Media release

iiNet withdraws NBN satellite plans from sale

18 November 2013:  iiNet has announced the withdrawal of all NBN Interim Satellite plans from new sale, effective immediately. The decision also means associated brands Westnet and TransACT will cease new sales of all interim NBN satellite services. Existing iiNet Group satellite customers will not be affected by this move and will remain on their current services.

iiNet CEO, Michael Malone, said that, since its introduction 18 months ago, iiNet has witnessed high, ongoing demand for NBN Interim Satellite Services.

“At its peak, we had 500 customers signing up every week for our NBN satellite services. There is clearly a significant demand for higher quality broadband in remote Australia, and we’re absolutely gutted that we’ve had to withdraw this crucial service from sale,” Mr Malone said.

With 42,000 people already connected to the NBN Interim Satellite, transmission capacity constraints are resulting in severe service quality issues. NBN Co has ruled out providing more transmission capacity for the existing satellite, which will be replaced with a higher-capacity satellite solution in 2015.

“iiNet is committed to providing high-quality broadband, so in order to meet our own customer service objectives, we could not continue to offer a service markedly below both our own and our customer’s expectations. During occasional peak periods the service was so slow as to be almost unusable.”

“As more people are added to the network, quality will only decline further. In the absence of any action by NBN Co to increase transmission capacity, I call on the rest of the industry to respect their existing customers and also cease sale,” he said.

iiNet will also investigate opportunities to move any of the 8000 existing satellite customers to faster wireless services that are gradually being extended to remote and regional areas by our mobile wholesale partner.

“We recognise that the Federal and State governments are currently funding ‘uneconomic’ mobile networks in regional areas. It would be in the best interest of these isolated communities to ensure open access to this crucial infrastructure - improving services and encouraging competition.

As soon as NBN Co commissions its new satellites, iiNet will immediately provide higher performance services for all qualifying customers,” Mr Malone concluded.

 

For further information, please contact:

For further information, please contact:
Tina Liptai or Anthony Fisk
Communications - iiNet Group
Ph: +61 8 9214 2210

About iiNet 

 iiNet is Australia’s second largest DSL Internet Service Provider and the leading challenger in the telecommunications market. Publicly listed on the ASX 200, our company is now valued at approximately $1 billion. We employ more than 2000 inquisitive staff across three countries - 80 per cent of whom are employed to directly service  our 900,000 customers. We maintain our own super-fast broadband network and support over 1.7 million broadband, telephony and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) services nationwide.

We’re committed to making it simple for all Australians to connect across both our own network and on the NBN. Our vision is to lead the market with products that harness the potential of the Internet and then differentiate with award-winning customer service.

A lot has changed since our CEO founded iiNet in a suburban garage back in 1993 and the broadband landscape continues to evolve. What hasn’t changed is our passion for the transformative benefits of the Internet and our commitment to helping Australians connect better