TPG slashes Internode and Westnet brands – transfer mobile and internet to iiNet
Internode and Westnet brand’s parent company, TPG, has announced the brands’ customers will be transferred to another TPG brand iiNet ‘early in 2024’.
TPG claims that the migration won’t disrupt current services. A customer’s plan, the price they pay, will now be delivered under the iiNet brand. Internode and Westnet customers can still change plans, add new services, move house, and update account details.
This has been coming for some time. TPG is streamlining its operations, first by transferring its existing brand’s email to The Messaging Company. Read TPG/iiNet/Internode/Westnet will jettison its email users.
Now, the brands, which incidentally were nothing more than brands to keep loyal customers and used iiNet/TPG’s resources anyway, are gone. According to the TPG H1/2023 report, sales were down to $48m from $167m Year-on-Year. The email debacle was in H2/2023, and one would expect a sea of red ink as customers unhappy with the decision abandoned TPG altogether.
New toolbox user interface
Customers will face using a new iiNet Toolbox. While nothing will be too different, it is a change. From then on, customers will be subject to iiNet policies and pricing.
Sad – the end of an era
Internode co-founder and SA entrepreneur Simon Hackett (who sold the company to iiNet in 2011) tweeted, “The end of an era”.
Well over a decade since I had a link with the company I started, but still a sad day for me. Vale Internode. Forever proud of all the team. Thank you to everyone who kept doing the good things for so very long.
What should Internode and Westnet brands customers do?
At present, accept the transfer and see how it affects you. iiNet gets a 2.2-star rating, with more than 70% having negative experiences, especially after the TPG takeover in 2015, but it lifted its game in 2021. Product review shows similar issues. Yet competitor Aussie Broadband has a 4.5-star rating.
For existing users, it is more about brand loyalty. Westnet had a strong WA regional focus, and Internode was an enormously successful SA startup by the likeable Simon Hackett.
