Netspace begins ADSL2+ Tassie rollout, with dig at Telstra

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 20 May 2009 18:27

IT Industry - Market

Netspace has just rolled out the first of its ADSL2+ broadband service to homes in the Tasmania’s two biggest cities, Hobart and Launceston, with a scheduled follow up of its high speed service in the next few months to other parts of the state.


Netspace managing director, Stuart Marburg, claims the new service will deliver a “new, affordable high-speed broadband alternative to Tasmanian homes, with immediate coverage available in Hobart and Launceston to new and existing customers, and broader coverage to come in the next few months."

According to Marburg, Netspace is now the biggest provider of ADSL2+ in Tasmania outside of Telstra and in a shot at Telstra, he says that “Tasmanians have been paying high prices for fast broadband, or have been going without ADSL2+ due to the associated cost.”
 
“We are committed to offering existing and new broadband customers in Tasmania both speed and affordability.”  A number of ADSL2+ exchanges have been turned on today, with others coming online soon. Approximately 80 per cent of our customers will be able to switch to ADSL2+ by the end of August this year.”

Marburg says Netspace has spent the last 12 months rolling out its own local exchange equipment and digital subscriber lines to deliver high-speed ADSL2+ broadband to homes and business in Tasmania.

“This investment makes it possible for Netspace to begin offering Tasmanians the same ADSL2+ plans as available in more than 400 other exchange areas nationally, at speeds of up to 20Mbps.

“We see this as the first truly competitive residential broadband service offered outside of the Hobart CBD,” said Marburg, adding that “our plans deliver speed and data at prices up to $50 less than our competitors.”

According to Marburg, the Rudd government’s recently announced plan to roll-out a wholesale only fibre-to-the-premise national broadband network (NBN) offers “great opportunity for even faster speeds in the future.”

Marbug also says that, by making this investment now, Netspace will be “well placed to be one of the first retailers to offer its Tasmanian customers the transition to the NBN when it becomes available.

“Netspace is excited to switch on the ADSL2+ service in Tasmania and to demonstrate the investment we’ve made in this market over the past year,” Marburg says, adding that “in order to secure the on-island optical fibre links over which it will deliver the backhaul to its ADSL2+ service, Netspace has worked closely with State-owned Aurora, which late last year took on the management and commercialisation of TasGovNet’s optical fibre network.”