In a post on the company’s corporate blog, iiNet revealed it will soon join the rush of Australian carriers moving towards next generation, high speed 4G networks by offering its own 4G-capable plans.

“We will soon offer applicable 4G plans – so stay tuned for more details,” iiNet Communications Officer, Natalie Marinho, said.

iiNet doesn’t own a mobile network of its own, rather it resells services on Optus’ 3G and 4G network across the country. To date, the company has offered 3G mobile services, and a range of 4G mobile broadband-only plans.

Today’s comments come as the company announced its first Windows Phone device for sale, the Samsung ATIV S. First revealed by Samsung last year, it features a 1.5GHz Dual Core processor, a Super AMOLED display, 1GB of RAM and coming in 16 or 32GB storage variations, the device is the first to be sold by iiNet that doesn’t run Google’s Android platform.

Instead, the ATIV S runs Microsoft’s burgeoning Windows Phone platform – a rival to both Android and iOS that features a radically different user experience and design. iiNet are offering the device for $25 per month with a voice plan or $600 when purchased outright.

And iiNet has also added a new Samsung Android device to its range, offering customers the Samsung Galaxy Note II that was released late last year. Boasting a 5.5″ HD display, 1.6GHz Quad Core CPU, 533MHz GPU, 2GB of RAM and an 8MP camera, the device runs the latest version of Android – Jellybean 4.1.

It is available for $33 per month over a 24 month contract, or $792 outright.

Image Credit: Samsung

MOG.com, the online music streaming services, has announced it will soon be available to Australian users. It will partner with Telstra, and the service will be called “Mog, powered by Telstra”.

From the release:

The ability to stream ad-free, unlimited music on connected devices for less than the price of a CD each month means the days of storing CDs or deciding what playlists to load onto your devices are coming to an end. With 15 million songs at your fingertips, you think of it, and there it is.

Choosing Telstra means MOG will of cause have the strongest network behind it. Telstra already has a branded music-mp3 store Bigpond Music which is mainly a competitor to download music sites iTunes and Bandit.FM (to name two). There are even more awaiting in the wings like JB Hifi .  There is no news or details how (or if) Bigpond Music will interface with MOG.

This can also been seen as a response to Spotify which has limited release in Australia, and Google Play Music and a potential, unannounced  iTunes streaming service (based on the purchase of much loved Lulu) which has not been released in Australia.

MOG will be based on HTML5, so it is compatible with all systems, both mobile and desktop platforms, even Linux. So far it promises unlimited downloads and 320kbs stream, meaning the music will be high quality (better than default 256kbs MP3).

From the blogpost:

The service will be available to all Australians in the coming months regardless of network

This is good news in theory, however, it will be interesting to see how download quota’s be affected. Bigpond users may be quota free, however ISP like Optus, iiNet and TPG may not get that luxury.

At the moment, as an iiNet customer, I get unmetered Quickflix (streaming video) and iTunes (al la carte music, TV and Movies).

Given that Bigpond Music is tied into the Bigpond billing system, I suspect that Telstra will offer the same for Bigpond members for MOG, with non Telstra customers paying a monthly fee via credit card. No pricing details released.

The thing that makes a music live or die is the ability to give people the music what they want, when they want, in the format they want. A platform neutral music platform that allows a wide music choice on a subscription is one way music companies can maintain control of music via DRM in a way that should be palpable to music fans. Music is an area where there are many wrecks on the path, so it will be interesting if MOG will succeed in this country.

IPTV service FetchTV looks set for Internode FTTH rollout (Credit: Internode)

The new Freezone app will allow subscribers to iiNet’s Internet Protocol television (IPTV) service to gain access to content from iiNet partners across an array of genres including extreme sports, music and live events.

In a move which iiNet hopes will also attract more customers, it has significantly reduced contract times for new sign-ups to fetchtv. The Entertainment package can now be purchased on a six month contract, while the fetchtv Starter package is now available on packages over twelve months.

iiNet’s Chief Product Officer, Stephen Harley said the company was the first to introduce fetchtv to the Australian market, and has continued to evolve the product for customers.

“We were the first to introduce fetchtv to Australian broadband customers and now we’re working towards having a service that offers more and is continuously evolving,” he said in a statement today.

