iiNet CEO spells death sentence for AAPT unlimited

Unlimited ramifications if iiNet buys AAPT.

The chief executive of ISP iiNet has indicated he would dump AAPT's unlimited broadband plans - and the "leechers" on them - if iiNet bought the Telecom New Zealand subsidiary.

The Perth ISP's chief executive Michael Malone made the comments today in two posts to the Whirlpool broadband forums.

It came less than three hours after iiNet was placed into a trading halt pending the "announcement of a potential acquisition" - rumoured heavily to be the consumer portion of AAPT's business.

UPDATE: 12:00pm, 30/07/2010 - iiNet and Telecom New Zealand have confirmed that iiNet will buy AAPT's consumer business for $60 million.

"Gee I hope iiNet doesn't buy AAPT, that will be the death knell for the unlimited plans if that happens," Whirlpool user Achirûel Czëmoir wrote.

"No kidding," Malone responded.

Malone pointed to a thread that purportedly showed AAPT unlimited users pushing their plans to extreme limits - up to 5.4 TB of data per month in some cases.

He appeared unwilling to subsidise those download and upload volumes on iiNet's infrastructure.

"Think about it, who is going to pay a high rate for unlimited when they only download a few gigs a month? They'll take a low price, reasonable volume deal from someone else instead. So all you end up with on unlimited are the leeches," Malone said.

"What you're really hoping is that more moderate users will be willing to subsidise the heavy users. Why would they?"

AAPT has launched various flavours of unlimited broadband this year.

Its $99.95 per month bundle includes unlimited ADSL with no throttling, phone line rental and access to an EMI legal music library service.

Most competitors have stated an intention not to follow AAPT's lead, with the exception of TPG Telecom - also said to be a potential suitor for AAPT's consumer assets.