Woosh starts to apply pressure

Wireless broadband service provider Woosh Wireless, emboldened by a $74 million capital raising, is turning up the heat on its rivals with three new high-speed internet plans.

The telecoms firm, which provides high-speed internet connections and telecoms services in the main centres, said yesterday that private equity fund Intellectual Capital Partners had stumped up $35 million. The remaining $39 million was spread among major shareholders including Todd Capital, Clarity Partners and The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall.

Chairman Rod Inglis said the support from investors was a "strong endorsement of the company, the business plan and where it's going. They think that they can really build a valuable asset and business through Woosh."

Sales and marketing manager Sandra Geange said Woosh wanted to offer an affordable broadband alternative to this country's 800,000 dial-up customers.

She said the average price of dial-up connections was about $22 a month. The company's new plans ranged from $29.95 a month, with a data cap of 200 MB, up to $69.95 for 10 GB. Customers could buy 500MB 'top-ups' for $14.95.

Inglis said Woosh ended the year to last June with $40 million in cash, $68 million in shareholder funds and operating losses of $13.9 million.

The results were as expected and the company was very much in an invest-and-spend mode.

"When you're building an infrastructure asset, it's the kind of investment you just simply have to make up front," Inglis said.

Although the customer base had doubled to 10,000 since last June, investment was being made to acquire hundreds of thousands more.

Network infrastructure development was the focus last year before a marketing drive in December.

"We worked hard to make sure we had a good solid platform then we turned up the volume on the marketing and advertising, and we were happy with the result we got from that," Inglis said.

The new product launch is in contrast to problems last year which saw Woosh pull out of its commitments to the Government's rural broadband initiative Project Probe in Northland, Wairarapa and Canterbury.

Inglis said Woosh had to pull out because the timing of contracts meant it was too late to meet targets.

The company has also appointed Richard Cane to the new role of chief operating officer.

Wired up

Woosh Wireless evolved from Walker Wireless, established in 1999.

Woosh provides broadband internet services in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill.

Auckland coverage is now 70 per cent.

Plans to list on the stock exchange are still under consideration.