“For new and existing iiNet customers who have been thinking of trying fetchtv, the reduced contract periods and expanding content and movie libraries mean there’s no better time than now.”

iiNet offers fetchtv to customers over the Internet as a pay television service. Subscribers, depending on their package, gain access to a variety of entertainment and world channels that are streamed live or on-demand to customers. Pricing starts from $10 per month on the Starter package, with more information about the service available from iiNet’s website.

iiNet's Top Geek Australia competition (Credit: iiNet)

TopGeek 2.0 is the successor to last year’s inaugural contest which will once again see geeks of all types display their geeky skills in an attempt to take out the title of Australia’s Top Geek. The winner will win an all-expenses paid trip to the United States to attend one of four ‘geek’ events including ComicCon, Consumer Electronic Show (CES), South by Southwest (SXSW) or Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).

iiNet’s Communications Manager, Anthony Fisk is excited about how the competition encourages everyone to discover their inner geek and showcase different talents, “no matter what you’re in to”. The competition has broadened the categories to participate in and they have, ” upped the ante this year, as well as bigger and better challenges [they've] introduced TopGeek TV – a fortnightly series hosted by award-winning comedian and self-proclaimed geek, Lawrence Leung” .

TopGeek TV will air each fortnight beginning 30 March 2012 until the final on 10 May 2012 which will be hosted by Lawrence Leung.

To enter the search for iiNet’s TopGeek or to read about the competitions Terms and Conditions click here.

Founded by Stephen Baxter (former co-founder of Pipe Networks), River City Labs seeks 70 startups (from Australia, but mainly focused on Queensland). Located in Fortitude Valley, River City Labs seeks to set up a Silicon Valley style Incubator (like the successful Y-Combinator), where startups get assistance from both the other companies in the incubator as well as from investors and board members of the related investment fund.

While Baxter will not be funding the startups himself,  he has put aside $10million for investments over the next 5 years.

This is a strong move to replicate the Incubator model, something that has not been used much in Australia.

The start-up scene is less active in Australia, we do have some Venture Capitalists, but we do not have the frantic ecosystem of start-ups, Incubators, Angel Investors, VC funding and Tech Startup reporting, as best illustrated by the TechCrunch/Michael Arrington/Paul Carr kerfuffle last year.

One interesting aspect of the start-up phenomenon is the focus on Queensland. One reason why Australia has a less focused Venture Capital marketplace is that we are generally less geographically focused, The US has NY, Chicago and Silicon Valley, Israel is a small country, and much of the Chinese start-ups have had both a good and bad time lately. Australia has 3 moderate sized cities on the east coast, however Adelaide and Perth has also spawned some large communication companies (iiNet and Exatel for example).

However, if there is a large pool of talent and ideas, as well as an active University system in Queensland, the Incubator may work nicely and may even attract talent from the southern states.

For more information of the River City Lab, check out their website here. Also keep an eye on the site for pitching sessions in the future.

iiNet’s ‘Online Safety Series’ initiative will be released each month covering a variety of topics including: social networking, online shopping, phishing emails and password security. The series has been introduced in order to help Australians become more aware of the safety practices that they should be implementing when surfing the web.

The latest in the series focuses on the dangers of online dating. Rebecca Moonen, iiNet’s Compliance Manager, “the latest fact sheet in the Online Safety Series provides some useful tips for those looking for their dream date online”. This is in line with iiNet’s aim of making online dating more convenient for those looking for love and making it more safe by highlighting the need to be “safety conscious” when looking for love in an alternative way over the internet.

iiNet CEO Michael Malone (Credit: iiNet)

This initiative from iiNet encourages, “everyone to help us by downloading our factsheet and sharing it with family and friends.” and help iiNet spread the love this February by keeping those people looking for love aware of the potential dangers that are associated with online dating.

The main safety tips include keeping an open mind and using a  secure device or computer when using the online dating site, use a popular dating site rather than a smaller site with limited numbers, create a separate email account for the site you use and ignoring any junk mail that may land in your online dating inbox.

iiNet’s ‘Finding love online – a guide to safety searching for that dream date’ fact sheet can be downloaded from iiNet’s Online Safety Website.

BoB 2 launches today (Credit: iiNet)

In a post on the iiNet blog earlier this afternoon, Simon Watt from the company’s Labs division said a number of “big” products are in development for debut in 2012, with at least one to arrive early in the new year.

Watt teases few details about a major new product that iiNet’s Labs division is preparing to launch, mentioning that the Labs team has converged on the company’s Western Australian headquarters.

“Something this big requires all hands on deck,” Watt wrote, before teasing readers by saying “we need to come up with the very best name for this thing and make sure it comes loaded with the latest technology.”

Watt provided one major hint, saying: “you’ll be connected to your home in more ways than ever when you get your hands on it.”

He also confirmed a new product – that’ll reportedly be interesting for a “few wireless modem owners” – will graduate from iiNet Labs and launch sometime in early 2012.

iiNet’s Labs division has been upwards-bound in recent times, launching a whole range of products and even securing a distribution deal with New Zealand-based ISP Orcon that has seen its product line-up including the BoB line-up made available internationally.

Internode CEO Simon Hackett (Credit: Internode)

Hackett, who will remain at the head of the Internode division once the acquisition by iiNet is complete, says the Internode department will remain as a “separate operating company” within iiNet.

