Internet television opens up for Woosh Wireless

Bob Smith, right, with Quicksilver's Matthew Hobbs earlier this week, is happy to have taken 'the big boys head on'. Picture / Richard Robinson

Woosh Wireless has secured rights for broadcasting spectrum from Sky TV that will enable it to provide internet television.

The deal continues Woosh's acquisitions in the past two years of Wimax spectrum, which enables it to deliver a range of wireless services. Wimax is a broadband wireless standard, capable of delivering high speeds.

Woosh - whose chief executive Bob Smith resigned yesterday - said it had secured rights for more than 2.3 gigahertz of spectrum owned by Sky, which would enable the provision of internet television on its wireless network throughout the country.

Woosh chairman Rod Inglis said the deal with the pay TV operator was the next step in its business strategy.

"It means Sky will be able to provide TV and video services on the Wimax network, which Woosh will ultimately provide."

Sky TV chief executive John Fellet said he believed there was an exciting future in delivering content over Wimax.

In Australia, the satellite TV operator Austar has announced a widespread Wimax service to complement its pay TV services.

Smith will leave Woosh at the end of next month to pursue other opportunities in the internet business and spend more time power boating.

He recently struck a deal for Quicksilver's DSL service which expands Woosh's network to outside its present wireless coverage areas.

Inglis said Smith would be "greatly missed".

Smith was founding chief executive of Xtra, Telecom's internet business, before taking up the reins at Walker Wireless five years ago. He developed the business from its start-up phase into the mass-market telecommunications provider Woosh Wireless.

A new chief executive will be named in the next few weeks.

Smith said he would be exploring a few online concepts that he did not have time to pursue in his present role.

He said he was proud of "taking on the big boys head on" and developing the company from a concept to where it was now - a bundled wireless broadband and phone network.

"We firmly established ourselves as a challenger business, and we have taken on this challenge which has been exciting and a lot of hard work, taking it from a concept to a very established player."

Woosh has faced many challenges - it has chalked up losses of $7 million, plans to list on the NZX were cancelled last year, and the Ministry of Economic Development has a proposal to redistribute the 2.3GHz spectrum Woosh has been accumulating.

This week, Woosh said it had international funding from major technology businesses to build a high-speed Wimax wireless broadband network. But those plans were in limbo while the ministry considered the future of the radio spectrum needed for its Wimax service.