$9m wireless broadband project gets go-ahead

By ADAM GIFFORD

Wireless broadband start-up Rural Networks has got the okay from the South Waikato District Council to go ahead with a $9 million wireless broadband joint venture which should bring high-speed internet services to 25,000 people.

The company is also completing plans to establish 802.11 networks in metropolitan centres and on Hauraki Gulf islands.

South Waikato council economic development manager Noel Ferguson said an aerial had gone up on top of the council building in Tokoroa and the internal network, which would service Tokoroa, Putaruru and surrounding districts, was going in.

"The issue after that is just finishing the back haul design. I can't believe how easy it has been," Ferguson said.

The name South Waikato Networks has been reserved for the joint venture, but Ferguson said the company had not yet been fully incorporated because the council and Rural Networks were still discussing structure.

He said the council was wary of paying for network infrastructure but was putting some money into the project.

Rural Networks managing director Roger Herbert said that, while the council was still seeing the project as a trial, the company thought it would work as a full commercial implementation.

He understood the council's reluctance to step outside its normal framework.

"It may be at the end of the trial they do not take a shareholding. They may pass their options to a local funder or business group, but they are the catalyst."

Rural Networks has estimated the cost of the core 802.11b wireless infrastructure at between $1.6 million and $2 million, with another $7 million required over the next five years for user devices. The cost will be recovered from subscriptions.

Herbert said Rural Networks had tested equipment from several suppliers and would make a choice closer to installation.

Back haul capacity was being provided by TelstraClear.

By the time funding from the Government through its Probe project came through, the South Waikato should be connected.

Herbert said Rural Networks was settling the terms of a subsidiary venture, Metro Networks, which would offer high-speed data services in cities.

"We intend to model it on Waiheke. We have invested in our own back haul to Waiheke and secured two transmitter sites on the island."

It would be a high-capacity network, either 802.11a or b, depending on features peculiar to the location.

He said Waiheke residents had been shopping around for high-speed internet providers because of Telecom's failure to get a service in there.

Rural Networks director Bill Kasper is an island resident.

Herbert said Telecom had offered Rural Networks a 192k link to the island for $1800 a month.

"You can't build a business on that," he said.

Meanwhile, Auckland councils are working under the Auckland Regional Economic Development Scheme banner to prepare responses on the Probe project, which is expected to give a boost to broadband efforts by indicating what demand there is in the wider community which can help to spread the cost of getting broadband into schools.

Steve Denize, Rodney District Council's advocacy manager economic development, said initial responses from community organisations and businesses indicated untapped demand.

"A lot of people work from home, we have an emerging film industry, we have viticulture and tourism operations, and they are all reliant on being able to market themselves or communicate over the internet," Denize said.

Film companies in particular want to be able to move large volumes of data out of the region.

"Schools are right into it.

"Some of the colleges say they are forming wide area networks with primary schools which feed into them, and they want the infrastructure to set those out. There is a real hunger for service."

He said Telecom's Jetstream ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber line) service was not responsive to customer needs as an alternative.