Internode Systems
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Internode, founded in 1991 by Managing Director Simon Hackett, is one of Australia's major Internet Service Providers. The company focuses primarily on ADSL-based Internet access, but also provides business-class access (Internode Business Connect), web hosting, co-location, Voice over IP, and a variety of related services.
Internode is based in Adelaide, South Australia, and supports many local events, such as the Adelaide Film Festival and the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
The company's services are available nationwide through many means including CityLAN: a project managed by Internode, connecting the city of Adelaide via one large WiFi network.
2001 marked the launch of the Coorong Communications Network, one of the first non-incumbent telecommunications backbones built into a regional area in Australia, offering low cost voice and data services to regional customers. In 2005 a second regional network based on the same technology was deployed in the Yorke Peninsula region, demonstrating that the underlying model is not only sustainable, but reproducable.
July 1, 2002 saw the launch of the Internode Games Network, a private gaming network run by Internode for its ADSL customers. It has since grown into the largest gaming network in Australia (in terms of peak daily player count) ahead of even Telstra's GameArena.
In mid-2003, Internode's infrastructure company, Agile, installed its own equipment in the Telstra exchange at Meningie, South Australia. This made it the first exchange in Australia where ADSL was available from a non-Telstra DSLAM. DSLAM deployment has continued into other regional townships in South Australia.
In early 2005, Agile extended the national private backbone it operates for Internode to become fully international. This means that Agile/Internode is now a full Australian Tier-1 operator.
Internode also runs other content servers such as a cluster of Steamcontent servers. Additional 'unmetered' content available via the national Agile backbone network includes relays of popular streaming audio sources and a 6 Terabyte mirror server.
Internode was the first ISP to offer ADSL2/2+ services in Australia, by installing their own DSLAMs in Telstra exchanges. This allowed them to offer access speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s, significantly higher than the fastest speed offered by Telstra (1500 Kbit/s).
Internode operates a nationally available VoIP based service called NodePhone which leverages the international Agile backbone network and widespread deployment of Cisco VoIP gateways on that backbone to offer low cost, distance independent telephony services. The technical distinction of this telephony service relative to other VoIP based services is that it runs over a national private IP network, not over the "best-effort" Internet. As such, it is positioned as a carrier grade, packet based voice service, and is not succeptible to quality problems created by external Internet path failures or congestion.