$80 deal for Counties customers

By ADAM GIFFORD

Cut-price toll provider WorldxChange is to start its own internet service provider division as it gears up to offer a full voice and data service for $80 a month to customers on Counties Power's Wired Country network.

WorldxChange chief executive Phillip Paine said the move - which would allow consumers in the Counties region to dispense with their Telecom phone line - had been on the cards for some time.

"The capital required is a lot lower than two or three years ago, and the emergence of voice over internet protocol and the convergence in the industry means we have to go down that track," Paine said.

A manager with internet provider experience had been found and WorldxChange should be ready to offer a bundled solution to customers in Pukekohe and surrounding areas towards the end of next month.

It will be priced at less than $80 a month for fast internet, voice and phone, with a wider toll-free area than that offered by Telecom.

WorldxChange will also offer its voice service to customers of other internet providers on the Wired Country network. Under the Wired Country model, rental of the customer access equipment is included in the package price.

The equipment, from Worldwide Packets or Remec, is configured with one ethernet port for data and two analog ports, meaning existing phones can be used.

"We are trying to provide a good rounded competitive solution," Paine said.

"I have a feeling Telecom and TelstraClear will come under the same pressure because the overheads from their legacy systems are pretty big, while new generation companies have overhead structures that are a lot lower."

Wired Country general manager Mike Lancaster said WorldxChange had had trial customers on its network since July.

The Wired Country network had been live for just under four months and had "several hundred" of 16,000 people in its coverage area signed on.

A fourth wireless transmission tower will be switched on in Waiuku within a couple of weeks, bringing the number of potential customers covered by the first stage of the roll-out to more than 20,000.

With participating internet service providers such as ihug and Iconz offering high traffic cap or no cap plans, usage is also high - one customer racks up 10 gigabytes of traffic a day.

"In the UK, that is starting to be seen as reasonable daily use," Lancaster said. "We want people to use it, that is why we are building it.

"Capping use is like giving people a car and the keys, then saying they can use one litre of fuel a day."

Wired Country has upgraded its backhaul fibre link with TelstraClear from two 2Mbps circuits to 100Mbps to cope with growth.