Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
iTWire questioned broadband satellite operator IPStar's choice of its exclusive Australian distributor when the deal was announced last November. So we are not the least bit surprised that IPStar now seems to be trying to get out of the deal.
IPStar is the world's largest commercial communications satellite and it does a good job of providing broadband services in remote areas, especially Australian remote areas. IPStar's owner Thailand's Shin Satellite last November appointed a little known Australian company, ASX listed ETT to be the exclusive national operator of IPStar services for Australia for 12 years.
At the time ETT had managed to earn revenues of just $303,000 in the past six months and was on the verge of insolvency Nevertheless, it commited to purchasing 131,500 Ipstar terminals over the life of the contract, to generating traffic loads of 3.5Gbps and to delivering total revenues of $665 million. ETT was not able to fund its commitments under the agreement and initiated a one for one rights issue to raise approximately $6.6 million.
The agreement was with Shinsat's Australian subsidiary, IPStar Australia, whose general manager, Teerasak Sawekpun, said at the time: "ETT has indicated its interest in Ipstar business over the last 18 months and has since put together a promising business case around the Ipstar technology. It has also built a strong relationship with existing major Ipstar service providers who will turn to be ETT's retail arm after [ETT] taking over the service distribution responsibility from Ipstar Australia."
Now the deal seems to have gone sour. ETT has issued a statement to the ASX saying: "As a result of correspondence received by ETT Limited on the evening of Friday 30th May 2008, it appears that IPStar Australia Pty Limited may have attempted to inappropriately terminate the Definitive Agreement with ETT Limited dated 30th October 2007. After taking legal advice, ETT Limited applied to the Supreme Court of NSW, on 4th June 2008 for urgent orders to seek to resolve this issue as quickly as possible."
The stoush follows the resignation a week ago of ETT's CEO, Gordon Tudor. No explanation was given.
David Bass
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