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Linknet shuttering, blames NBN rollout

NSW north coast customers at risk of three years without the Internet

Long-time indy ISP Linknet on the NSW north coast is shuttering its business, saying it's been overbuilt by the NBN and can't recapitalise to become a reseller.

For more than a decade, the small ISP has run a wireless-last-mile model to connect customers in the fairly sparsely-populated Mullumbimby area, since many people live outside the reach of ADSL. It was an early deployer of Motorola's Canopy wireless broadband system in Australia.

While it has, more recently, added NBN fixed wireless resale to its offerings, as the rollout continues the company believes it won't be able to compete with major telcos offering NBN resale into the territory.

The company has told local newspaper the Echo Daily there's a risk that its customers will suffer a service gap while waiting for the NBN to reach full coverage in the area.

The newspaper quotes director Richard Hughes as saying “Linknet would have to compete against the monster telcos on price and bundle selling. The financial outcome of that business model is not one I would choose to invest in.

“How do we survive during the transition period, when NBN Co services are not available to all customers in our region?”

The company says 400 customers will be affected during the transition, and on the current NBN rollout schedule, 200 of those are likely to be without service until the end of 2018.

While Hughes told the Echo Daily the company only turns over around AU$500,000 annually, Vulture South notes that Linknet's woes will be reflected in other regional communities where locals have built fixed wireless networks. ®

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