Wireless operator welcomes Telecom's phone price hike

At least one minnow telecommunications company today welcomed news Telecom is hiking prices for most of its domestic phone users.

"To be honest it's quite good news," said Chris Aspros of NZ Wireless Technologies.

The three year-old Wellington firm is about to trial the new highspeed internet technology, WiMax, and plans to offer voice services over that.

Mr Aspros told NZPA that Telecom's 5.5 per cent hike in home phone line charges would simply make alternative offerings more competitive.

Experts see the wireless WiMax technology as a cheaper, superior alternative to Telecom's copper network and even Telecom has purchased WiMax spectrum with a view to trialling it. Telecom plans to eventually deliver nearly all its voice services via the internet.

NZ Wireless believes customers will be able to cut their phone bills by 30 to 40 per cent.

"We see voice over internet as the most important thing for us, because fast broadband is easy," said Mr Aspros.

"We can save people more money on the voice thing. As well as increasing the speed and dropping the cost of the broadband, we can definitely decrease the cost of phone calls."

The Ministry of Economic Development last year offered regional rights to a slice of 3.5 gigahertz radio spectrum suitable for WiMax technology and NZ Wireless was uncontested in winning the Wellington/Kapiti Coast region.

It is to trial WiMax services from three of its existing 50 Wellington sites in Wellington for 60 days, starting this month.

WiMax is a microwave, high-speed internet standard that can work within a 10 to 70km radius of the transmitter, depending on the terrain and power of the transmitter.

It is being championed by giant US chipmaker Intel and hardware to use the technology is expected to be standard in Intel-powered laptops within a couple of years. Many cellphones will also have the ability to operate on the cheaper WiMax network and switch to conventional GSM (global system for mobiles) networks when outside the network's reach.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is considering WiMax as the technology platform for its $1.4 billion push into broadband.

NZ Wireless already operates a wireless network in Wellington and Auckland and plans soon to expand to Hamilton, Christchurch and other centres. Until now, it has been operating on open unlicensed spectra.

Mr Aspros said MED was forward-thinking to have held back a slice of spectrum from the radio auctions several years for new technolgoy such as WiMax.

He believes small operators will band together to offer a national network to rival Telecom's in coverage. NZ Wireless already partners other small operators on its existing network and will work similarly with other WiMax licensees.

The development of a national alternative network is at least a year off but NZ Wireless and others are working towards a common standard in technology, services and equipment.

National Communications chief executive Frayne Cooke said his company was thinking along similar lines and had been talking with CallPlus.

It is about to begin trialling WiMax in Auckland this month and CallPlus is testing the technology in Northland after winning a licence.

Network provider BCL is also planning WiMax tests, although no firm date had been set.

To play the WiMax game, players must win licences from MED, which is soon to tender more areas.

When NZ Wireless began three years ago, it targeted domestic internet services, but now a third of its customers are businesses. The latter will be the target for its WiMax network.

Mr Aspros will not reveal customer numbers or turnover, only saying he had 12 staff.

He said WiMax was both cheaper and faster than Telecom's Jetstream, which some critics say runs too slowly to be correctly labelled broadband. Jetstream runs at 256 kilobits a second while WiMax broadband runs many times faster at 3 megabits.

- NZPA