BigAir & Star-Tech bring broadband to student hostels

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 16 September 2008 11:42

Your IT - Home IT

BigAir Group (ASX: BGL) and Star-Tech have expanded their broadband offerings for university students to six Australian sites, and VoIP provider Freshtel has teamed up with Star-Tech to offer VoIP telephone services.

BigAir and Star-Tech announced plans to offer broadband to student accommodation at three universities in 2007 and are now offering the service at Macquarie University Village in Sydney, RMIT Village Old Melbourne, Griffith University Village on the Queensland Gold Coast and Graduate House at the University of Melbourne. Star-Tech also supplies to a staff/academics residential townhouse facility at Seddon in suburban Melbourne, for Victoria University.

The two have now extended facilities to Victoria University's Student Village and Sunbury Hall residential facilities. Before the start of the 2009 academic year they plan to add another 1,600 rooms in four more university villages in three states and a further 1,000 room site by 2010.

"As a direct result the students are benefiting from hassle free high-speed Internet access available to them on demand and without the need to purchase a phone line or sign on to long-term contracts," the claim. "Customers do not have to worry about any paperwork, connection fees or termination fees, and nor do they need to buy any hardware [and] site stakeholders benefit from a worry free fully outsourced product."

Students in these accommodations will also be able to get Freshtel VoIP services under a deal signed between Freshtel and Star-Tech in July. The service has already been implemented at the University of Melbourne's Graduate House where 20 Siemens C470IP DECT wireless handsets and 50 IP desk phones are pre-configured to use the Freshtel services. It is also being promoted to students at Macquarie University Village, Griffith University Village, RMIT Village and Victoria University's Sunbury Hall and will be rolled out to the four new sites being connected by BigAir and Star-Tech by the end of 2008.