E-Business
Issue No. 21 - February/March 2005
Adam Internet
First in
In the Internet Age, 20 years is a very long time. Twenty years ago, the Domain Name System (DNS) that underpins today's public Internet was introduced. Usage was confined mainly to universities, and it could take an hour to send a simple text-based file.
For Adam Internet those two decades represent a lifetime as South Australia's - and possibly the nation's - oldest Internet service provider.
Founded by current chairman Greg Hicks as a bulletin board service in the early 1980s, the company has surfed the very edge of the Internet wave.
The Adam (Ad for Adelaide and Am for the Amiga computers that were Greg's hobby at the time) Bulletin Board became the largest in Australia, with 200 phone lines going into the Hicks’ Flagstaff Hill home.
In 1986, needing to free up lines from the Coromandel Valley exchange, Telstra made Greg an offer he couldn't refuse — to replace the copper lines with fibre, free of charge.
This took Adam Internet to the next level, allowing Greg — who by this time had been joined in the business by son Scott — to offer his customers 56k digital services instead of analogue modems.
What had started out as a hobby business for Greg became his passion, and his passion both for the Internet and for South Australia enabled him to build one of the State's most successful technology businesses.
Today the company operates two premises — the corporate office and helpdesk on Gilbert Street and the Adam Internet Data Centre on King William Street — with another on the way.
The Data Centre is the technical heart of the business, hosting 20 other ISPs, as well as offering co-location services and point to point wireless from its high-rise rooftop.
Scott took the reins as managing director of the business in 2004. Like Greg, he is always looking to the future, and it's looking bright.
Adam Internet is installing what will be Australia's largest conti...
