“We deliberately held off launching a wireless broadband product until we could be confident of delivering a quality service to our regional and rural customers using only the fastest mobile technology available – 4G.
“And, when we officially launch our wireless broadband product customers won’t require a technician to install the service so they needn’t worry about the shock of big installation costs.”
Cowley said the uptake of existing Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) products had been quite low with a degree of poor customer satisfaction voiced by consumers and industry spokespeople.
However, he said the new wireless broadband product would address these concerns and deliver speeds of up to 10 times faster than what some customers are currently experiencing.
He said Spark’s product would be different to other wireless broadband products because it would not require a technician to install the product or any external antennas.
Customers would have the choice of selecting a modem for no charge on a two-year contract or purchasing the modem for $249 on an open-term contract.
Spark had begun nationwide trials of its wireless broadband product with staff this week and customer trials would begin early into next week.
“We think the right thing to do by customers is to carry out trials of the product so we can get valuable feedback from both staff and customers and make the necessary improvements to the product and the experience ahead of its launch,” Cowley said.
