Woosh could face legal action over schools' broadband

1.00pm

Woosh Wireless, which failed to deliver high speed broadband internet to Wairarapa schools, could face legal action.

Telecom replaced Woosh as the selected Project Probe provider for Wairarapa, Northland, and Canterbury regions when it eventuated that Woosh could not provide service to the target communities within agreed time-frames.

A spokesman for the Tararua-Wairarapa Regional Charitable Trust, Geoff Copp, said taking Woosh to court had not been ruled out.

The trust was still in discussions and hoped Woosh would still come into the region.

"We are still talking with Woosh and hope to reach an amicable agreement," he said.

"We don't want to go the legal route but Woosh's failure has raised questions of credibility and has cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Along with Northland, one of the other Probe regions, Wairarapa was still negotiating.

One of the reasons the group had gone with Woosh was the hope that having another telecommunications company in the Wairarapa would break Telecom's near telephone monopoly in the region.

He still believed Woosh would have eventually been able to roll out its wireless broadband connection, but that the company was unable to meet the Government's deadline.

Woosh had made a decision to focus on the urban centres.

Mr Copp said he believed broadband would be rolled out to the whole of the Wairarapa eventually, probably with a combination of fibre-optic cable, copper wire and wireless.

- WAIRARAPA TIMES-AGE (MASTERTON)