Unbundling and Woosh

8 July, 2006

Well finally, the government grew balls and it looks like we might be getting naked DSL. This is all part of the unbundling proposals to regulate Telecom

Out of all the unbundling options, I like naked DSL the best. I don’t find current broadband prices that bad if you ignore the fact that you have to pay an additional $45/month for a phone line that you don’t use that much. Naked DSL means you can have broadband without having to pay for a phone line as well. With VOIP this isn’t too much of an issue, and most people have cellphones these days too.

But for now it’s wait and see.

Woosh, being one of the few NZ Internet companies NOT to support unbundling, I was interested to hear their take on it. They have a press release and suggest that “By investing in the construction of our own network we’re already providing an affordable, portable, high-speed broadband service that our competitors can only aspire to matching in two years”.

Whoosh’s 1.6 Mbps download speed, and 120kbs upload speed make it’s ‘broadband’ offering one of the slowest in the country, when other ISPs offer 3.5Mbs download speed, and up to 512k upload. Sure, it’s wireless, so thats an advantage. But not everybody needs or wants wireless internet, and for those that don’t want wireless then DSL is a good option where woosh doesn’t compete.

Meanwhile, a Woosh plan to launch a WiMax broadband network may be derailed by the Government

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