Virgin Mobile Australia has pulled its Broadband at Home product from retail shelves in a desperate attempt to improve network speeds for its dissatisfied customers.
The company will continue selling the service, a bundled modem and VoIP-style phone which uses Optus's wireless network, but only via direct sales channels such as its own stores and its website, according to a company statement.
Virgin has also introduced four extra layers to its service checking process, and removed the 750Kbps speed cap on a pro-rata basis.
The Optus wireless network has come under fire from consumers lately, who have been complaining about poor network speeds due to congestion.
In October, Optus announced its own efforts to reduce congestion - on November 24, it will slash the value of its pre-paid mobile broadband recharge cards. The value of an A$30 ($20.19) re-charge, for example, has been halved to just 1GB of data.
Virgin Mobile Australia was co-founded by Virgin Mobile UK and Optus, and became a fully-owned Optus subsidiary in 2006. Optus is itself a subsidiary of SingTel.