Pentanet ends the day up 80% at 9c. At one point hit 11c. $14M in trades with over 110M shares changing hands out of the total of 374M. This follows an announcement about Geforce NOW which didn't seem to be that significant.

A long way off my purchase on SM of 79c! in 21

PENTANET EXTENDS GEFORCE NOW ALLIANCE AGREEMENT WITH NVIDIA FOR CLOUD GAMING IN AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND. The Agreement now formally recognises New Zealand as a serviceable territory, with a pathway to add neighbouring territories. It also allows Pentanet to continue being the exclusive distributor of GeForce NOW in Australia. Since launch, Pentanet has amassed 530,000+ GeForce NOW Powered by CloudGG members, serviced by infrastructure located in Perth and Sydney. The Company now also has a solid base of paid memberships, effectively covering the fixed monthly recurring costs incurred in the early stages when the service was launched. The cloud gaming market in Australia is projected to experience significant growth in the coming years. Pentanet Managing Director, Mr Stephen Cornish, said, “Now that we have demonstrated success with Nvidia, we are moving to a Capex deployment model more in-line with our requirements, and retain a first right of refusal to continue being the sole distributor for GFN in Australia. With over half a million members now part of the CloudGG ecosystem, Pentanet continues to demonstrate the growing appetite for cloud gaming in our territory.”

The GFNA agreement has no finite term and is ongoing. • Pentanet Limited is able to extend its GFNA exclusivity in Australia in six-month increments for each additional purchase of $1.5m USD in GFN POD infrastructure. 

Should Pentanet not extend exclusivity, it will have first right of refusal to re-engage exclusivity, by placing a non-cancellable purchase order of GFN POD infrastructure within 30 days notice of a third-party competing offer to deploy the GFN service in Australia.

CR at all time lows. Unfortunately they didn’t use the SP bounce following the announcements @Bear77 posted to raise but raised at 8.3c a 19% discount for a 25% dilution. Hard to see how the infrastructure spend is going to pay back in the near future with a 24 month roll out to a potential 20,000 subscribers. The lifetime value of these subscribers has been estimated at approximately ~$7k (no timeframe given) generating an additional $140M, with a market cap of $26M and 5G bandwidth licenses it could be up for a buyout or a burn out. Claiming no further raise needed to reach positive cash flow.

Targeting to roll out 24 towers over the next 24 months. The objective is to expand on-net coverage by 20,000 premises, focusing on increasing capacity in key strategic sites first. Utilising the Company's extensive database of prospective subscribers and targeted marketing in areas of new capacity,

Funds raised by the Company should enable it to reach operating break-even and cash flow positive.

• Proceeds of the placement (~$6.1 million) and share purchase plan offer ($2.5 million) will be applied towards:

o Telecommunications infrastructure ($4.9 million)

o 5G spectrum ($1.6 million)

o Working capital and costs of the offer ($2.1 million)

Held in SM

SP has been hammered of late and the Network as a Service expansion with Cambium may help them keep the lights on although at a 13.3% interest rate, ouch!

PENTANET AND CAMBIUM TO JOIN FORCES IN ACCELERATING THE 5G NETWORK ROLLOUT

The proposal will give Pentanet a flexible way to deploy 5G network infrastructure under a NaaS solution, without the need for upfront CAPEX costs. 5G Fixed hardware will be purchased as a fixed monthly subscription instead of higher upfront capital expenditure, which will assist Pentanet in spreading its CAPEX profile for the 5G network expansion plans over future years.

This will ensure that Pentanet is able to meet customer demand and extract more value from existing infrastructure by increasing coverage and speeds in key strategic areas, expanding its suite of high-margin on-net wireless service capacity.

The 5G service will increase our offering and capacity, heightening our ability to service and add more on-net users at a higher rate.”

KEY TERMS UNDER THE MOU:

Under the NaaS proposal, Cambium will provide Pentanet with a variable financing facility worth up to $5.95m for Pentanet’s 5G rollout plan, including hardware, cnMaestro X, software updates and the option for technical support as a monthly service. •

Pentanet will own the hardware on the conclusion of that specific equipment’s repayments.

