Ihug and Iconz to use BCL's wireless network

By ADAM GIFFORD

Internet service providers Ihug and Iconz will sell services on state-owned transmission company Broadcast Communications' new broadband wireless network.

Iconz general manager Sean Weekes said details of what the service would look like and how the $1100 cost of the AirSpan wireless modem would be covered were still being worked out.

"We would be comfortable if we could get the set-up price down to about $500 or $600 with installation."

He said Iconz aimed to match the pricing of Telecom's Jetstream service, which had set a precedent for what people were prepared to pay.

BCL signed a reseller agreement with Telecom last December.

Its failure to pick up further resellers since then raised doubts about its claim that it intended to provide open wholesale access to its network.

Ihug manager Martin Wylie said his company had been talking to BCL for several months and working with it on other projects, and he had detected a change in BCL's attitude.

"I think they have realised to make this [network] fly, they have to open it up," Wylie said.

He said Ihug saw the BCL service as complementary to its own Ultra satellite service, which has about 4500 customers in rural areas.

The companies will work with BCL in its Taranaki and Southland trial sites, working with customers to iron out bugs before BCL's 28-site national network goes live on November 1.

Initially customers will be offered service at 256 or 512 kilobits a second. But they will be able to increase this to more than one megabit once the next generation of Airspan modems become available.