BigAir to acquire AccessPlus for $5m

Wireless broadband provider BigAir is set to acquire student accommodation internet service provider AccessPlus, in a $5 million deal announced on the Australian Stock Exchange this morning.

(International Wi-Fi Icon image by
Dana Spiegel, CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Sunshine Coast-based business was founded in 1999 and provides managed internet services to student accommodation, hotels, motels, resorts and conference centres. BigAir said the acquisition, in combination with the company's previous purchase of Star-Tech Communications' student accommodation site agreements and network assets, placed it at the fore of the student accommodation service provider sector.

"The tertiary student accommodation market is an excellent fit for BigAir's cost-effective, scalable, high-capacity data services that can be delivered using its high-speed national fixed wireless network," the company said in the ASX statement. "In time, BigAir's high-speed fixed wireless backhaul network will be installed into each AccessPlus student accommodation site, interconnecting with high-speed local access wired and wireless networks installed and owned by AccessPlus."

AccessPlus founder and managing director Neil Thompson will stay on in the role and will join BigAir's senior management team, according to the release.

BigAir said the company had $4 million in cash reserves and was in the final stages of securing a $2 million credit facility to provide additional funding, if required, for the company's takeover bid for Clever Communications, announced in November last year.