The Launch of Naked ADSL2+

This new generation of ADSL2+ services deliver high speed broadband and save you money each month - because you'll no longer need to rent a traditional 'fixed line' home telephone service. This means that "going naked" can save you $20 - $30 (or even more!) each month.

Many people have already made the switch to mobile phones and VoIP for their voice telephony needs. Internode Naked ADSL2+ gives you the choice of not renting a traditional phone service, yet still enjoying the ADSL2+ benefits of fast and cost-effective broadband.

With huge coverage from over 350 telephone exchanges across Australia, Internode's Naked ADSL2+ services enable high speed broadband for residential, small business and corporate customers.

We've already signed up several hundred connections using the 'New Service' option, and are just about to launch a convenient 'Convert Service' option as well. This will convert your existing telephone line to Naked ADSL2+ - you can read more about this new product here.

Internode Broadband News

Our Broadband Roadmap

Naked ADSL2+, Extreme ADSL2+, ADSL1 ...... broadband is a rapidly developing technology, and often the various technical terms can be bewildering! This guide explains the options available - but if you're still confused about what is right for you, please call us on 13 6633 for a chat.

Single Service Migration Charge - Reduced

Just prior to Christmas, the charge for a 'Single Service Migration' (SSM) reduced from $99 to $49. SSM is used for an Internode ADSL1 customer (on a Telstra Wholesale DSLAM port) to immediately migrate their broadband service to an Internode DSLAM port (where available). And hence, enjoy the superior price and performance of our own ADSL2+ DSLAM network and the Extreme ADSL2+ product range - including Home, SOHO and Business Extreme ADSL2+ plans.

This is something that we encourage customers to do, of course; So we've reduced that 'migration' cost barrier. If the option is available to you, it's shown in as 'Migrate to Extreme ADSL2+' in your My Internode menu page.

Premium Usenet Returns!

Internode offers the only Australian 'Premium Usenet' service in Australia to its customers on an 'included' basis - i.e. at no extra cost (no need to sign up a separate Usenet account with another company) and with no limits other than your chosen download quota (plus data blocks if you buy them).

There are two positive announcements in this area:

• Supernews is about to morph into... Giganews! This will result in much longer retention of binary articles. Please refer to this page for details on how to reset article information in your newsreader, if required.
• Astraweb Usenet is being added in the next several weeks, at no additional cost, and as a second source/backup to the Giganews service. Not content with seeing our Usenet service catapault to the front of the pack - unreservedly - in terms of retention, we're also broadening our coverage to make it even better!

There will be no change to the cost basis on which the service is offered by Internode - it'll still be a no-extra-cost part of what we offer to our customers. In a nutshell - a better service outcome at no extra cost.

Home and SOHO ADSL News

As well as the launch of Naked ADSL2+, there's further good news across the board for Home and SOHO ADSL customers.

Quota Upgrades for Nix!

As of 1st April 2008, all current Home & SOHO plans with monthly download quotas of 20 Gbytes or above will have their quota upgraded at no additional charge. This change will happen automatically, with immediate effect, and means that:

• if you were on a 20 Gbyte/month plan, you've now been upgraded to a 25 Gbyte/month plan at no extra charge.
• if you were on a 30 Gbyte/month plan, you'll now be on a 40 Gbyte/month plan at no extra charge.
• if you were on a 40 Gbyte/month plan, you'll now be on a 55 Gbyte/month plan at no extra charge.
• if you were on a 60 Gbyte/month plan, you'll now be on a 80 Gbyte/month plan at no extra charge.
• if you were on an 80 or 90 Gbyte/month plan, you'll now be on a 100 Gbyte/month plan at no extra charge.

