Woosh Not Worried About New Zealand LLU

Just after the New Zealand government announcement of its intentions of unbundling the local loop, Woosh issued a press release saying that irrespective of unbundling outcomes, their services, portability and pricing provide benefits that unbundling can not beat.

"We already provide our customers with free broadband when they choose our phone service. I can't see even Nandor Tanczos setting a wholesale price to beat that," says Bob Smith, Woosh Wireless CEO, commenting in response to the Government's announcement yesterday to unbundle the local loop.

"By investing in the construction of our own network we're already providing an affordable, portable, high-speed broadband service that our competitors can only aspire to matching in two years.

"Whilst other organisations await further details and grapple with the implications of the Government's decision, we are successfully delivering what consumers want today," he says.

"Different networks exist to provide real customer choice, and our regulatory position has always been to argue that unbundling doesn't, because it basically amounts to different providers offering similar services over the same network,"

"For Woosh Wireless, unlike our competitors, it's a case of business as usual, given we have pioneered the introduction of affordable personal broadband.

"With increased data caps, the introduction of additional speed improvements which are now up to 1.5 Mbps, and with ongoing price reductions we have been able to double our customer base within 12 months to over 20,000 people.

"We have already halved the cost of phone lines (effectively meaning customers get broadband for free) and simply could not have done that were it not for the benefits of our own network," he adds.