Dial-up provider numbers growing at the cheap end of the market

By ADAM GIFFORD

As increasing numbers of New Zealanders switch to broadband internet connections, some people believe they can still make a business selling dial-up access at rock bottom prices.

Two new firms have joined the dial-up fray, the Auckland-via-Whakatane Kiwi Online and DreamNet, from Waitara.

Kiwi Online is offering a home user package for $6.95 a month, or an opening special of a year for $69.50 pre-paid.

For that, you get up to seven email accounts, chat rooms and message boards, instant messaging, a dating service, free listings on an associated auction site and other services.

Kiwi Online chief executive Te Ariki Boynton said the company would try to foster a community presence, so subscribers could first check a "home" home page and message boards before going out on the world wide web.

"As we gather a strong membership base, we can use that in communities as an advertising tool," Boynton said.


Kiwi Online's bandwidth is coming from Telecom via wholesaler Concept.net, which has dial-up offerings from $4.95 to $24.95 a month.

DreamNet resells bandwidth from a Nelson provider, starting at $11.95 a month for 30 hours or $15.95 for unlimited hours.

Chief executive Adam Fenech said internet access had been too expensive because many providers carried high overheads.

"We are smaller and have lower costs so we don't have to charge so much," Fenech said.

Fenech's company, Affordable Computer Consultants, also runs i4u.net.nz, which offers dial-up for $19.95 a month.

"i4u has the same suppliers but different structures," Fenech said.


He said DreamNet had picked up about 100 customers in its first two months through magazine ads and being on the first page of the Consumer Institute's online list of ISPs.


Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Ernie Newman said the popularity of dial-up might be because most New Zealanders still could not get a compelling broadband service at any price.

Telecom's domination of the market meant the copper-based Jetstart and Jetstream services were the best most people could get.

"The next lot of OECD figures will show New Zealand continues to fall behind the rest of the OECD in terms of the percentage of subscribers with a broadband connection," Newman said.

KOL

Dream Net