Note these automatic upgrades do not apply to our older plans - only our current plans. Hence we highly recommend that all Internode Home and SOHO customers take a moment to check that they're on the best available plan for their specific needs:

• simply log into My Internode and select ' Change Access Plan ' to see the full details of your Current Plan, including the monthly charge.
• then review our current plans - full details are listed here for Home ADSL and here for SOHO ADSL - to determine if there's a current plan available that better suits your needs. Note you may need to press the '+' button at the right of the pricing tables to reveal the higher download quota plans (or less popular speeds) on these pages.
• if so, simply use the My Internode plan changer to request a plan change on your next monthly service rollover date. Remember there's no charge to change your monthly download quota, however a change of speed on an ADSL1 plan does involve a once-off charge of $20.
• no action is required by customers on upgraded plans to receive the increased quota.

Introducing Home-Extreme-Starter

Shortly before Christmas we launched a new plan - Home-Extreme-Starter - which, at $49.95, is our first ADSL2+ service below the magical "$50 per month" price point. It includes 10 Gbytes per month of download, radically high speed, plus all of the other value-add features of the Home-Extreme range.

Not surprisingly, it's selling like hotcakes! Click here for more information on Extreme ADSL2+.

Just Announced : Two New Plans for Home ADSL1

Home-1500-Power15, 1500/256k speed with 15 GB of download quota, at $59.95 per month.

• This provides a convenient upgrade point for customers who are growing out of Home-1500-Power10 ($54.95). Currently such customers faced an unusually large ($15) upgrade to the next available monthly download quota - so we've fixed that for you!

Home-High-Power5, up to 8000/384k speed with 5 GB of download quota, at $74.95 per month.

• A new plan for customers who want high speed ADSL1, but don't download a lot of content.

Details on our Home ADSL1 plans are available here.

Business ADSL News

Business customers also benefit, with a number of product improvements just announced.

Three New Business ADSL1 plans - UNLIMITED!

The three new plans are truly unlimited - no shaping and no excess charges. Download as much as you like, and it'll just keep going at full line speed, 24x7, and fixed price.

• Business-512-Unlimited, a 512/128k service with a monthly cost of $199 and unlimited download quota.
• Business-512Sym-Unlimited, a 512/512 kbps service with a monthly cost of $229 and unlimited download quota.
• Business-1500-Unlimited, a 1500/256k service with a monthly cost of $299 and unlimited download quota.

Details on our Business ADSL1 plans are available here.

Reduction in the Excess Data Rate on Business ADSL plans

Earlier this year we changed the excess rate on all current Business ADSL services from $50 per Gbyte to $5 per Gbyte earlier this year - a 90% reduction! This applies automatically to all current Business ADSL plans - except the new Unlimited plans of course, there's no excess charges on those!

Now is a good time to review our Business ADSL pricing and ensure that your business is on the best plan.

Changes to the 'Maximum Price Caps' on Business ADSL1 plans

In line with the reduction in the excess download rate, we've reduced the maximum price caps on all of the current Business ADSL1 plans. So the Business ADSL1 plans that still have $5 per GB excess - specifically not the new unlimited plans described above - will have their monthly price caps reduced to :

• Business-256-Standard - reduce cap from $349 to $199.
• Business-512-Standard - reduce cap from $599 to $299.
• Business-512Sym-Standard - reduce cap from $599 to $299.
• Business-1500-Standard - reduce cap from $999 to $499.
• Business-1500-Premium - reduce cap from $999 to $499.

This is the maximum amount these plans cost per month, including the base monthly rental and any excess charges. Once again we highly recommend that you review our Business ADSL pricing to make sure your business is on the best plan for your needs.

NodePhone News

NodePhone is Internode's high quality Voice over IP service. If you're not using it already, you can read about it here. This is another product line that's been tweaked recently:

Simplification of NodePhone Pricing.

The pricing for the service has been simplified (and in many cases reduced) to:

• NodePhone1 - $20 establishment (waived if you purchase your VoIP hardware from Internode) and $0 monthly rental.
• NodePhone2 - No establishment charge and a choice of :
  • NodePhone2-Value for $10 per month; or
  • NodePhone2-Premium services for $20 per month, which includes $15 call credit.
• We've also eliminated the $10 charge for changing between NodePhone plans.

