Woosh brings back the Joy

When the Commerce Commission ruled against Telecom Wholesale's loyalty offers last year, it might have spelled the end of Woosh’s burgeoning business as a fixed line ISP.

But general manager of sales and services Richard Fry (pictured) says its fixed line plan Bundle of Joy is back and this time, instead of differentiating on price, its differentiating on data caps. The new plans provide data caps of 3GB, 7GB, 30GB and 45GB. Fry says most of their rivals offer caps of 1GB, 5GB and 10GB, but Woosh’s research shows that 3GB and 7GB are more in line with customer behaviour.

Woosh has a wireless network in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Southland and began providing fixed line services in May last year following Telecom Wholesale’s offer of ‘loyalty discounts’ to ISPs who put more than 90% of their business with them. It was Telecom’s way of combating the LLU providers Orcon and Vodafone – who were undercutting them in Auckland. Orcon and Vodafone complained, claiming it was anti-competitive, the Commerce Commission agreed and Telecom Wholesale withdrew the offers.

“We were really disappointed that we weren’t receiving those discounts anymore and as a result we’ve had to change out pricing,” Fry says.

He says they had been providing subscribers – especially those living in regional areas – with deals that were up to $15 a month cheaper than its rivals. But the loss of Telecom Wholesale’s loyalty discounts meant Woosh has had to abandon its non-geographic pricing, so those outside the cities will once again pay more.

Woosh has a staff of 90 and an eclectic list of shareholders, including Vodafone NZ. Last year it posted a $21.7 million net loss.

However the government may have thrown it a lifeline this week with the announcement of its rural broadband plan, creating a $300 million fund (mostly paid for by an industry levy) for the rollout of rural broadband.

Fry says the government’s idea of rolling fibre to rural schools and turning them into connectivity hubs, from which to deploy wireless services, has some appeal.

Woosh successfully bid for spectrum that allows for a WiMAX broadband rollout. Fry was not able to elaborate on the company’s plans but it hasn’t ruled out partnering with other telcos that own WiMAX spectrum, such as Compass and CallPlus. “We’re still going through the phases of getting funding stable, and securing some key partners.”