Boost Mobile to stay on Telstra network for another decade | ZDNet

Boost Mobile will stay on the Telstra network in Australia for another 10 years, the company announced on Thursday.

Saying it doubled its customer base in “recent years”, the virtual operator added the new deal would allow it to expand into postpaid mobile, mobile broadband, and NBN plans.

“This is a major moment in Boost Mobile’s history as we further expand our longstanding relationship with Telstra,” Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton said.

“It has never been more important to have fighting brands like Boost Mobile in the industry, and today’s renewal and new benefits of this agreement will allow us to fight for the consumer on a whole new level. It will enable us to offer consumers more choice in more areas of the market than ever before.”

In September last year, Boost Mobile killed off its international roaming option; it was one of the few virtual operators to offer that functionality.

At the time, Boost said it was re-designing its roaming package, and would have a new product in the middle of 2021. However, given the continuing pandemic and delta surges leading to recent lockdowns across Australia, notwithstanding the nation’s borders not being open, Boost now has more time to ponder its changes.

In November, Optus announced it was paying AU$250 million for Amaysim and its remaining mobile business, as well announcing it would launch its Singtel parent digital-only brand Gomo in Australia.

Elsewhere on Thursday, TPG announced it would be boosting the capacity of its PPC-1 Australia to Guam subsea cable to 12Tbps. The cable has two fibre pairs covering 7,000 kilometres with repeaters around 92 kilometres apart.

“We are increasing the capacity of this vital international link by 50% to meet the growing data requirements of our customers, which is being driven by booming demand for cloud computing and video streaming,” TPG Telecom executive general manager for mobile and fixed networks Barry Kezik said.

TPG will be using Infinera kit for the upgrade.

Earlier in the week, Hawaiki announced it sold itself to Singapore-based BW Group. The sale price was not disclosed.

“Three years after Hawaiki’s commercial launch, it is time to write a new chapter of the company’s history and we believe BW is an ideal shareholder for this fast-growing business,” executive chairman of Hawaiki Rémi Galasso said.

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