The network infrastructure bundle will be funded over a four-year term at an annual interest rate of 13.3%. •

Pentanet will be required to pay a proportionate down payment as they add equipment to the NaaS model. • At any point throughout the term, Pentanet can settle any remaining outstanding amount owed to Cambium ‘in part’ or in total, net of future interest.

Pentanet doubling down on the cloud gaming sector bringing the next level of NVIDIA devices to the market in 2023 and adding NZ to the territory. More debt but could pay off with a bigger potential premium market if the tech works well. Mention of neXus issues in AGM speech but little detail and suggests roll out stalled until solutions rolled out.

As with the implementation of all new technologies, the initial deployment of neXus presented some initial technical challenges in the first phase of commercial launch, . Those issues are now being addressed with solutions being implemented across the already-installed subscriber base during this quarter, so that we can move ahead in 2023 with further deployment to those who registered an interest for the new service.

Pentanet continuing collaboration with NVIDIA

New Zealand to be formally recognized as a Pentanet serviceable territory, with a pathway to additional neighbouring territories Pentanet to bring the GeForce NOW RTX 3080 tiers to Australia in 2023

The Company will continue investing in the next-generation cloud gaming infrastructure by purchasing the RTX 3080 SuperPODs funded by the 5-year term Westpac Banking Corporation loan facilities.

Set to launch in 2023, the RTX 3080 membership gives users access to a dedicated 3080 GPU in the cloud, which provides a significant performance boost over the existing GeForce NOW subscription tier and further access to more of the cloud gaming market, with the GeForce NOW RTX 3080 enabling games to run up to 4K 60FPS or 1440p at 120FPS on PC and Mac, 4K HDR at 60FPS on NVIDIA SHIELD® TV, and up to 120 FPS on select Android devices. 

Cloud gaming now available natively on Samsung and LG TVs and lower priced membership plans released. Next couple of results will show if this will generate significant recurring revenue.

Limited (ASX:5GG, Pentanet or Company) has today launched a new suite of membership plans for GeForce NOW cloud gaming in Australia.

Introducing the New Plan Tiers

The four plan tiers are available now on the CloudGG website, with each tier available on a month-to-month basis or as a six-month plan paid upfront for a discounted price.

• Trial (Free): Users can test out GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet with the Trial plan. Play 30-minute capped sessions to test internet speeds, test out gaming on different devices, and get a real feel for cloud gaming.

• Basic ($3.99/m): Queue priority over Trial players and 1-hour of play time. Ideal for gaming on the go during your daily commute or lunch break.

• Casual ($10.99/m): 3-hour playtime sessions and queue priority over Basic members. Ideal for casual gamers and players who want to spend quality time playing against their mates each week.

• Priority ($21.99/m): Now includes an extended 6 hours of uninterrupted play time (an increase of 2 hours), top-dog status in the queue, and RTX switched on for all applicable titles.

Within 12 months of launch, GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet has amassed a membership base of nearly a quarter of a million gamers, with an average monthly growth of 30%. The initial launch plan tiers were designed to capture this brand-new market of gamers, with the release of refreshed membership tiers expected to drive scale and growth in recurring service revenue and earnings on the platform.

Experience the Power of GFN from 2022 Smart TVs

GeForce NOW is also now available on the two largest TV brands in the world, Samsung and LG. Gamers can find it natively on all 2022 Samsung smart TVs via the Samsung Gaming Hub and new LG TV owners can enjoy seamless cloud gaming thanks to the LG Gaming Shelf. These exciting partnerships mean that AAA games can now be played with just a controller, a decent internet connection, and the right TV, removing the need for expensive PC hardware.

GeForce NOW is a bring your own game (BYOG) service. Users can connect to their existing gaming libraries via Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect and GOG.COM.

A good discussion of Pentanet with @Strawman and the guys on the Baby Giants pod #42. Just thought I would add some points.

The neXus mesh network should have the advantage that customers without line of sight to a tower will still be able to access the 5G network through the mesh. Also the speed/cost so far is favourable compared to high speed competitor plans. The combination of the high speed of neXus and the cloud gaming offering could be a winner. Capital intensive but they have been prioritising the areas where they already have significant registrations of interest and with data from 200K+ GeForce NOW sign ups including an Internet health check can plan for future growth . Customer acquisition cost up to $227 from $174

• 580 ‘Meshy Boi’ distribution nodes have been installed at 30 June. • Theoretical capacity to service 11,600 subscribers across 90km2 of coverage • Fastest speeds achieved throughout the beta trial were 970Mbps download and 857Mbps upload •

Average speed of Beta users was 535Mbps $99/month. Optus $89 225Mbps typical, Telstra 378Mbps $85.

