EOL out to net broadband cash

Tauranga-based internet service provider Enternet Online (EOL) is opening its doors to the public.
The firm is also talking to lines companies to gain a slice of the Government's multi-million dollar rural broadband project.
EOL, which was established on June 30, 1995 - the same birthday as its founder Terry Coles - is celebrating 15 years in business.
The privately owned company, which has the fastest wireless broadband in the country, is inviting business customers to visit its office in Harrington House on July 7 and home users the following day to share the birthday celebrations.
They will be shown through the data centre, normally a high security area, and will be able to test the latest VOIP (voice over internet protocol) telephone technology.
The visitors will use the same office phone to make a call, but it will go through the internet rather than the copper phone wire. It's not like Skype, either.
EOL has built an internet exchange in Tauranga, and the VOIP calls will be connected to the main exchange in Auckland. They are as clear and reliable as normal phone calls. And they are cheaper.
"You are talking 'a phone line' of less than $20 a month - half the present rental - and calls overseas of 5c a minute compared with $1-$2 a minute," said Mr Coles. "VOIP is the next big revolution on the internet," he said.
EOL has been trialling VOIP for two years and it will be launching the new telephone service next month. "We are just sorting out the billing system," Mr Coles said.
The Tauranga company is also confident of arranging deals with network companies to provide "the last mile" wireless broadband link. Mr Coles hopes to start linking up households in remote areas of central North Island next year.
The Government project will run fibre optic to rural schools and communities, but it won't run the fibre, for instance, a further 10km up the valley if there's only two households.
EOL can fill the gap. "Our technology is very modular and we can pick it up and build a wireless network in a remote area in six weeks," said Mr Coles. "We are the only ones who can do that and a rural broadband contract would dwarf anything we've done, from a scale point of view.
"We've completed a budget for the rural area from Hawke's Bay and Manawatu to the Bombay Hills," he said.
"Like the government, we want to bring urban broadband prices ($29 a month) to the rural households, especially the ones that are hard to get to. At present, they could be connecting to satellite for $100 a month, and satellite is not that fast."
Over the past 15 years, EOL has increased its broadband speed from an initial 2 Mb/s to more than 100 Mb/s (equivalent to the best fibre optic).
It has nearly 3000 subscribers (80 per cent are businesses) from Waihi to Matata, and its 70 repeaters cover 1500sq km along the Western Bay coast to 15km. EOL will be adding another 70 repeaters within 12 months - the radio units for the MESH Wireless system come from Russia and United States, and the antennae from Israel.
EOL is also hooking up a similar internet service provider in Gisborne, providing broadband services into Opotiki and around the East Coast. "They haven't even got dial-up there," said Mr Coles.
The new network will make a connection for businesses which have offices in Tauranga and Gisborne. Whakatane District Council is also connecting with the Gisborne Council, and hospitals in the Bay and Gisborne may also link up.
Mr Coles believes EOL could quadruple its customers outside the present Western Bay coverage.
"That's why the repeater site on the Manawahe Ranges near Matata is so crucial. We can jump into Rotorua/Opotiki/Kawerau and further south to Reporoa, Murupara and Taupo," he said. "These areas are definitely under-served with broadband."
When Mr Coles and his wife Linda started EOL, there was no dial up and they established an internet connection with the city library 100m away using handmade wireless equipment.
"It's pretty unbelievable how much has changed in 15 years," Mr Coles said.
"Our big break came in 1997 when the kiwifruit industry wanted to connect major packhouses and coolstores to the internet so they no longer had to store information on floppy disks and take them from site to site."
EOL installed three transmission towers on Minden Peak, Mt Kopu and at Katikati.
Since then it has rebuilt its network five times.
Before moving into the technology game, the Coles ran a successful food distribution company, called Harmony Naturals, for 15 years.
They imported container-loads of organic products such as nuts and grains, and supplied 800 supermarkets and health food stores throughout New Zealand - before the big outlets introduced bulk bin aisles.
They had a 2300sq m warehouse and bakery in Courtney Rd, Tauranga, and manufactured vegetable oils in Geraldine.
The Harmony Naturals organic oil was bottled in Tauranga.
The Coles sold in 1991 and the oil is now marketed from Geraldine under the Waihi Bush Organic brand.
"We had enough of the food business; it got too big," said Mr Coles.
"However, in the late 1970s/early 80s everyone was hand writing their invoices and we set up an invoicing system on a Bondwell computer we bought in Hong Kong.
"It was better than hand writing, and there was no computer support. That's how we got started in the new business," he said.