Ann: Aussie launches digital first challenger brand, page-18

Buddy will undoubtably take some customers from Aussie's premium service, but that will be more than compensated for by the extra customer Buddy will attract. It will also catch some of those customer leaving Aussie for a cheaper alternative. This is Aussie's answer to it's unsuccessful takeover bid for Superloop.

Buddy will have less overheads than Aussie's premium service. Buddy doesn't seem to have readily available phone support, and doesn't offer fixed wireless connections. Both of those will save on support costs which are I believe the main overhead for an ISP, which would explain why crappy support is so common in the telco sector.

All in all, I like that Aussie have done this rather than lowering the price (and service quality) of their main brand. I moved off Aussie to Superloop quite a few months back as a way to get a fibre upgrade without paying much more than my 100/20mbps service; Superloop had a promotion on 250/25mbps so it suited me. I'm now considering Buddy as a way to keep my 250mbps/25mbps connection at a similar price to Superloop while being on the Aussie Broadband network.

I will continue to recommend Aussie Broadband to my non-tech savvy friends and family though, except where there very tight on budget, which is where I'd normally recommend Superloop or some other ISP with worse support.