What's Changed?

Previously, we charged an extra $30 establishment and $10 per month on second (or subsequent) NodePhone services for Internode customers; and for any NodePhone services for customers that don't have an Internode broadband account.

This differential charging has been eliminated, and existing customers who are paying the extra $10 per month will automatically have this charge removed over the next few weeks.

New NodePhone Number Ranges

After a year of preparation, NodePhone2 now offers full national reach, extending it to 2100 zones ranging from Aberfoyle to Zamia Creek. In fact, NodePhone numbers are now available in every call zone in Australia (around 2,400 of them).

• Why care? Well if you choose a NodePhone number that is in the right 'call zone' for where you live, then it simply means your neighbours can call you via your NodePhone2 service, and they only pay a local call fee.
• How to choose? The NodePhone online signup prompts you to enter your existing phone number, it will then match that up with your 'local call zone', you'll then get presented with a choice of NodePhone numbers from that 'call zone'. Pretty nifty.

If you're interested in what number ranges we have available and where - here they all are - beware, this is now a very long page! Also please note that 'call zones' don't necessarily correlate exactly to suburbs, towns or cities.

NodePhone Business MultiLine Enhancements

The NodePhone MultiLine product has been available to Business users since the early days of NodePhone. It provides additional voice channels (beyond the standard inclusion of two channels) for NodePhone services, for example when NodePhone is connected to an IP PBX at a business premises. Any number of additional channels can be ordered - i.e. it is not limited to multiples of ten, as is the case with traditional ISDN primary rate services.

NodePhone MultiLine has recently been enhanced as follows :

• MultiLine will continue to be available for NodePhone1, and will now be available for NodePhone2. Note that MultiLine on NodePhone2 is available where the NodePhone number is within Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth or Sydney (and some surrounding areas).
• All NodePhone customers can now change the number of channels associated with their service online, via the NodePhone Toolbox, and the upgrade will occur in minutes.

While MultiLine is of little interest to a Residential customer, it is one of the key steps in the evolution of NodePhone to a fully featured, corporate-grade IP telephony service. For more information click here

Network News

Many of the product enhancements announced above have been made possible by increased investment in the Internode International network. Here's some of what's been going on:

Our Network Expands into Japan

Following evaluation of the options concerned, Internode has taken the decision to invest in building a new International Point of Presence (PoP) site. The new site will be in Tokyo, Japan.

What this will do:

• Dramatically lower the latency of data flows between Australia and Japan (and onward to various other Asian destinations)
• Improve our redundancy and options in terms of gaining further transit connectivity to the world over time, and improve our global availability of access to the Internet for the same reason.
• Link us to a new market with new opportunities in it, for business and residential customers. Business customers may find this boosts their ability to use Internode to reach Asian destinations efficiently; Residential customers should find this will improve performance for applications such as VoIP and online gaming into significant parts of Asia.
• Increase our global peering (we'll connect directly with Japanese Internet providers and content backbones such as Google Japan, etc etc).

Boosting Our International Network via Southern Cross

We're also boosting our International capacity to the United States, and have signed a five-year agreement with Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN). You can see some of the effects of this already, with our improved quota allocations and the introduction of Business Unlimited plans.

Furthermore we're a foundation customer of PIPE Networks' newly announced $200M submarine fibre optic cable from Sydney to Guam. These current and future network enhancements position us well to keep delivering you the best broadband in Australia.

You can read more about our National and International Networks by clicking here

ATUG Award for Internode's Regional WiMax Network

Internode's WiMAX network on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia is delivering real-world wireless broadband speeds as fast as six megabits per second up to 30km from its base stations.

We've just been recognised with a prestigious ATUG telecommunications industry award for the Australia-first WiMax broadband project, in the Yorke Peninsula region of South Australia. Click here for more information.