The pentanet upload speed is far higher

Some coverage in the Australian recently (paywall)

Fibre loses its shine to Perth's Pentanet neXus Terragraph ...

https://www.theaustralian.com.au › technology › news-story

6 Aug 2022 — The neXus network uses radios with Meta's Terragraph technology that intelligently routes traffic across a mesh network.

Results announcement and presentation. Very competetive market and a long way to go for FCF but held in SM

Revenue of $16.8 million, up 54% on FY21

Gross profit of $7.4 million up 55% on FY21

Gross margin increased to 44% (FY21 43%)

Underlying EBITDA -$4.4 million (FY21 -$2.4 million)

Reported Net Loss after Tax of $7.9 million (FY21 Reported Net Loss after Tax of $13.7 million, including one off costs of $8.4 million related to the IPO funding and staff equity payments).

Telecommunications subscribers were up 34% to 16,674 with churn remaining low at 0.95%. • On-Net (Fixed Wireless) customers made up 39% of total subscribers at 30 June 2022.

Recurring revenue increased by 59% to $15.2 million, representing 90% of total revenue in FY22 (FY21 87%).

Balance sheet has significant growth funding capacity with $13.4 million in net cash at 30 June 2022, after significant investment in expanded network capacity and cloud gaming in FY22.

Cloud gaming presence in Australia continued to grow rapidly with over 182,000 users as at 30 June 2022. Focus on boosting recurring service revenue in FY23

Article in West Australian drew my attention to another Perth based company also involved in Cloud gaming but mainly seems to be in Asia and working with telcos on more basic family friendly cloud gaming. Reviews of the Blacknut offering do not compare to Geforce now but they are partnered with AMD and could be a better scalable market. Currently private but would seem a good fit for Pentanet.

Radian Arc, a Perth-based edge infrastructure provider is helping telco monetize 5G with cloud gaming, but is turning its sights on enterprise applications.

• Radian Arc’s built for purpose edge infrastructure and partner marketplace could offer a template for a CAPEX free way for telcos to monetize 5G.

Radian Arc, founded only in 2020, is making a name for itself in the emerging cloud gaming industry

Radian Arc is focused exclusively on delivering their infrastructure at the edge of telecom operator networks.

In the cloud gaming space Radian Arc operates a B2B2C model where the company partners with cloud gaming platforms to sell gaming services to end customers through the telcos. To telcos Radian Arc provides GPU edge infrastructure, limited storage, and connectivity into partner gaming clouds on an operating expenses (OPEX) basis with the main thrust being 5G or fiber network monetization. The telcos then can sell cloud gaming as an additional service to their end customers, on a revenue share basis with the gaming provider. Hosting the GPU close to end users provides better performance compared to leveraging a regional public cloud, and Radian Arc has a partnership with chipmaker AMD to use its gaming optimized chips in its platforms. So far Radian Arc has nearly a dozen operator customers across Australia, Southeast Asia, Middle East, and South America. For example, In Malaysia, Celcom leverages Radian Arc’s infrastructure to deliver cloud gaming from Blacknut for its end customers.

https://itcblogs.currentanalysis.com/2022/03/23/radian-arc-the-tiny-edge-infrastructure-provider-driving-5g-monetization/

"As we continue to expand access to cloud gaming around the world, we want to find partners who can elevate our service offerings to telcos and improve the gaming experiences we provide to players," said David Cook, CEO of Radian Arc. "The collaboration will also look into possibilities for future applications leveraging TM's extensive network coverage, allowing us and Blacknut to improve the quality of cloud gaming for customers in Malaysia and the surrounding regions."

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/TELEKOM-MALAYSIA-BERHAD-6491267/news/Telekom-Malaysia-Berhad-TM-WHOLESALE-AND-RADIAN-ARC-COLLABORATE-TO-EXPAND--41051159/

Pentanet signs up infrastucture to continue neXus roll out in WA.

