Vodafone NZ says it will increase investment in Christchurch and hire "a lot more people" in the quake-hit city if its purchase of TelstraClear goes ahead.

Vodafone has applied to the Commerce Commission to take over TelstraClear, after Australia's Telstra agreed to sell the subsidiary for $840 million.

At the time of the sale announcement chief executive Russell Stanners said there would be a "small number" of redundancies among the two firms' 3200 staff from the joining of the two companies.

But this week he said Vodafone had brought back call centre operations from overseas previously and the same could happen with TelstraClear if that purchase went ahead.

There would be a more even spread of employees between Auckland and Christchurch as part of a commitment to the quake-hit city, Stanners said.

"In Auckland we have something like 700 people. If we're successful in growing the business and bring back functions from offshore to New Zealand . . . we will be a significant employer in Christchurch and grow significantly."

Extra jobs would be added to TelstraClear's existing call centre, which was based in the city with around 100 staff, Stanners added.

"Before the earthquake we were planning to build our own call centre down here, but it was put on hold for obvious reasons. Now should we acquire this business, get it approved, then it's going to be a destination for us to invest in, building the team up and building the capability up."

The two firms already had a substantial business in Christchurch, probably "employing more than 300-400 people", and TelstraClear had a substantial underground cable network for high speed broadband in Christchurch. A Commerce Commission decision was likely before the end of the year.

Vodafone would also replace premises damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes, partly to house staff.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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