking a regulatory revamp of the telecommunications sector - including opening up access to Telecom's network infrastructure - aimed at introducing further competition and reducing prices paid by consumers.
Although there are similarities between Britain and New Zealand - the current reforms are modelled on the British experience - Hayes notices the difference in scale.
"Within the UK you have got 60-odd million people."
But Telecom Wholesale still had to offer the same range of services to its customers regardless of market size, Hayes said. "You've still got the same amount of work to do in terms of products to develop but from a customer interaction perspective it's probably slightly easier."
Hayes uses industry bodies such as the Telecommunications Carriers Forum or the Internet Service Providers Association as much as possible for consultation.
"The purpose of that is to present our plans but also to get their input in terms of what they need."
It smooths the path for introducing the likes of local loop unbundling - rival telcos accessing Telecom's copper network - unbundled bitstream - Telecom's wholesale broadband service - before Government regulation.
Telecom Wholesale offers customers test services before regulation is in place "so we can start getting that customer feedback ... and build on that experience".
Experience in Britain as a wholesale customer on the other side of the negotiations has given Hayes an understanding of what his customers need. "Sometimes you have to understand the impact on their business to fully appreciate the impact of their problem."
He said the introduction of local loop unbundling and unbundled bitstream would mean consumers could expect to see more competition, more services and more innovation from phone and internet companies.
"[Telecom] Wholesale is a very exciting place to be at the moment."
Despite the long hours - Hayes won't say how long he spends at the office other than to confirm it is "a lot" more than a 40-hour week - he had seen some of the lifestyle benefits promised in the job ad a year ago.
He lives five minutes from the beach, his skis have touched the powder at least twice this winter and he's already planned his summer sailing.
