BigAir

BigAir Group Ltd.

Company type	Public
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	Sydney, New South Wales (2002)
Headquarters	Sydney, New South Wales
Key people	Jason Ashton, CEO & CoFounder Paul Tyler, Chairman
Products	Fixed Wireless Broadband Cloud Computing Webhosting VoIP VPN WiMAX
Revenue	$20M+ est. (2011)
Number of employees	50 est. (2011)
Website	www.bigair.com.au

BigAir is an Australian Internet service provider providing businesses with symmetric broadband services at speeds up to 1000Mbps using its own fixed WiMAX broadband network.

Background

BigAir is a publically listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), trading under the symbol BGL.

BigAir owns and operates Australia's largest metropolitan fixed WiMAX broadband network. It provides near-blanket coverage across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth. Australian businesses located within these regions can now replace traditional terrestrial cabling such as highly contended DSL and expensive fibre-optic with BigAir fixed wireless to connect to the Internet and each other.

The BigAir fixed wireless network includes the WiMAX and proprietary network for business-grade symmetric broadband services at speeds up to 1000Mbps and distances up to 30km from the base stations. The BigAir network is available to Australian businesses via an extensive Partner network or one of Australia's telecommunications providers including Optus, Australia's second largest telecommunications company.

Recent Milestones

• BigAir acquires Star-Tech Communications division: July 2010. BigAir announced it has acquired the assets and customer base of the wholesale broadband division of Star-Tech Communications. This further consolidated the position of BigAir as the leading wholesale fixed wireless network operator in Australia.

• BigAir Buys Clever: January 2011. BigAir announced its intention to complete its acquisition of Clever Communications located in Melbourne, Australia. This further established BigAir as the largest fixed wireless Ethernet provider in Australia.

• BigAir Acquires AccessPlus: January 2011. BigAir announced its acquisition of AccessPlus. AccessPlus specialises in providing outsourced managed Internet services to tertiary student accommodation. It’s a company that is over 10 years old, and has 20+ sites under management in long-term contracts. The investment by BigAir was $5 million.

Jason Ashton

Jason Ashton is the CEO and co-founder of BigAir Group Limited. He has more than 15 years experience in the Internet and telecommunications sectors and has built two seperate start-up companies from scratch to $10m+ turnover within 5 years.

The BigAir Network

The Bigair Fixed Wireless ethernet network should not be confused with WiFi. WiFi is a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) protocol designed for short range, in-building portability. WiFi uses a contention based MAC (Media Access Control) which means every client has to “fight” for its bandwidth and share of the spectrum. The Bigair Fixed Wireless ethernet is a WMAN (Wireless Metropolitan Area Network) with strict controls on the contention and serves much greater distances. It's delivered with a standard ethernet socket that can be connected directly to any computer, firewall, router or other ethernet device. Customers simply plug the blue cable into the ethernet socket that in installed at their premises. This is equivalent to plugging the cable into a modem. No other special configuration of the equipment is required. Bigair uses a variety of proprietary wireless data radios selected from the leading carrier-grade equipment vendors. The most effective and reliable solution is selected for each application.

All radio spectrum in Australia is licensed and regulated by the ACMA (Australian Communications Media Authority). Despite claims to the contrary, there is no such thing as unlicensed spectrum. BigAir makes use of both “class licence” and “apparatus licence” spectrum. Class license spectrum is designed for the co-existence of multiple users, so the maximum transmit power levels are restricted. Wireless carriers like Bigair have designed the network for these power conditions. Apparatus Licences apply to equipment operating in specific locations and the spectrum is closely regulated to minimise interference. higher power levels are allowed under apparatus licences, which result in longer range and faster speeds. The amount of spectrum available for Bigair use is roughly 30-50 times that provided by mobile carriers. This enables Bigair to offer far higher data-rates than mobile phone networks.

External links

• Official website
• Customer Support Login