1993
iiNet commences business from a garage in Padbury, WA.
iiNet commences business
After completing their degrees, Michael Malone and Michael O'Reilly establish iiNet in the garage of Michael Malone's family home.
It becomes the first organisation in Western Australia to offer dial up Internet access to the public. The initial modems are a combination of 2400 and 14400 bps and clients are charged a $25/month flat rate.
Email, file transfers and online chatting are text-based, making the connection speeds quite acceptable.The web is yet to come.
1994
Netscape's release sees Internet use grow beyond the realms of Researchers.
Netscape
Netscape is the first Graphical User Interface (GUI) Internet browser commonly available.
The number of Internet users in Australia starts to explode, as does the number of ISPs. Many of these companies are no longer in the market today, having merged with other ISPs or just decided it was too hard.
As one of only 5 or 6 ISPs in WA, Michael Malone is quoted in The West Australian as saying: "Internet is not just computer-oriented. I know of two doctors who use it to stay in touch with medical news around the world.iiNet implements a 5MB/month limit on traffic downloads, which is later increased to 10MB. In addition, iiNet adds its first "always on" product, the Network Affiliate.
1995
iiNet takes on its first paid employee.
first paid employeee
Justin Lowe is iiNet's first paid employee. He shares Michael Malone's bedroom along with Michael, Deanne Godfrey, a cat and a pool table. Michael O'Reilly works in a storeroom that doubles as iiNet's server room.Mid year, Michael Malone leaves to start iiNet SA in Adelaide, while iiNet WA moves to premises at 105 St Georges Tce in the Perth CBD. This move is driven primarily by a lack of phone lines in the suburbs to service the rapidly growing customer base.
iiNet introduces a $400pa unlimited download, premium dial up account (which has now become the Explorer). This is the year that the "long-established" online dial-up systems (Compuserve, America Online, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access in Australia. On the local front, iiNet joins with other interested parties to form the WA Internet Association.
1996
iiNet expands its services into rural Western Australia.
iiNet expands
The first regional service is opened in Bunbury and iiNet's homepage is rated best in Western Australia by The West Australian newspaper.
The company outgrows its premises and moves into QV1 at 250 St Georges Tce, Perth in December, with Charlie Stephens hired as the company's first sales person.
iiNet SA is now run in partnership with two local lights, and introduces flat rate accounts to the market, which prove very successful.
Michael Malone meets his future wife Beata in Adelaide but they decide to move back to Perth in order to consolidate efforts and concentrate on services in Western Australia. Users in almost 150 countries around the world are now connected to the Internet. The number of computer hosts approaches 10 million. iiNet acquires one of its largest competitors, Online Information Systems, as well as Access Communications .
1997
iiNet expands again and introduces digital modems
iiNet expands again
Within the space of 10 months, iiNet SA becomes the third largest dial up ISP in South Australia and the operation is sold at a profit.
By now, iiNet WA has also introduced its first digital modems. Not only are these smaller, with 60 digital modems fitting into the space occupied by 16 of the superseded analogue modems, but they are also faster; digital modems run at a rate of 56K as opposed to the 33.6K of analogue modems.
This provides a significant competitive advantage to the company, as it is one of the first in Western Australia to adopt such technology.
A sophisticated support phone call queuing system is implemented allowing the support team to keep up with the increasing number of clients.
The first Perth radio live on the Internet is broadcast by iiNet after Triple M Perth start their RealAudio service.
1998
iiNet increases its market position.
Market position
iiNet becomes the largest of the Tier 2 ISPs in Australia, second only to the Tier 1 operators OzEmail and Telstra Big Pond. It is now one of about a dozen ISPs with a client base of 10-20,000. An 8Mbps satellite link direct to the US is deployed, offering a massive improvement in service to many of iiNet's clients. Support is extended to include 6am to midnight, 7 days a week. A new phone system and phone number are introduced to cater for the huge demand for phone support services.
Following the success of the OIS acquisition in December 1996, iiNet acquires fourteen micro ISPs in 1998. Many of these companies were "virtual ISPs", who were actually reselling iiNet's services under their own brand name.
Internet users judge a world championship ice-skating competition, marking it the first time a television sport show's outcome is determined by its viewers.
1999
iiNet acquires Wantree and lists on the ASX.
