Simon Hackett

Simon Hackett
Simon Hackett in 1996
Nationality	Australian

Simon Walter Hackett is the co-founder (with Robyn Taylor) of Internode Pty Ltd.

He is a 1986 graduate of the University of Adelaide, holding a bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science.

Together with John Romkey, Hackett became the first to connect a commercial domestic appliance (a Sunbeam Deluxe Automatic Radiant Control Toaster) to the internet in 1990.^[1]

Internode Pty Ltd was founded in May 1991. In 1997 Hackett founded Agile Communications, a sister company to Internode, responsible for designing, build and operation of telco infrastructure (fibre and wireless).

The Internode company group was sold to iiNet Limited (ASX:IIN) in a transaction announced in December 2011 and completed on 31 January 2012.^[2]

Hackett departed the executive team at Internode to join the board of iiNet in August 2012.^[3] On 12 November 2013 it was announced that he had been appointed to the board of the National Broadband Network, and that he had resigned his position with iiNet.^[4] He departed the board of the National Broadband Network in April 2016 and was replaced by Michael Malone.^[5]

Other boards Hackett has served upon are: Adelaide Fringe Festival, m.Net Corporation.,^[6] and the Australian Network for Art and Technology.^[7] Hackett co-founded and is a former director of The Internet Society of Australia,^[8] and was the founding president of the South Australian Internet Association (which has since been disbanded).^[6]

He is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society.^[9]

While he was Managing Director of Internode, he was frequently active in the Internode forum on Whirlpool,^[10] and is a vocal commentator on Australian telecommunications competition issues and Government policies.^[11]

Agile Communications

Agile Communications is a licensed national telecommunications carrier based in South Australia and was the first South Australian based company to gain this license.^[12][13]

The company is a sister company to ISP Internode. The company was founded by Managing Director Simon Hackett and is based in Adelaide.

In May 2001, Agile built the Coorong Network, a microwave network interlinking Adelaide, Murray Bridge, Tailem Bend, Binnies Hill, Tintinara and Meningie using Cisco based hardware.

In October 2003, Agile installed its own equipment in the Telstra exchange at Meningie, South Australia to provide ADSL to a town where Telstra was yet to provide broadband ADSL. This made it the first exchange in Australia where ADSL was available, but not through Telstra.^[14]

In late 2003, Agile began a rollout of a national network, an Optic Fibre based IP network running on STM-1 Packet over Sonet(POS) links to connect all Agile POPs across Australia.^[15]

The national network currently extends to Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Canberra and Hobart. In 2005, Agile extended their national network to the US with points of presence in Los Angeles and San Jose.^[16]

From 2007 Agile designed and rolled out a broadband service using licensed fixed WiMax radio technology across the Coorong and Yorke Peninsula regions of South Australia.^[17] The service was retailed to customers by Internode and regional Internode resellers.

The Agile International network has become the core of the international network of iiNet and Internode following the acquisition of the Internode company group by iiNet.

References

External links

• Hackett's website
• Hackett profile at Internode