Pentanet has entered into Master Access Agreement with Axicom Pty Ltd in support of the planned network expansion. Axicom has a national footprint of 1858 towers across Australia, with over 110 towers in Perth and 180 towers in Western Australia.

Under the terms of the new Master Access Agreement, the licence terms of all existing site licences have been extended for a period of 10 years from the Master Access Agreement Commencement Date 1 July 2022 with an option to extend by a further five years.

The signing of the agreement will give rise to an additional $4.7m of lease liabilities and rightof-use assets.

Pentanet Managing Director, Mr Stephen Cornish, said, “The signing of this agreement assists in the next phase of growth plans with Axicom, to enable neXus and 5G products to be rolled out across the rest of their network in Western Australia.

Good set of numbers from 5GG. Impressive churn rate of 0.87% Still growing margins in telecoms segment. First revenue from cloud gaming could be around 7500 subscribers. Future growth will depend on the rollout of neXus network later this year and success of the cloud gaming uptake. SP just coming off 52 week lows.

Subscriber numbers up by 55% to 14,798 (pcp 9,538 subscribers)

Revenue for the half-year increased by 67% to $8.0m (pcp $4.8m)

Recurring network revenue increased by 66% to $6.8m (pcp $4.1m)

Gross profit increased by 100% to $3.9m (pcp $1.9m)

Gross margin expansion to 49% (pcp 41 %)

neXus (gigabit wireless network) registrations exceed 7,200+

GeForce NOW (cloud gaming) members reach 92,000+

Net loss after tax for the half-year was $3.3m (31 December 2020: $11.2m including $8.7 IPO related cost). This loss was mainly driven by higher growth-related investments in operating overheads to support growth across each service offering and, in particular brand advertising following the commercial launch in October 2021 of GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet, NVIDIA's premier cloud-based game streaming service.

Company's monthly average churn rate was 0.87%,

The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for fixed wireless subscribers remained steady at $87 per month for the half-year and their gross margins have increased by 8% to 86%. ARPU on nbnTM residential services remained consistent at $72 for the half-year. 

marketing cost remained at 10% for the half-year despite increased marketing resources 

Gaming and gaming technology services 421K - 100%

At launch, two limited-time Founders subscription tiers were released offering a 'Priority' membership at $19.99 per month, or a 12-month subscription paid upfront in advance for $17.99 per month and a 'Basic' membership allowing players to check out a limited version of the service for free with limiting features. (421K / 3 months/ $18 = 7500+ paying subscribers, 13% of 58K registered members? Includes esport prize?)

The Company is in a solid financial position with $20.1m cash reserves

Investor update presentation and Pentanet to leverage new revenue opportunities. Both marked as price sensitive but not really containing much new.

Q4 22 roll out for nexus mesh network and explaining how preregistration has provided data for roll out. Mesh network will allow access for users who currently do not have line of sight to a tower.

Increase in cloud gaming numbers to 92k and a map of locations (mainly Perth and Sydney).

Plenty of cash in the bank so not pumping for CR. Maybe just trying to support a flagging SP?

Positive numbers with potential for revenue growth if paid cloud gaming  and fixed wireless registrations can be converted. Supply chain issues slowing growth and ARPU. Company still investing heavily in growth

Cash reserves of $20.2 million available to dynamically scale the higher- margin on-net service offering.

Net cash used in investing activities increased from $2.2 million in Q1FY22 to $9.3 million in Q2FY22 (and +315% QoQ).The increase is mainly attributable to $4 million investment in Canopus, $3.4 million paid for NVIDIA Cloud gaming infrastructure, and network infrastructure investment in anticipation of the scaled neXus network rollout.

38% YoY increase in revenue to $4 million (+3% QoQ).

$4.3 million in quarterly cash receipts from customers, up 41% YoY (+16% QoQ).

14,798 subscribers on 31 December 2021, up 36% YoY (7% QoQ).

1,349 new subscribers were added to the network in the December 2021 quarter.

On-net (fixed wireless) customers made up 41% of total subscribers.

Commencement of the neXus campaign in December 2021 generated 4,907 total registrations of interest to end December 2021, providing a significant ramp-up roadmap.

GeForce NOW successfully launched on 19 October 2021 with over 58,000 active members as of 31 December  2021 and over 30 million minutes of streamed gameplay.

