Telecom wholesale and international business chief executive is departing after seven years at the company.

Telecom says it "absolutely unreservedly apologises" for an intermittent XT outage in the Auckland area this morning.

Telecom and nzherald.co.nz are giving one deserving business team of up to six people the chance to win a day sailing around Auckland Harbour.

Telecom staff were told this morning that the company's 'Mr XT', responsible for mobile devices and services, would leave at the end of his contract in July.

Some New Zealanders are likely to get a nasty shock while browsing the internet over the next few months - a web page on their computer saying "STOP!".

Telecom shares sank to new a low on the NZ sharemarket today, while rises in Fletcher Building, Contact Energy and other leaders helped carry the market higher.

New Zealand's government isn't trying to undermine Telecom by bolstering rural broadband services, Communications Minister Steven Joyce says.