re: getting some media coverage agree cwb, DFT appears to be...

re: getting some media coverage agree cwb, DFT appears to be spec value with potential. The only neg I can see atm is the amount of shares on issue & heavy sell depth. It's certainly being talked about with tasmania trials starting...doing a yahoo search gives quite abit of positive talk/info.

I bought in last week and will hold for time being, looking for further rise.


http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;461558132;fp;2;fpid;1
Datafast notches up record profit, looks to VoIP and BPL
Dahna McConnachie, Computerworld
15/09/2005 11:19:11

Datafast Telecommunications has announced a "record profit" this year, more than doubling last years' earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).
The national ISP has recorded $4.1 million EBITDA and an after-tax net profit of $307,000 sales revenue of $27 million, a 45 percent increase on last year's figures.
CEO Simon Ehrenfeld said Datafast's continuing acquisition strategy fuelled the result.
John Lane, Datafast's general manager, said that although most growth comes from retail, the wholesale business is an important aspect in the ISP's acquisition strategy, which is "all about consolidation".
"We look at being in the wholesale sector as a way of keeping contact with a number of ISPs. We service about a third of Australia's ISPs, so when they want to exit, we're in the box seat," he said.
"We weren't a wholesale supplier of (Perth-based) Arachnet (recently acquired by Amcom) so we missed out on that one, and Chariot was a wholesale supplier for Alphalink, so that tends to be how it happens."
Datafast and Chariot terminated their merger implementation agreement last week.
Chariot also released its financial figures this week stating a $581,000 loss after providing $1.95 million in goodwill write-offs. Its sales revenue increased by 14.5 percent to $21.4 million.
In addition to positioning itself to take advantage of consolidation within the service provider market, Lane predicts VoIP will be a large growth area for Datafast.
To test this market, Datafast has announced a large-scale commercial trial of broadband over powerline (BPL) in Tasmania. The trial is in conjunction with Mitsubishi Electric and Aurora Energy and will offer broadband data and VoIP services via existing power points in Hobart homes. Some homes will also be trialing video-via-power-point. If the trial is successful in Hobart it will be rolled out to other parts of the state.
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http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1126639878.htm
BPL: The New Tasmanian Devil
September 15, 2005
Tasmania’s Aurora Energy and Mitsubishi this week launched what is being touted as the world’s first full commercial test of 200 Mb/s broadband over powerline (BPL) technology developed by Mitsubishi. The trial was described as an initial commercial test, involving some 500 customers, rather than a technology trial.
Assuming the trial is successful, plans are to roll out BPL availability to all 250,000 customers served by Aurora – a deployment that could make it the largest such announced BPL deployment in the world to date.
The initial test is scheduled to run for nine months, with BPL offered to residents in the Hobart area; some trialers eventually will be offered a full triple play of broadband, voice and video. The full rollout plans following the initial test period were not detailed.
Those in the test are being offered speeds of 256 Kb/s, 1 Mb/s and 4 Mb/s, at $11.48, $23 and $61.38, respectively. A synchronous 1 Mb/s package for Web-hosting is priced at $30.66. Eventually, the plan is to offer significantly higher speeds, well in excess of the 24 Mb/s ADSL2+ that Australia’s Telstra and others are expected to offer. Aurora Energy also said it is open to cutting individual deals for users who need faster speeds now.
Indeed, Australian telecom analysts this week already were calling the BPL deployment “a major threat” to Telstra, reasoning it is the first infrastructure-based competition Telstra has had to face for both broadband and voice services. Telstra charges $99.77 for 1.5 Mb/s broadband.
During the test, BPL services actually will be sold by TasTel, a telecom partnership set up by Aurora; CLEC AAPT (owned by Telecom New Zealand); and renewable-energy business Hydro Tasmania. Australian ISP Datafast Telecommunications Ltd is providing back-end ISP management systems for the Aurora-Mitsubishi project, while Australian VoIP house engin – which claims to be “Australia’s leading broadband phone company” - is handling VoIP call-termination services. Video on demand is scheduled to be added to the test from a yet-to-be-named provider.
As with BPL in the United States, Aurora and Mitsubishi are being required to “notch” their service, under trial guidelines issued by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, to help ensure it does not radiate radio frequencies that interfere with other services; in the United States, the FCC earlier this year issued similar formal guidelines. Also mirroring the U.S. experience with the infant technology, Australian amateur radio operators have starting warning of potential interference with the frequencies they use – a complaint largely rejected by the FCC when it wrote its rules.