KEY POINTS:
Telecoms operator CallPlus claims its ambitious plan to network the country using wireless broadband technology is still intact, despite a delay.
Its executives yesterday rubbished a report suggesting a US$450 million ($574 million) funding line from a Japanese investment bank had been severed, demolishing CallPlus' plans to develop a WiMAX network to offer phone and internet services.
CallPlus founder Malcolm Dick said he had just visited his Japanese investor, whom CallPlus has refused to name, but was reported by the National Business Review as Tokyo-based conglomerate Marubeni.
"I was up [in Japan] just before I went to Valencia for the America's Cup. Nothing has changed," said Dick from his Kerikeri holiday home.
But his right-hand man, CallPlus group chief executive Martin Wylie, said the WiMAX project had been delayed pending the outcome of the Government radio spectrum auction scheduled for December. CallPlus' national network plan relies on it winning a slice of that spectrum but the bidding is expected to be intense.
"We have not drawn down our funding as expected which is disappointing to all. The umbrella funding of US$450 million is still there but use of it has been delayed," said Wylie.
CallPlus has a $3 million WiMAX network operating in Whangarei, which Wylie said had shown the technology was suitable for a wider roll-out.
"The WiMAX technology is not an issue. It works well and we have deployed it and are providing it to paying customers," he said.
But CallPlus has also been caught by the evolution in WiMAX standards which has forced it to re-evaluate the technology it will use.
While CallPlus internet and phone users use fixed-wireless equipment to connect to the telecoms network from their homes and businesses, CallPlus now favours a newer standard which incorporates mobile devices and is better suited to phone calls.
The company will have to test equipment incorporating the new standard, and Wylie expects compatible WiMAX devices to begin hitting the market next year.
US operator Sprint is spending hundreds of millions of dollars building a network that will support mobile WiMAX devices, but the technology has struggled to find widespread acceptance.
While news of the pending Japanese investment raised eyebrows in the local telecoms industry which is gearing up for the unbundling of Telecom's copper line network, CallPlus received a major boost this month when the Australian Government invested A$1 billion ($1.1 billion) of taxpayers' money in Opel, a consortium of telecoms operator Optus and rural services supplier Elders.
For Wylie, the plan to give New Zealanders a decent alternative to Telecom is very much alive, if the timetable has slipped.
"The money is still on the shelf," he said. "The issue is one around the delay to national deployment."
Call Waiting
* CallPlus plans to develop a nationwide WiMAX network to offer phone and internet services.
* Founder Malcolm Dick denies reports that a Japanese investor has cut funding.
* Chief executive Martin Wylie says the WiMAX project has been delayed until the Government auctions rights for wireless radio spectrum in December.