Lists on ASX
iiNet Limited becomes a public company and lists on the Australian Stock Exchange. The Prospectus closes early due to huge demand for the shares. As part of the listing process, iiNet sets its sights on 50,000 customers by the middle of 2000, a seemingly impossible target with less than 20,000 in July 1999. iiNet merges with Wantree, the second largest ISP in WA, directly following the listing and rapidly acquires Omen Internet, Networx, Nettrek and Infinite Data in Perth as well as regional service providers MNS and Comtech.
The company starts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week support, as well as opening new services in Gingin, Margaret River and Toodyay. It also introduces two convenient invoice paying methods: BPay, and "Pay it at Post" where bills can be paid at any Post Office. An agreement with the developers of the Ellenbrook estates sees iiNet granted exclusive rights to provide cable Internet access to all village households.
iiNet launches its first motion picture advertisement across Perth, the now infamous boy scout and granny ad, which later wins an Art Design award for Best Cinematography. Worldwide, the technologies of the year are: E-Trade, Online Banking, MP3
2000
iiNet introduces broadband services and absorbs the new Goods & Services Tax.
Broadband Services
iiNet launches various broadband services: Cable Internet Access, Cityspan Wireless Internet Access and ADSL Internet Access. The company announces its first-half profit for 1999-2000 at $0.91million and decides to pay the GST for all of its current dial-up, ISDN and cable Internet products, without on-charging it to users.
The Australian Consumers Association again ranks iiNet number one in the country for customer service. This year the size of the Web is estimated by NEC-RI and Inktomi to surpass 1 billion indexable pages.
2001
The iiNet Group launches two specialist subsidiary companies.
Chime and Jiva
iiNet Limited launches its wholly owned telecommunications carrier, Chime Communications, and wholly owned application hosting business, Jiva Online. Chime's focus is to provide wholesale telephony and data services to corporate clients and ISPs, while Jiva provides web designers and ISPs with solutions that enable the automated deployment of applications for their clients.
 
iiNet applies for its first patent for the caching of peer-to-peer transfers, in order to reduce the cost of delivering shared files (particularly audio files) between users.
The Company consolidates its four premises around the Perth metro area into a single location at the Durack Centre, 263 Adelaide Tce Perth.
Telstra Interconnect Settlement
Telstra and Chime Communications announced that they had settled their long running dispute over PSTN Terminating Access for data calls.
2002
iiNet Announces New bliink Broadband Products.
bliink broadband
iiNet Limited offers flat rate Broadband Internet Access with the new bliink product range, throughout W.A. and soon to be released in N.S.W. and Victoria.
Country Customers Get a Fair Go from iiNet
iiNet Limited offers its range of Broadband Internet services to W.A. country customers at the same rates charged in the metropolitan area.
iiNet Achieves ISO9001 and becomes a fully accredited, quality endorsed company. iiNet is committed to providing excellence in Internet service provision in Australia. We will continually strive to exceed our customers' expectations.
2003
iiNet Share Price Soars with Acquired ISPs.
iiNet acquisition machine
This year iiNet expanded by over 200,000 subscribers by acquiring the following ISPs: Country Netlink, Origin Internet, RuralNet, TasAccess, WebOne, Octa4 and ihug.
With the new ihug partnership, iiNet now has a national presence, with offices in major capital cities and New Zealand.
iiNet Share Prices Boom
iiNet share prices reach an all-time high of $3.40 in November.
The Network Operations Centre is created to monitor the state of the network 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week.
The NOC allows focused attention on the health of the network, which means we can be proactive in warning our customers about faults.
2004
iiNet Stays Ahead of the Competition
One Step Ahead
In line with aggressive pricing of entry level products in the marketplace iiNet launches the $24.95 entry level broadband account wiink, when bundled with iiPhone service.
The award-winning dialup Explorer account is slashed to $19.95 with iiPhone bundle.
The Group Continues to Grow
The iiNet Group customer base reaches 350,000 with the acquisition of Eastern States based Froggy Internet and Wave in New Zealand.
New Initiatives
iiNet rolls out a National Dialup Number for all customers to use, regardless of their location in Australia. In NZ we launch our first wireless broadband service, called Connect, which features strongly in the media.
Infrastructure Rollout Begins
After a successful pilot, iiNet begins rolling out its own infrastructure called "DSLAMs." By 2005 iiNet expects over half of its customers to be connected to its network.
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