Fast net project slow to take off

By PAUL BRISLEN



Government plans to roll out high-speed internet to rural areas are looking shaky as doubts grow over the ability of key supplier Woosh Wireless to deliver.

Speculation is mounting that the wireless network provider may have to pull out of three of its four awarded regions because it cannot implement a network in time.

The Provincial Broadband Extension project (Probe) is the Government's plan to extend high-speed internet access to rural and regional schools and communities throughout New Zealand.

It wants to reach all schools by the end of the year but is running behind schedule.

Woosh Wireless won the tender process for four regions - Southland, Northland, Wairarapa and Canterbury - but has signed a contract only with Southland.

The four regions could be worth millions of dollars in Government funding to Woosh but the contracts remain unsigned almost a year after they were awarded.

Woosh chairman Rod Inglis said the next few days would decide whether Woosh would remain Probe's pick for Canterbury, Northland and Wairarapa.

He said Woosh had suggested some new provisions to the Government and regional bodies to try to make Probe work.

"We're trying to come to some other arrangements about how we might be able to do it. I just don't know whether that will be acceptable or not."

He would not outline those alternative provisions but said a decision was imminent.

Probe's Government-appointed project manager, Tony van Horik, said an announcement on the three regions, Northland, Wairarapa and Canterbury, would be made early next week.

"We're still in negotiations with Woosh over those regions," said van Horik. He did confirm his concern about Woosh's ability to meet the deadlines required of the project.

"It's common knowledge that we were concerned about the timeframe they were putting up for us and their capability for rolling out a network is certainly limited."

Van Horik said Woosh was already at work in Southland.

"They're certainly planning to carry on rolling that out. It's really more a concern about the other ones and Woosh discovering it might not have the resources to carry them out on time."

Woosh's partner in the original tendering process, mobile phone giant Vodafone, is no longer active in the Probe tendering process, according to Vodafone spokeswoman Sarah Williams.

"We are now only the sales and distribution partner."

Woosh is understood to have its hands full with its Auckland and Wellington commercial roll-outs and simply does not have the manpower or technical capability to progress Probe tenders.

Probe is being run by the Ministry of Education in conjunction with the Ministry of Economic Development and has a budget of "tens of millions of dollars".

In all there are 15 regions, including an extremely remote satellite region yet to be awarded. Woosh Wireless won four regions, ThePacific.Net won the Nelson region tender, electricity company Counties Power the Auckland region and the Telecom/BCL consortium the remainder.

Education Minister Trevor Mallard would not comment on progress in Woosh's tender regions.

Probe should have been delivering broadband internet access to most schools within each region by November last year, the final few being connected by this November.

But only a handful of schools are able to use the service.