Peter Griffin: Probe windfall brings Telecom another win

COMMENT

Things just keep getting better for Telecom. First it eliminates a serious health scare in the form of local loop unbundling.

Now its competitor Woosh Wireless has been bumped from all but one regional toe-hold in the Government's noble plan to get high-speed internet links to all schools by the end of the year.

Telecom scoops up all the ongoing business and the Government funding that Woosh would have got, leaving Wired Country and ThePacific.Net as small independent states amid a sea of Telecom.

It's a blow for Woosh, which already has a reputation for over-promising and under-delivering in Auckland.

Responsibility ultimately has to lie with the Woosh management team, which bit off more than it could chew in going after such a large amount of work.

The Probe pull-out can't help the company's plans to undertake a stock exchange listing, but gives it a chance to focus on getting its business right in the main centres.

As far as the future of regional broadband competition for most of the country - forget it.

We've spent a lot of taxpayers' money in consulting fees and wasted a lot of time trying to find an alternative to Telecom, with Telecom and wireless partner Broadcast Communications by default getting most of the Probe work.

It plays right into the hands of those who had suggested the Government should look to issue one massive contract to reach rural areas spanning the whole country.

Who would have won it? Probably Telecom, but we could have been a year further ahead in the process than we are now.

In fact, it may all be just a bit too sweet for Telecom, which in a strange way has always viewed Woosh as a sort of ally. It was Woosh, after all, who backed Telecom's anti-unbundling lobby. And Telecom has always pointed to Woosh as a laudable example of "infrastructure competition", a company going against the tide of challengers who just want to piggyback on Telecom's network.

The alternative provider argument is looking shakier by the day and unbundling is dead.

The one saving grace is that there's a good chance most out-of-the-way schools will still get their high-speed internet links by early next year anyway. And the kids won't have noticed the fuss.