AUCKLAND, New Zealand, March 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TelstraClear, a voice and data company in New Zealand, and IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today a multi-million dollar, three-year agreement in which IBM will manage critical maintenance and support services for TelstraClear's Next IP Network.

A New Zealand telecommunications company has hired a teenage computer hacker who caused millions of dollars of damages as part of a global cyber-crime ring to provide security advice.

TELSTRACLEAR has promised it will fix the Achilles heel in its "triple play" phone, broadband and TV cable network offering in November, releasing a new set-top box that will be able to receive standard and high- definition channels from Sky, TVNZ and TV3.

By PULLAR-STRECKER Tom TELSTRACLEAR will let residential broadband customers surf Trade Me and watch videos posted on its Clear.net portal without that counting toward their data traffic caps for three months, in a move that may pave the way for more tie- ups between carriers and content providers.

By PULLAR-STRECKER Tom THERE'S been no shortage of backchat from Vodafone and TelstraClear on National's plan to invest $1.5 billion in a fibre network, and a stony silence from Telecom.