Just a year after launching Buddy Telco, Aussie Broadband is selling its budget NBN brand to Tangerine for an estimated $8 million.
Tangerine will acquire both the Buddy brand and its 14,000 or so customers. The transaction is due to be completed in the first half of 2026. An Aussie Broadband spokesperson told WhistleOut that “Buddy will continue to operate as per normal until the transition”, so there’s no action required from existing customers.
Aussie Broadband didn’t specifically comment on why it was selling off Buddy in its ASX release, but in its half-year results in February, the telco noted that Buddy wasn’t performing in line with expectations. At the time, Aussie Broadband CEO Brian Maher pointed to strong competition in the budget space as impacting sales volume.
While Aussie Broadband may be selling off Buddy, it also announced a wholesale partnership with Tangerine and its sister brand More. This means all Buddy customers will stay on the Aussie Broadband wholesale network following the transfer of ownership. In addition, all Tangerine and More customers will be migrated to the Aussie Broadband wholesale network in the first half of 2026. This agreement has a six-year term.
Tangerine and More will continue to operate their own customer service functions, rather than outsourcing these to Aussie Broadband.
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