news National broadband company Internode revealed a new service last week that allows customers rent its Fritz!Box broadband routers and accessories. The announcement also unveiled lower pricing across the series of Fritz!Box equipment.

Starting January 11, Internode customers can skip upfront costs for the Fritz!Box 7270 and 7390 routers and Fritz!Fon DECT handsets by paying a monthly rental fee on a 24-month contract. Customers can rent the 7270 for $9.95 a month, the 7390 for $14.95 a month and the DECT handset for $4.95 a month.

Philip Dempster, Internode product manager, explained that Internode had launched the Fritz!Box rental program to meet customer demand. “Many customers prefer the affordability and convenience of renting their broadband hardware. This has proved popular with the Set Top Box for Internode’s FetchTV IPTV service, so we’ve introduced it as an option for customers who prefer to rent FRITZ!Box routers and hardware,” Dempster said.

Internode has cut $50 from the price of the two Fritz!Box routers and $20 from the Fritz!Fon handset for its customers who wish to buy the equipment outright. The price of Internode’s Fritz!WLAN WiFi USB Stick has also been cut by $10 to just $79. The new Fritz!Box pricing means that the 7390 now costs $349, the 7270 costs $249 and the DECT handset costs $109. Additionally, Internode has lowered its Fritz!Box bundle pricing by $50.

The Fritz!Box (read a review of the 7270 here) offers a long list of features. It connects to standard ADSL2+ networks and has inbuilt NAT, DHCP and DN servers, a DDNS client and quality of service alongside packet inspection and port forwarding. The Fritz!Box also supports the TR-069 standard that internet service providers such as iiNet require for access to their FetchTV IPTV platform that Internode launched recently.

The device also supports 802.11n Wi-Fi that delivers up to 300Mbps theoretical speeds and comes pre-configured with wireless encryption (WPA and WPA2 on offer) with a unique password active upon delivery. The separate Fritz!Box USB stick can be used to automatically connect PCs to the router. The device can also act as a base station for up to six cordless telephones through the DECT standard, and support ISDN telephones and ISDN PBX boxes.

The device includes an answering machine service for up to five users, and users can set up fax numbers, number blocking, quick-dial numbers, calls between three parties, linkages with PBX, number blocking and much more. Users can place voice calls over IP and then fall back to legacy fixed line if their VoIP drops out and the SIP standard is supported. Users can have up to 20 VoIP/SIP accounts through the Fritz!Box and up to three phone calls simultaneously. The device incorporates fax to email and a TAPI interface for integrating telephony and software (such as Microsoft’s Outlook/Exchange platform). The only feature not supported by the Fritz!Box 7270 is gigabit Ethernet, as it is restricted to 10/100 connections. The higher model of the device, Fritz!Box 7390 supports gigabit Ethernet.

Image credits: Delimiter

Related posts:

1. Internode slashes FetchTV prices
2. FRITZ!Box 7270: Review
3. Internode launches FetchTV IPTV
4. Undercutting Internode: Exetel reveals NBN prices
5. Internode launches FetchTV for the NBN

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1. Pumpino
   Posted 17/01/2012 at 3:32 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Do Node’s Fritz!boxes comes in exclusive gold “premium” wrapping paper or something? Or is it just like their marketing approach for broadband – charge more and say it’s “premium”, so that people assume it’s better?

   The 7270 can be had for $199 from PCCG (vs $249 from Node after the price decrease).
   The 7390 can be had for $275 from JMG (vs $349 from Node after the price decrease).

   I know where I’ll be buying mine from if I ever need one. :P

   • nonny-moose
     Posted 17/01/2012 at 5:35 pm | Permalink | Reply

     do PCCG set it up for your internet connection so it is a plug and go affair out of the box? for some people theyd rather spend their time doing something else so 50 to fob all that off for someone else to do seems reasonable – which is what Internode offer. the 50 buck difference isnt JUST for what comes in the box, is what im saying.

     internode are still getting a buck somewhere but it certainly isnt something to get to the level of great outrage over… if you feel the setup isnt worth 50 bucks and you are happy to spend your own time to get it sorted and running as you say, you know where you are getting one. not everyone may be comfortable doing that though.

     • Dave
       Posted 17/01/2012 at 6:43 pm | Permalink | Reply

       https://secure.internode.on.net/webtools/store?add=106

       You want to check that. Says on their site it “doesn’t” come pre-configured.

