A Telstra spokesperson told ZDNet Australia via e-mail today "given that many staff and customers who might be invited to participate in the pilot would be on holiday or otherwise preoccupied over the Christmas-New Year period, we decided to postpone until January.
"BigPond are conducting the final technical reviews this week with the expectation of commencement mid-January -- after the main holiday period.
"It is not anticipated that [the] revised starting date for the limited pilot will impact on the new billing and activation platform's introduction to the wider BigPond membership".
The billing platform is a key part of Telstra's AU$100 million plan to upgrade Australia's largest Internet service provider to accommodate surging demand for broadband services in particular. The carrier in 2003 experienced a raft of e-mail difficulties it blamed on a surge in virus-related traffic, prompting senior executives to kick off the overhaul.
The delay came as the telecommunications heavyweight announced the long-awaited introduction of BPay for its broadband customers, citing "strong customer demand".
BigPond managing director Justin Milne said the provider had been "working hard to develop and integrate the technical systems needed.
He said a report carried out by directories unit Sensis in July last year "found that 69 percent of small businesses with Internet use online payments for products and services".
The Internet provider recently launched BigPond Assist, the new look BigPond.com homepage that features the Sensis search engine sensis.com.au and a new dedicated Mac technical support team.
