NetComm bags $3m ADSL WestNet contract

NetComm has signed a contract to supply its ADSL hardware to national residential broadband ISP WestNet. The company claimed the deal was expected to boost its sales by $3 million over the next three years.

Under the agreement, the company is selling ADSL modems, which would support the Perth-based ISPs expansion across the Eastern seaboard.

David Stewart, managing director at NetComm, said the ISP was growing significantly, adding a few thousand new users every month.

Today, the ISP market is the fastest growing segment for the company, said Stewart.

ISP business makes up 25 percent of the company's total sales revenue; with 30 percent being generated via its distribution channel; 30 percent from the OEM and system builder channel and the remaining 15 percent from retail.

Stewart said more contracts around its SHDSL modem products in the business market were in the pipeline. While these deals weren't "huge in volume" they were more profitable, Stewart said.

NetComm also has existing ADSL hardware supply arrangements with other ISPs including iPrimus, Netspace, iHug and Swiftel. It also sells to a "good chunk" of Comindico's wholesale ISP customers, said Stewart.

Stewart claimed there were around 330 ISPs in Australia reselling ADSL and NetComm had around 180 of them as customers.

In another announcement on Wednesday, NetComm competitor D-Link said it had opened an office in Auckland, New Zealand. The company has appointed Juliana Moss as business development manager there.

D-Link had been selling in the country through distributors Dove Electronics, LAN 1 and Tech Pacific.

It had been a challenge for the company running NZ sales out of Australia, said Domenic Torre, general manager at D-Link Australia & New Zealand.

"We now have the building blocks in place to increase our focus and to work the channel and market," he said.