business
Forge Digital on Hunter Street Scales Up as Newcastle Firms Seek Outage-Proof Networks
A Hunter Street startup has expanded its client base by 40 percent since last year by delivering custom connectivity solutions to local businesses.
How we reported this
Forge Digital opened a second office above the Hunter Street Mall in May and now supports 152 Newcastle businesses with dedicated fibre links that bypass national carrier infrastructure.
The timing aligns with the 10 July Telstra outage that left thousands of regional customers without service for up to nine hours, prompting many small operators to review single-provider reliance.
Owner Michael Torres set up the firm in a Darby Street terrace in Cooks Hill three years ago after noticing repeated dropouts at the old Newcastle East markets site. The company now maintains a node in the Junction industrial estate and another near the port rail yards to keep traffic moving even when core networks fail.
Local contracts drive revenue
Recent work includes a three-year deal with the Newcastle Business Chamber to connect 68 member sites along Beaumont Street and a separate project wiring the new coworking floor at the former Civic Theatre annex. Average monthly fees sit at $285 per line, roughly 12 percent below Telstra business plans for comparable speeds.
Turnover reached $1.8 million in the financial year ending June 2026, up from $1.29 million the prior period, according to filings lodged with ASIC last month.
Next steps for city operators
Businesses can book a 30-minute site audit through the Forge Digital portal before the end of August to lock in 2026 pricing. Those audits have already identified 19 premises in the CBD still running on legacy copper that could be migrated within six weeks.
City traders weighing a switch can compare latency logs from the past quarter against their current provider records to quantify risk before signing.