Inabox launches 4G mobile product across Telstra Wholesale

Wholesale telecommunications and cloud services provider Inabox has unveiled its wholesale channel mobile product utilising Telstra's 4G and 3G networks, providing coverage for 98.9 percent of the Australian population.

The product allows Inabox and its subsidiary Anittel to provide their more than 440 indirect and direct retail service provider customers to offer a 4G-capable mobile solution to small and medium-sized enterprises.

"To be able to deliver a mobile solution with 4G capabilities to our wholesale channel and to our direct channel is a vote of confidence by Telstra in our ability to provide services of the highest standard," said Inabox CEO Damian Kay.

"Offering this premium mobile product ensures our customers they will continue to receive market-leading solutions as part of our seamlessly bundled IT and managed communication services."

The product relies on a combination of 2G, 3G, and 4G network services, supported by 7,000 3G sites and 4,100 4G sites, with Telstra due to shut down its 2G network at the end of this year.

Telstra's 4G network reaches 98 percent of the Australian population, with plans to reach 99 percent by mid-2017.

Citing its "strong relationship" with Telstra Wholesale, Inabox said the wholesale mobile offering will ensure that its IT and managed communications portfolio is market leading.

In June, Inabox announced selling its Hosted Collaboration Services (HCS) business to Telstra for AU$4.5 million, including forming an agreement with the Tasmanian government to transfer the business' supply agreement to Telstra.

Selling the HCS business enabled it to focus more on its "core offering to provide managed communications and IT solutions to small and medium businesses and consumer brands", Inabox said.

"The HCS business is government focused, and while we could have extended further into the enterprise market, this would have required substantial investment, resources, and management focus," Kay said at the time.

"Inabox's greatest opportunities and strengths lie in the SMB market, where we have over 1,000 customers and support over 400 channel partners around Australia. Divesting the HCS business allows us to deploy new products that target our core SMB market, and consider new strategic acquisitions."

The HCS assets were acquired by Inabox upon its AU$9.88 million purchase of rival provider Anittel in 2014, along with a long-term exclusive agreement to supply the Tasmanian government with Cisco hosted collaboration services.

The arrangement with the state government will be taken over "progressively" by Telstra throughout the course of the 2017 financial year.

For FY15, Inabox recorded a net loss of AU$351,000, down 132 percent year over year from the AU$1.068 million in profit announced a year earlier off the back of its Anittel purchase.

Operating revenue was AU$64.328 million for the year, up 37.1 percent year on year from the AU$46.910 million reported during FY14, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 22 percent, from AU$2.413 million down to AU$1.877 million in FY15.

Inabox has three core businesses: Enablement, which provides mass market telco services for retailers to sell to consumers; Indirect, which provides wholesale telco services; and Direct, which provides managed IT and cloud solutions. Each business contributed AU$1.978 million, AU$44.98 million, and AU$17.3 million, respectively, in revenue over FY15.

Inabox also purchased Queensland VoIP and cloud services provider Neural Networks Data Services for AU$350,000 in July 2014.