Increased investment in marketing in December 2021 yielded significant activity on the platform, with membership numbers growing by 50% for the month. The platform’s growing popularity continues to provide Pentanet with an engaged channel for growth of paid Priority subscriptions, with continued marketing focus on increasing upgrade conversions.

Pentanet aims to introduce a new mid-tier market plan to gain more paid subscribers from the broader active user base.

Upgrades, expansion and optimisation of the wireless and core network created temporary capacity constraintson the Company’s foundation fixed wireless network together with supply chain issues, which led to marginally slower subscriber growth and a marginal increase in monthly customer churn from 0.80% in Q1 FY22 to 0.89% in Q2FY22 but supported the business case for the deployment of neXus technology to infill network gaps. Total subscriber growth increased by 7% QoQ (36% YoY) to 14,798.

This marginally slower growth of subscriber numbers in Q2 impacted revenue for the quarter. The $4 million revenue in Q2 grew by 3% QoQ (+38% YoY), compared to Q1FY22. Recurring revenue of $3.6 million was still up by 9% QoQ (+38% YoY), compared to Q1FY22, and made up 88% of total revenue.

Set-up services directly correlate to new subscriber growth, and mirrored the marginally lower subscriber growth which directly impacted non-recurring revenue growth. Additionally, the continuing impact of COVID-19 on the supply chain and global chip shortages reduced equipment availability, resulting in slightly lower non-recurring revenue due to lower equipment sales volume. As a result, blended ARPU decreased from $92 in Q1FY22 to $89 in Q2FY22.

Gross profit of $1.9 million decreased by 2% QoQ but increased +45% YoY driven by continued subscriber growth on a high-margin fixed wireless network.

As a percentage of revenue, advertising and marketing costs remained at 10% in Q2FY22, despite the temporary capacity constraints due to the wireless and core network upgrades, expansion, and optimisation for the launch of the neXus network. The efficient and effective marketing effort for the neXus rollout has delivered strong results with 4,907 total pre- registrations from 6 to 31 December 2021, 2,676 of which have no active service yet on Pentanet’s network. These positive results will kick-start the mass deployment of the neXus service in 2022 in Perth.

Based on the initial positive demand for neXus which will continue to accelerate, the Company has secured the equipment and capital to deploy neXus rapidly at scale across Perth.

Pentanet maintained an on-net fixed wireless subscriber ratio of 41% despite facing short term capacity constraints on the the Company’s fixed wireless network and also maintained an 87% gross margin in Q2FY22.

Cash received from customers continued to rise from $3.7 million in Q1FY22 to $4.3 million in Q2FY22, +16%QoQ (and 41% YoY) despite marginally lower QoQ revenue and subscriber growth. Additionally, $4.3 million cash receipts included $0.2 million one-off cash generated by Pentanet.GG from prize money received in Q2FY22.

Operating cash payments are up by 6% from $4.4 million in Q1FY22 to $4.6 million in Q2FY22, including $2.1 million for product manufacturing and operating costs, $1.6 million in staff costs, $0.3 million in advertising and marketing. The Company continues to invest in driving growth and further position itself to expand the network and increase market share in the gaming and telecommunications segments.

Interesting announcement this morning about a deal with Canopus to provide data analysis of gaming to incentivise and reward gaming subscribers. Pentanet has acquired a 13.4% stake in CANOPUS for $4m in cash. Pentanet will be the largest shareholder in CANOPUS behind IP Group.

SP has been whacked recently compared to the likes of ABB but this has possibilities.

Pentanet has executed an MOU to enter a strategic partnership with CANOPUS including a commitment to invest $1.5M of CANOPUS funds in the development of a consumer facing gaming loyalty and reward program that will fully exploit Canopus’ real-time gaming analytics capability.

The partnership is consistent with Pentanet's strategy to create additional revenue generating opportunities by further developing the Cloud.GG portal into a gamified network loyalty, rewards and incentive program •

The transaction will be funded from Pentanet’s existing cash reserves 

“The FlowPulse technology does for encrypted traffic on a network what Shazam does for music, offering deep visibility to identify and the opportunity to reward user activity.” – Stephen Cornish, Pentanet

Interesting article on Canopus tech from Feb 2019

https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/buffering-please-wait-how-unsw-invention-could-mean-you-never-see-message-again

Network providers could revolutionise how they manage changing loads on their networks, making life a lot better for internet users, thanks to technology being developed by UNSW researchers.

