BigAir takes second look at channel

Wireless broadband provider BigAir has begun working on a reseller model and signing more integrators, broadening a strategy the ISP originally outlined when it launched in 2004.

Jason Ashton, managing director at BigAir, said the wireless broadband provider had started working with a reseller model in the last three months.

"We've been working with a lot of system integrators," he said. "Some system integrators and some networking integrators and companies with their own SMB customer base."

Ashton previously said that, while there might be "a few" referral opportunities for integrators, BigAir would not be targeting resellers.

Ashton said the ISP wanted to work with SMB-focused service providers to boost sales of its high-speed wireless broadband service.

"We'll be able to introduce them to an alternative broadband service for them to add some value for their customers," he said.

The wireless broadband specialist offers symmetric residential and business broadband services at up to 10Mb/s via its own wireless local loop, targeting mainly multi-residence and multi-business buildings such as strata blocks and offices.

BigAir may also inherit some partners as a result of its recent partnership with Melbourne peer Access Providers.

Access Providers has been working with partners to deliver its high-availability, Quality of Service wireless broadband capacity to businesses in Melbourne and has begun targeting the whole country.

Ashton said BigAir was likely most interested in resellers with a strong local presence. They didn't necessarily need to be national players, he said.

"[They should] have a strong customer base within a local area, so when we build our coverage in that local area, they don't just bring another branded DSL product that is all the same," Ashton said.

However, Ashton said BigAir was itself still mainly concentrating on building its coverage in Sydney, both physically and through new partnerships.

"In the Sydney area, we are still interested in talking to system integrators or network integrators," he said.