Woosh - and your phone bill is halved

The telephone revolution takes a giant step forward today with Woosh Wireless launching a phone service in Auckland that will cut customers' bills by at least half.
Woosh's phone service, which runs over internet protocol technology, costs $20 to $25 a month with free local calling, voicemail, caller display and number withhold. A Telecom home line costs $39.85, with the same additional services adding about $9.50.

National and international calls to 35 destinations - including Australia, the United States, China, the UK and Canada - cost 10c a minute on Woosh. Telecom's national calls under the Anytime plan cost 14c to 18c, with a cap of $2.25 to $2.75, while international calls to popular destinations are 47c to 49c.

The Telecommunications Users Association welcomed the service, and said it "charts new territory in telecommunications in terms of technology and competition".

"The offer of free local calls to business and residential users, and very cheap national and international calls, will be a major shake up in the market," said TUANZ chief executive Ernie Newman.

Woosh's service is the latest addition to an increasingly crowded phone market using the internet or internet-like technology. Rapidly growing internet phenomenon Skype, which was snapped up this week by US online auction giant eBay, offers free calls between users. Microsoft, Google and Yahoo are all getting in and calling prices are consequently dropping quickly.

Woosh's service works on the same technology as Vodafone's recently launched 3G mobile phone network. Customers can plug any regular phone into the modem-like "gateway", which then connects wirelessly to Woosh's network. Start-up costs, which include the gateway, are $99 for existing Woosh customers, or $199 for newcomers.

Customers converting from Telecom can keep their phone numbers.

There are a few catches, however. Woosh's phone service is only available in conjunction with one of the company's broadband internet plans - but these too are cheaper than Telecom's. Woosh packages range from $54.95 a month to $89.95.

Calls to international mobiles are 10c a minute, but calls to New Zealand cellphones are still 45c. That's a reflection of the high cost of ending calls on mobile networks here, which Newman called "disgraceful".

Woosh also acknowledged that sound quality of calls isn't as good as on landlines.

"It's at the top end of a good-quality cellphone call," Smith said.

However, chief operating officer Richard Cane added, Woosh's service splits voice from data traffic, so it does not suffer from the delay and echo problems that plague similar internet-based services, such as Skype.