Fifty Years on the Line: The Remarkable Career of TelcoSpec Founder Andy Dollery
When Andrew “Andy” Dollery walked into the Post Office lines depot as a 16 year old apprentice in 1976, he had no idea he was stepping into a career that would span five decades, reshape parts of New Zealand’s fibre landscape, and eventually lead to the creation of one of the country’s most respected specialist telecommunications companies.
Back then, the industry looked nothing like it does today. “Once upon a time people had a telephone,” Andy says. “Even in 1976 that telephone could have been a wooden box with a crank handle on the side connected to a party line shared by up to ten others.” It’s a reminder of just how far the sector has travelled — from wooden wall phones and analogue carrier systems to 400gigabit IP networks and the near-total dominance of fibre.
But Andy’s story isn’t just about technology. It’s about people, culture, grit, and the kind of practical ingenuity that built New Zealand’s telecommunications backbone long before fibre became a household word.
Early Days and Late Nights
Andy started as a trainee lineman in Feilding, part of a cohort of young apprentices who all joined the Post Office at the same time. “The Post Office in those days was a job for life,” he recalls. “It was well structured… there were policies, safety procedures and engineering instructions — a book of how to do everything.”
Training was rigorous, hands-on, and occasionally chaotic. Block courses at Trentham and Christchurch delivered both technical depth and unforgettable memories. “Going on a block course was fantastic technical training… it was also a party,” Andy laughs. “At Trentham the local pub was the Tote — you were generally there most nights, and it was a struggle sometimes the next morning.”
The work itself demanded versatility. A skilled lineman was expected to do everything: install poles, string lines, wire homes and businesses, splice copper, work on PABX systems, fault-find, rig radio systems, and dig — a lot. “There wasn’t a lot of plant,” Andy says. “We dug holes by hand everywhere. We were fit and strong.”
Those early years shaped him. Palmerston North, where he transferred midtraining, was short on skilled linemen, so young workers were pushed forward quickly. “I learned a lot as a very young faultman,” he says. “Most guys in the PO shared their knowledge freely… some guys worked really hard, others less so, but mostly they were known for doing a reasonable day’s work.”
A FrontRow Seat to 50 Years of Change
Few people in New Zealand have witnessed the industry’s evolution as closely as Andy. His summary of the shift is characteristically understated: “The evolution of technology in that time is huge.”
He’s not exaggerating.
He saw aerial toll lines give way to analogue coax, then digital coax, then fibre. He watched manual exchanges become automatic, step-by-step systems replaced by NEAX, and NEAX eventually replaced by IP telephony. He worked through the rise of cellular, the fall of copper, and the explosion of data as the defining force in modern networks.
What was once a world of party lines and phantom circuits is now a landscape of SDH, DWDM, and high-capacity IP transport. And Andy has been there for every step.
The Leap: Founding TelcoSpec
By 2005, after decades in the field and senior roles in design and project management, Andy reached a crossroads. Overwhelmed by workload and unconvinced by job offers in a “cut-throat” telco environment, he took a chance when Inspire net offered to help him start a business.
“I spoke to Janice and we agreed to give it a go,” he says. “I thought I’d scratch up a day here or there and work up to four days a week.” Instead, work poured in. FX Networks arrived in town, and Andy quickly found himself juggling design, fibre QA, and construction support.
Then came the moment that changed everything: hiring his first employee, Iain Waugh. “Employing Iain was the hardest step I had to make,” Andy admits. “I had to be able to pay him every week, and I didn’t know if the work would continue to come.”
It did — and then some.
Building a Specialist Powerhouse
From those modest beginnings, TelcoSpec grew into a national specialist provider known for tackling the hardest jobs in the country.
Cable blowing, introduced to New Zealand by FX Networks in 2006, became a defining capability. “We became the first people in NZ to be blowing cable in 32mm pipe in real commercial quantities,” Andy says. With blowing came jointing, where Iain excelled, and soon TelcoSpec was delivering solutions others couldn’t.
Major turning points followed:
Kiwirail’s Te Awamutu–Porewa fibre route — 400 km of corridor work over 18 months, requiring new strategies, new systems, and relentless discipline.
The nationwide UFB rollout — eight years of continuous work, training dozens of fibre professionals and building deep organisational capability.
Remote, highrisk builds such as Haast–Hāwea and Te Anau–Milford — projects that demanded the right people, the right gear, and the right attitude.
Through it all, one thing defined TelcoSpec: its people. “We had excellent men who would invent a way to get a job done and work like dogs to make it happen,” Andy says. “Clients saw and appreciated that — it’s become a tenet of the organisation.”
What Endures After 50 Years
Ask Andy what he’s most proud of, and he doesn’t point to the big, planned projects — though there are many. Instead, he talks about the moments when everything goes wrong.
“For me, a thing we do frequently is turn up somewhere in the country to a minor or major catastrophe,” he says. “We analyse it, we design a solution then and there, and we implement it as quickly as we can. We don’t look for an excuse not to do it — we find a way to get it done. That’s what we do, whatever the circumstance.”
Today, as he steps back from day-to-day operations, Andy looks at TelcoSpec with confidence. He praises the engagement, attitude and professionalism of HSE across the business, the depth and knowledge of Optical testing and splicing expertise, the quality and consistency of project delivery, commitment and capability of our construction teams and the strength and structure of the management team — especially the leadership transition that saw Iain take on the role of General Manager, supported by a strong foundation of senior managers Jon Bryant, Len Carney and Sarah Kay.
“I look forward to watching on from a distance,” he says, signing off simply: “The lineman from Bunnythorpe.”
