Woosh doubles wireless speed

Woosh is firing back at critics by doubling the speed of its wireless broadband internet offerings.

The company, which this week abandoned plans for a share offering, is giving customers the option to boost their download speeds from around 250 kilobits a second, or about five times faster than dial-up, to 500kbps. The upgrade, available as of November 1, will be free for customers on the higher-use Express 10 gigabyte and Fusion plans, while others will need to pay an extra $5.

The moves come in the wake of regulation proposed last week by the Commerce Commission that is likely to increase speeds and lower costs for competing internet service providers offering wired DSL access.

Investors were scared off a Woosh share float because of doubts regarding its competitive position and technology, including whether its services could go faster.

Internet NZ president Colin Jackson yesterday praised Woosh's move and said it would help boost competition. But he said it might not be enough to go head to head with DSL products, which would soon be gravitating more towards megabit-per-second offerings.

"DSL is always megabits and Woosh has to try and position their product against that, either by stretching the speed out or somehow market it on the basis that speed isn't all that important", he said. "I do not believe they have the technology to deliver megabits."

Jackson said that DSL providers might react by doubling the speeds of their slower offerings, much like ihug did earlier this week.

Woosh chief operating officer Richard Cane said yesterday that the company was capable of offering megabit speeds, but was concentrating on expanding coverage instead.

Several companies using the same technology in other countries were already offering those speeds.