       • nonny-moose
         Posted 19/01/2012 at 1:16 pm | Permalink | Reply

         my mistake on that… it was the kind of thing i would expect from internode though. the point is its not just the modem itself but ‘is there something internode does’ that PCCG dont when you open that box. what you get when you buy from PCCG is just the box and warranty support – i dont think PCCG do setup? with Internode you get the box and the support for setup using all the usual phone or email support lines to internode.

         to get that for an extra 50 bucks might be worth it to some and not to others. the value there isnt really fairly compared on a dollar basis but what is best for the customer.

         that said modem setup doesnt faze me and id likely pick it up from PCCG too.

   • Dave
     Posted 17/01/2012 at 6:47 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Internode have always been expensive on everything they sell, hardware included. Nature of the beast!

2. fourbypete
   Posted 17/01/2012 at 5:13 pm | Permalink | Reply

   @Pumpino Sounds like a good idea in principle, but your preaching to the converted. Your post should go on A Current Affair or some show like that where people who are likely to sign up to Node might see it. Most people that sign up to isp’s for the first time don’t know what they are getting them selves into. I’m just about to set up a adsl connection for my sister, but getting a good net deal and phone bundle seem to be almost impossible these days! ( And we already have the equipment)

   • Brendan
     Posted 17/01/2012 at 8:45 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Based on the typical clients Internode have, I doubt many of them watch many fiction “news” shows :P

     The reason why they are more expensive is that they provide a greater level of support for it, you buy it from Internode and they support it the entire time where as if you have an issue with a self supplied modem you have to go back and forth.

     Not to mention Internode don’t have the bulk discounts that places like PCG have.

     I’m not saying that they couldn’t be cheaper, just that there is usually a reason for it.

3. Jason
   Posted 17/01/2012 at 8:36 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Internode blows chunks.

4. MichaelD
   Posted 18/01/2012 at 12:18 pm | Permalink | Reply

   What good is FetchTV over a very slow link. It’s not Internode’s problem that we are 4.5km’s from the exchange but our broadband speed is very slow and no fancy equipment in my home is going to fix that. If we had fibre to the node we would have a 2,000% increase in our broadband speed, but it looks like we’ll have to wait 10 years for an over-priced NBN to arrive.

5. Sure
   Posted 20/01/2012 at 11:20 pm | Permalink | Reply

   How much was Delimiter paid for this advertisement and why isn’t it marked as such?

   • NightKhaos
     Posted 20/01/2012 at 11:26 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Can’t take a hint can you? Well, since obviously Renai deleting all your posts isn’t working, let me ask you a few questions:

     Is this article an advertisement for Telstra?

     Is this article an advertisement for vividwireless?

     No, they aren’t, they are just rehashing what was in the press release. Same as this article. If Renai was advertising he has the balls to say so. So why don’t you go waste your time somewhere else?

     • Sure
       Posted 20/01/2012 at 11:30 pm | Permalink | Reply

       Awww, diddums.

       Rather than silently deleting posts (as happens all too often on Delimiter) perhaps you should be a little bit, just a little bit, transparent about your moderation.

       Renai seems to be somewhat overly sensitive. On that we can all agree, can’t we?

       • NightKhaos
         Posted 20/01/2012 at 11:37 pm | Permalink | Reply

         I’m sorry, who’s website is this? That’s right, it’s Renai’s. He can do with it whatever he wants with it.

         And for the record, I have been following Delimiter for over a year now, and you are the first person I have seen Renai moderating “silently”. Every other moderation has involved some kind of notice.

         Further, if this was an advertisement, would Renai tolerate people indicating locations of where to get the device cheaper as that would obviously undermine the whole point of the article?

       • Renai LeMay
         Posted 21/01/2012 at 12:10 am | Permalink | Reply

         I will agree this article isn’t the most critical, but it’s a fairly basic story from a press release — Internode launching a new type of service. We often do these kinds of articles.

         As far as I’m aware, it is the law in Australia that advertisements must be labelled as such and differentiated from normal editorial. We adhere strictly to this rule on Delimiter. Certainly any article which appears in our normal article stream and has been sponsored will have a huge ‘sponsored post’ label on it.

         As for deleting comments … I usually only delete comments if they are out and out spam or breach our comments policy (that is, they have to be polite). I’ve banned a few posters recently, but that was because their constant circular and inane discussion was pissing off many readers and had led to poor conversations. They knew it was coming.

         I deleted a few of your comments on this post, Mr Anonymous, because you’re being offensive, incorrect, and certainly not polite ;)