OzEmail's Journey Through a Decade of Growth

OzEmail was founded in 1994 by David Yu, and it quickly established itself as a leading internet service provider in Australia.

In its early days, OzEmail focused on providing dial-up internet access to its customers, with a strong emphasis on customer service and support.

By 1997, OzEmail had already gained a significant market share, with over 100,000 subscribers.

OzEmail continued to expand its services, introducing email and web hosting solutions to its customers in the late 1990s.

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OzEmail was founded by Sean Howard in the early 1980s, who later sold his share of Computer Publications to Australian Consolidated Press and founded the pioneering email service Oz-E-mail in 1992.

This initial network consisted of 16 POPs around Australia, and Oz-E-mail was creating a system to integrate Lotus SoftwareCc:Mail, MicrosoftMail and Novell MHS Mail systems.

Sean Howard was the editor of the Australian Personal Computer magazine and subsequently founded Microtex 666, the largest service provider on Telecom Australia's Viatel service.

OzEmail became the first Australian tech stock ever to list on the NASDAQ in 1996, with the trading symbol OZEMY, raising over A$50 million in investment capital.

OzEmail listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) with the symbol OZM two years later, in 1998.

The company was involved in a lawsuit with the creators of Trumpet Winsock, regarding intellectual property and trade practices matters, which they lost in 1996.

OzEmail grew rapidly through acquisitions and aggressive growth, competing with some 850 ISPs, from 1997 to 1998.

WorldCom launched a takeover bid for OzEmail in 1998, and it became the 100% owner of OzEmail on 24 February 1999.

Malcolm Turnbull, who later became the Australian Prime Minister, was the chairman of OzEmail at the time and sold his stake for $57 million in 1999 to WorldCom.

Perth-based ISP iiNet purchased the assets of OzEmail in 2005 and started trading under the new name iiNet (OzEmail) Pty Ltd.

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OzEmail has been around for a decade, and it's been a wild ride. The problem with their services isn't the long haul, but rather the first mile.

Their strategy for the next three to five years is to provide a range of services, including dial-up, DSL, and wireless broadband. They're planning to launch engineering trials of a wireless broadband service in October.

Trying to be everything to everyone would be a disaster, according to Budde. OzEmail's focus will remain on residential customers.

The company currently services 600,000 subscribers, with 20% of them being small to medium enterprises.

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