Woosh too slow for network deal

By PAUL BRISLEN

Woosh Wireless has been dumped from its estimated $45 million rollout of network services in Northland, Wairarapa and Canterbury.

The Auckland wireless network company had won the three regional tenders as part of the Government's Provincial Broadband Extension Project, or Probe.

But the chairwoman of the Probe steering group, Elizabeth Eppel, said Woosh could not meet the deadline of providing service by the end of the year.

"Discussions with Woosh Wireless have not resulted in a contract and no money has gone to the company," she said yesterday.

While the Government subsidy would be worth up to $3 million per region the overall cost of rolling out a wireless network would have been around $15 million per region.

Woosh chief executive Bob Smith said the company stood by its choice of technology. The problem was one of time constraints, he said.

"We flagged our concerns around the deadlines and we've been working with all parties trying to find some solutions."

Smith would not commit to building the Woosh network in the three regions, saying it was time to "sit back and review the situation".

"We're going to focus on our core network where it's full steam ahead." Woosh is increasing its network reach in Auckland and has begun work on its Wellington network.

The company plans to float early next year. Woosh will continue building network in its fourth provincial area, Southland.

Northland Probe steering group spokesman Chris Mathews said he had had concerns about Woosh for some time. "We began making contingency plans several months ago to head off any potential for slippage in the timing for making broadband available to schools."

All three regions have chosen Telecom as their preferred vendor, rather than re-tendering for the service.

Probe is the Government's plan to extend high-speed internet access to rural and regional schools and communities and is being managed by the Ministry of Education.

While remaining coy on exactly how much money would be spent on the project, Education Minister Trevor Mallard has put the cost at "tens of millions of dollars" for the 14 regions. An additional region, covering the most remote parts of the country, will be serviced by a satellite-based service.

Mallard was unavailable for comment on the Woosh matter.

The winner of the Nelson region, ThePacific.Net, is confident it will be able to meet its milestones, according to CEO Steve Christie.

"We did the most difficult part of the network first so we could sort out teething problems and that's worked well." Christie said the company already had customers on the network and would add more capacity by the end of the year.

Counties Power, the electricity lines company that will provide service for the Auckland Probe region, is also on track to meet its deadlines, according to CEO Neil Simmonds.

"There's nothing substantive left to sort out. I'm confident enough that we're carrying on with our design work even before signing off on the contract."

Both Wired Country and ThePacific.Net are planning to extend their services with the addition of voice capability in the months ahead.

Telecom, which has won the lion's share of the Probe tenders, says it will be offering service to 260 of the country's most remote schools by the end of June and will be able to service a further 200 more by the year's end.

Telecom has been extending its copper line network around the country as well as working with Government-owned wireless network provider BCL to offer service beyond its reach.

Telecom spokesman Bruce Parkes declined to comment, referring all calls to the ministry.

Telecom is also understood to be the frontrunner for the Probe satellite region with negotiations in their final stages. But Thailand's Shin Satellite is understood to be about to seal an agreement with Telecom for a commercial service that may encompass Probe.