Engin acquires stake in Unwired

The investment should enable Engin, as a significant shareholder, to participate in the growth of wireless broadband in Australia. Engin recently anounced its entry into the ISP business with a deal to provide naked DSL services wholesaled from Optus Communications.

Funding for the acquisition came from debt funding provided by Seven Network, Engin's part-owner. It has been undertaken because the global development of WiMAX has been closely followed, and it considers the technology is well placed at a point of maturity to deliver both fixed, and ultimately mobile, broadband solutions to consumers.

Engin sees broadband access as an enabler of consumer services such as voice and TiVo. As the company develops new capabilities in voice technology, it sees its services operating on multiple devices, across multiple access technologies. Engin is interested in exploring other options with the board of Unwired to unlock what is believed to be substantial synergies and other benefits in leveraging the two companies' assets.

Engin has more than 60,000 customers making calls across its VoIP network. Traditionally, VoIP technology has only been used by large corporations that can afford to invest in this cost saving technology. Since 2004, Engin has been offering this same technology directly to residential and small business customers. It was the first broadband phone service to be broadly available to Australian consumers and businesses, and the first on the shelves of major retailers.