Late Monday afternoon Austar (AUN) made the surprise announcement that it has decided to sell its entire WiMAX regional wireless broadband spectrum to the Optus-led OPEL consortium for $65 million to focus its attention on regional pay-TV operations.
The regional pay-TV operator said that access to its spectrum holdings will allow the OPEL venture, consisting of Optus and Elders, to give regional Australia a "brighter broadband future" by building a WiMAX network which can keep pace with the developments in international standards.
"The OPEL network will ensure that regional Australians have access to a broad range of the world's best broadband access technologies," Austar said in a statement.
The company also said it is planning to expand its relationship with Optus Wholesale to market broadband, voice and mobile services to its existing and potential customers.
The decision to sell is quite a turn around since just 3 months ago when Austar CEO John Porter said the sale of the spectrum was unlikely.
"We don't need the cash. Our instincts would be to try to partner with other companies to build and operate the spectrum," Mr Porter said.
Nevertheless, sell Austar did, with Mr Porter commenting on the change of heart yesterday: "We are extremely pleased with this outcome as we will be in a position to deliver on the promise of a triple play and offer a much broader range of services to our customers in a way that also makes sense for our shareholders."
"With access to wholesale products from Optus and OPEL once it starts operations, we believe we are even better placed than we would be if we were to build a network ourselves."
Austar said it expects to commence wholesaling Optus' new access products in late 2008.
At 11:00AM AEST Austar had gained 1.90% or 3 cents to $1.61.
