The man -- who declined to be identified -- told ZDNet Australia via an e-mail interview today the purpose of the proposed action was to secure improved performance, with "it being too early to tell at this stage" with regard to financial remediation.
He declined to give out the exact number of people who were interested in joining the action, but said "the reasons for joining were varied, ranging from small and medium-sized businesses whose customers cannot contact them via e-mail or their Web site; to individuals who are presently seeking work but can't receive job listings or responses from potential employers; even a charity has been affected.
The move came as the federal Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Daryl Williams, acknowledged that the BigPond problem was "serious" and that he was monitoring the issue.
A spokesperson for the Minister said Williams had noted Telstra's decision to offer a rebate of two weeks' BigPond Internet service to its 1.5 million-strong customer base, as well as the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman's move to "take an active interest in the area".
The man organising the proposed class action said "this potential action is also about protecting those people who have no other options for broadband Internet connectivity than Telstra.
"Some subscribers are able to churn over to another service provider, but many, in particular those in regional and rural areas, have no choice but to use Telstra broadband services.
"As such, they are reliant on Telstra providing reliable, basic services such as e-mail and Web hosting".
The man said he had met with his solicitors on Friday last week and planned to do so again this week.
"Remember we are only in the early stages of any potential action and with all the e-mail problems we need to provide time for people [to] consider their options and contact us".
He claimed the two weeks' free Internet access promised by BigPond on Friday as compensation for the e-mail difficulties was "too little, too late and the problems are still occurring". He noted that the TIO had based its' initial positive response to the Telstra move on the difficulties being resolved quickly.
I run linux systems that are immune to Svens affects on my system. since the supposed "virus attack' I have been receiving up to 1300 emails a day from the same senders. bigponds webmail has no block sender routine unlike anyone else... hotmail yahoo etcand they are free..The new money grabbing anti spam software does not filter properly and for spam attacks it still clogs up the 20 MB's of allocated webmail space in 1 day! Also their tech help is worse than attrocious.. the contract company they farm out to are complete idiots who dont know their product. I have been connected to ADSL business for 2 years now since its inception. I am about to jump ship and switch all my communications over to an more honest telco. Who doesnt make people smirk when ever I mention their name!