Researchers at UNSW Sydney have attracted a significant investment from London-listed IP Group to help fund a start-up that is set to revolutionise how network operators monitor and classify internet traffic, saving them costs and ultimately improving internet experience for consumers.

5GG AGM update. Nothing much new but the neXus 5G Terragraph tech getting noticed.

We continue to evolve and deploy the next-generation of the Pentanet wireless network, neXus. Combining the power of both 5G mmWave and Terragraph technology, our on-net wireless network will be multi-gigabit capable and significantly increases scale and coverage across Perth.

The deployment of neXus has attracted the attention of industry leaders Cambium Networks and Facebook who invited Pentanet founder & managing director Stephen Cornish to appear as a panellist on their respective conferences on wireless connectivity.

• Cambium Connections Asia-Pacific discussing Pentanet 60GHz Case Study

• Facebook Inside the Lab: Connectivity

APAC Roundtable with Facebook’s VP of Engineering

• Goldman Sachs Fifth Annual Emerging Technology Conference

Review of Google Pixel 6 in the Australian yesterday had the reviewer raving about the 5Gmm wave connectivity. Used 20 Gb of data in 10 mins just seeing what it could do. The iPhone 13 modem is supposed to be even better.

Pentanet have a 15 yr license for 5G mm wave spectrum in Greater Perth. This should be good for their Nexus rollout and revenue.

Scaled deployment of Terragraph equipment across neXus commenced in Q1 FY22 combining the power of both 5G mmWave and Terragraph technology,giving the network multi-gigabit capability and increasing scale and coverage significantly. In the coming quarter, strategic focus and prioritisation will shift to accelerate the deployment of Terragraph equipment, which expands coverage and enables the commercial launch of neXus later this financial year. In addition, registrations of interest for neXus were opened to the public in Q1 FY22.

Quarterly results

 3.7 million in quarterly cash receipts up 61% YoY (+16% QoQ).

• 70% YoY increase in revenue to $3.9m (+18% QoQ).

• 13,823 subscribers as at 30 September 2021, up 65% YoY.

• 1,684 new subscribers were added to the network in the September 2021 quarter, representing an annualised growth rate of 65% and a quarterly growth rate of 11% from the June 2021 quarter. On-net (fixed wireless) customers made up 41% of total subscribers. (slight reduction)

• GeForce NOW successfully progressed to commercial launch:

• Commercial launch triggers an initial 12-month exclusivity period for GeForce NOW in Australia, with a further 12-month extension possible with additional capacity expansion.

 Customer monthly churn decreasing from 0.91% in Q4 FY21 to 0.80% in Q1 FY22.

28% YoY increase in gross margin to 50% (+9% QoQ)and 122% YoY increase in gross profit to $2.0m (+33% QoQ) reflects the increasing scale and cost efficiencies from core upgrades, automation, non-recurring new income generated by Pentanet.GG, and further gradual improvement in ARPU from $91 in Q4 FY21 to $92 in Q1 FY22.

 Telco customer acquisition cost increasing from $189 in Q4 FY21 to $217 in Q1FY22. 

Fixed wireless gross profit improved by 86% YoY and fixed wireless gross margin improved from 86% in Q4 FY21 to 87%in Q1 FY22 (+10% YoY). In addition, further gradual improvement in fixed wireless ARPU from $86 to $88 also supported gross profit and margin improvements.

Total capital expenditure was $2.2m, comprising NVIDIA cloud gaming infrastructure, core network upgrades, new towers and upgrade of existing towers, and Terragraph equipment. Additional Terragraph equipment was bought ahead of the planned accelerated deployment schedule in light of the global chip shortage.

 Company cash balance of $29.7m at the end of the quarter

Cash receipts from customers were $3.7m in the three months to 30 September 2021, compared to $2.3m in the same period in 2020 and a 16% increase on the June 2021 quarter. This was in line with the reported growth in subscribers and revenue.

Cash outflow 2.2 M

5GG releases pricing for cloud gaming and good detail about the business in its annual report.

GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet offers two membership options, ‘Basic’ and ‘Priority’. The limited-time Founders 'Priority’ account will allow players to truly unleash the power of the service, with RTX-ON enabled gaming and extended play sessions for $19.99 per month, or a 12-month subscription paid upfront in advance for $17.99 per month. If there’s a queue to play GeForce NOW, priority members will always be right at the front.

Market interest in GeForce NOW exceeded initial expectations with registrations of interest exceeding 45,000 by May. This allowed us to expand our hardware for an additional 18 RTX game servers (up from the original order of 12 servers).

Subscribers Driving Scale Improvements

Internet subscribers increased by 77% to 12,486 in the year ended 30 June 2021, with a total of 5,446 net new customers joining Pentanet. Importantly, Pentanet’s churn rate was only 0.82%

The Company’s growth is also reflected in the increased market awareness of the Pentanet brand and its positioning around high-performance, speed, gaming, and next-generation technology. Pentanet maintains strong customer satisfaction results with a weighted average of 4.6 stars across Facebook, Google and Product Review for its internet services.

The total number of customers subscribed to Pentanet’s on-net Fixed Wireless network was 5,368, which accounted for 43% of total customers at the end of the period. The Fixed Wireless gross profit margin for on-net customers was 83%, increased from 69% in FY20. The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for Fixed Wireless was $87, which continues to track above the nbnTM Residential ARPU of between $70 to $80, reflecting the greater contribution of on-net plans to total revenue. Off-net customers represent a clear opportunity for margin growth, and increasing this number is a core element of Pentanet’s growth strategy going forward.

Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) trended downwards during the period, with marketing cost as a percentage of revenue decreasing from 24% in FY20 to 10% in FY21. The focused and disciplined execution of Pentanet’s marketing strategy in FY21 delivered a 25% decrease in the year on year CAC, from $231 in FY20 to $174 in FY21.

Investment in Network Growth and Performance

Capital expenditure during the year ended 30 June 2021 focused on the accelerated deployment of the Terragraph network and investment in upgrading the Pentanet Core. The upgrades to Pentanet’s routing, switching and server capacity around the country means the Pentanet Core will be capable of terabits of traffic every second and able to support cloud gaming, 5G internet traffic, automation of subscriber provisioning, and enable a scaled deployment for Terragraph equipment across the Pentanet neXus.

Accelerating the deployment and commercialisation of the Terragraph network remains a key business priority. In Q4 FY21, Pentanet successfully deployed the Terragraph trial mesh network and secured the hardware for mass deployment. Recent firmware deployment and testing have delivered last-mile speeds of 1-2 Gbps across multiple mesh points, reaching more than 3km from the nearest backhaul tower site.

In line with the Group’s stated strategy, Pentanet will focus on executing the Company’s Fixed Wireless and Cloud Gaming accelerated growth strategy. Central to this strategy is deploying Terragraph and GeForce NOW infrastructure to drive industry-leading performance capability and build a unique telecommunications and gaming platform in the Australian market.

30000 users in the Beta Quest phase now able to try the cloud gaming service with commercial launch in October. In the montgomery interview the suggestion was that this will drive demand for the faster fixed wireless network pentanet has here in WA as well as being a revenue stream.

PENTANET LAUNCHES BETA PLAY FOR CLOUD GAMING TODAY
From 12pm AWST today, players across Australia and New Zealand who participated in the ‘Beta Quest’ program have the opportunity to experience cloud gaming on GeForce Now Powered by Pentanet. Demand leading into the Beta Play stage remained strong, with over 30,000 unique users completing over 191,000 Cloud.GG Quests as at 22 September in an effort to secure a seat in Beta Play.
The Beta Play stage will run for about a month and gather further data on performance, system requirements, queue times, and confirm which Australian internet infrastructure and providers will be recommended for GeForce NOW. The national commercial launch remains on track for October 2021, with pricing for GeForce NOW in Australia to be announced in the coming weeks.
Pentanet Managing Director, Mr Stephen Cornish, said "The launch of GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet is a momentous day for Australian gamers, and we are very happy to bring this opportunity to the Australian market. We are excited to get the service into the hands of the public and demonstrate the power of this technology."

Good interview on Chris Judd Invest with Gary Rollo of Montgomery on the potential for the Nvidia cloud gaming and the synergy with Pentanet’s fixed wireless network.