[clug] Steep penalty for leaving Netspace

[Michael James]

My brother wants to leave Netspace
 as he is moving to a transact enabled house.

Unfortunately he is 5 months into a 12 month contract,
 and Netspace are asking for 1/2 the remaining fees, (~$150)
 PLUS a $100 administration charge.  That's $250 lost.

It's a bit steep as the cost to them was
 a $40 subsidy on the Telstra connection fee
 and the time to set the account up.
He bought the modem, and did the installation.

Anyone know of any avenues to avoid or argue against this?

TIA,
michaelj

PS: Billion brand ADSL modem/router for sale soon...