PBBA signs another ISP for iBurst

Personal Broadband Australia (PBBA) has signed a second distributor for its iBurst mobile wireless broadband services, Sydney-based ISP Veritel.

Sydney internet security services provider SecureTel signed with PBBA 18 December as the first distributor for iBurst.

Ivan Hurwitz, MD at Veritel, said the ISP would resell iBurst in a bundle, branded as Freedom Wireless. The product would be sold direct as well as through Veritel's own channel partners.

'You've got quite a lot of people who have to go to their customers' premises and set up and work there for a week and it's [been] traditionally very hard to get an internet connection,' Hurwitz said.

Veritel is promising a chance for resellers to make big margins, he said.

'We have got a channel manager and channel salespeople. We've got margins up to 35 percent,' Hurwitz said. 'You just don't see margins like that -- usually it's about 10 to 15 percent.'

iBurst -- which allowed users to log on to their office or home network remotely -- was expected to attract mobile salespeople and professionals such as architects, who worked in various locations.

Hurwitz said a 'whole other market' for iBurst was people who couldn't get broadband. Many parts of Australia had no access to broadband, he said, and iBurst provided one way of getting around that.

'There's dial-up or ISDN, and [ISDN's] even more expensive,' he said.

The iBurst service -- which used PBBA's carrier-grade IP-based wireless data network -- promised up to 1Mbt/s downstream and 384Kbt/s upstream in capital cities, he said.

Hurwitz said the service was provided for laptops and a desktop version would be out shortly. Meanwhile, a retail launch for PBBA was slated for February or March, he said.

Veritel -- formerly Qwest Australia -- also provided ADSL, wireless, 3G and would soon move into voice telecommunications, Hurwitz said. Charles Reed, CEO at PBBA, was contacted for comment but had not replied by press time.

Last month, Dave Stevens, MD of SecureTel and Brennan IT, said many companies were reluctant to provide mobility services to staff, due to concerns about cost and coverage.

'We think ... there's absolutely nothing like [iBurst]. WiFi hotspots are provided by all different carriers and different providers. It's not seamless,' Stevens said at the time.

Hotspot coverage in particular was patchy and limited to certain sites such as airports and cafes yet staff wanted to access remote, seamless connections, Stevens said.