“Because I’m [Hackett] retaining an ownership stake in both Internode and in the rest of the iiNet group, my financial interests are aligned with those of the group. I’m committed to its future and I’m putting (well, keeping) my money where my mouth is,” he said.

“Its very much ‘business as usual’ – but better – after this transaction is completed,” referring to the fact that the acquisition by iiNet will give Internode greater scale and capital.

It’s apparent that the roll-out of the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN) is the driving force behind the acquisition, with Hackett mentioning numerous times the importance of scale provided by the deal.

“The Internet industry in this country, in a market that is now saturated, is very much a scale game,” he wrote, before mentioning that for Internode to gain a similar scale it would have had to have undertaken an Initial Public Offering (IPO)  that meant the company would’ve “had the capital we needed to be a strong market player in principle, but we would not have created the necessary scale.”

According to Hackett, simply operating an “empty” network on the NBN will cost approximately $20 million per annum – and that’s before a single customer has been connected. That sort of cost simply wasn’t feasible for Internode, he said, whereas with iiNet’s backing it barely makes an impact.

And for existing customers, Hackett offers some consolation: packages offered by the company won’t be changing substantially (for example, replace Internode’s “Use anytime” plans with iiNet’s on/off peak quota), at least within the mid-term

Other South Australian-based ISPs, such as Adam Internet have hit out at the acquisition and re-iterated their commitment to the state. Hackett meanwhile, says the support of the iiNet will help boost Internode’s commitment to the state, rather than the other way around.

“One of the many reasons this deal made sense to iiNet is because of how important Internode is within South Australia. The idea isn’t to change that – its to ramp it up!” he said.

Lastly, Hackett points out some improvements Internode customers can expect to see soon. They include the interconnection of the iiNet and Internode DSLAM networks to make port coverage of each company seamlessly available, with voice services also a “piece of cake” to integrate. All this should lead to a widening of coverage across Australia.

iiNet CEO Michael Malone (Credit: iiNet)

In a statement first posted to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), iiNet told investors that it felt Internode was “a very attractive” strategic acquisition that will consolidate and propel iiNet to second position in the Internet Service Provider (ISP) race against Telstra’s BigPond arm by providing an additional 260,000 active customers. Of these, around 190,000 are broadband subscribers.

“The  two companies are clearly a good fit with their strong cultural alignment, industry-leading customer service and shared commitment to innovation,” iiNet Chief Executive Officer, Michael Malone, said in a statement yesterday.

Internode CEO Simon Hackett welcomed the acquisition, saying “there’s great synergy between iiNet and Internode. iiNet operates in complementary geographic areas, it maintains compatible technologies and it has a strong cultural fit, in terms of caring for customers.”

In what is being labelled a win for both companies in the lead up to the ramp-out of Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN), widening iiNet’s customer base and allowing it a greater scale.

Malone confirmed Internode CEO Simon Hackett will be paid with approximately 12 million iiNet shares, with the remaining payments to be funded using cash on hand as well as via iiNet’s debt facilities in February 2012, the company says.

For now, it’s business as usual at Internode with the company to remain a separate business unit within iiNet. Hackett will remain responsible for the Internode division, with most of his management team expected to stay on despite the acquisition.

Network equipment will be integrated with iiNet’s over time – Internode’s 202 DSLAMs in exchanges across Australia will compliment iiNet’s – while customers will remain on the Internode brand and be provided with Internode-labelled services for now.

However the deal remains subject to a number of “procedural conditions”, iiNet says, that it expects will be completed by the 29th February, 2012.

iiNet acquires TransACT (Credit: TransACT)

The acquisition, announced last week and funded through existing cash and debt facilities, is now completed according to iiNet.

In a statement issued by the company, iiNet CEO Michael Malone said the transaction has been “well received” by staff and customers alike, and will provide a strategic boost for the company.

“Thanks to the support of TransACT’s management and directors, the transaction has been well received by TransACT staff and customers,” Malone said.

“iiNet’s acquisition of TransACT represents an attractive strategic opportunity to build scale in the ACT market quickly and efficiently.”

The TransACT network covers both Fibre and Copper, offering ADSL Over the Air, FTTP (fibre to the premises) and a hybrid VDSL service.

iiNet will use the acquisition to grow its share of the small medium business market in the two locations.

The company also unveiled a new Business Cloud service today, in partnership with VMware, IBM and Juniper that will allow business to host their web applications in the ‘cloud’ or at iiNet’s Australian data centres.

“Business Cloud follows from our launch of Business Voice. Put simply, it gives the small guys the same tools of the trade normally reserved for the big enterprise players,” CEO of iiNet Business, Greg Bader said in a statement today.

“Removing barriers to entry and offering total flexibility, these products reflect the needs of operating a small business in today’s challenging environment.”

An API for the service will be provided, as well as enterprise class security features and virtual applications with pricing to start at $29 per month.