Anyone using Woosh's phone service??

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BarTender

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# 19678 26-Feb-2008 14:09

Just interested to know if anyone is still using Woosh's VoIP over Wireless phone solution.

BarTender

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# 114315 3-Mar-2008 12:25

Due to the wealth of responses I will take that as a "no, no one here uses the VoIP solution".... nice... especially considering the announcement they had in the paper today: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4423747a28.html so they have enough cash for the next 12 months, after that, who knows...... Nice!

paradoxsm

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# 114332 3-Mar-2008 14:06

Not me anymore but I did find a pile of recordings I made of the phone calls on it and the incredibly unreliability and packet loss.

I don't fare well for Woosh's existence much further into the future. They are fighting an uphill battle after losing many customers due to shockingly bad service and now the wireless network is a complete orphan running expensive custom technology.
I was told thay tried to copy Sky TV's business model by someone internal.

Basically Woosh now have a rather bad name they will probably never shake and that's just not how you run a business.

Good on them for trying initially but something went very wrong internally I think.

sbiddle

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# 114336 3-Mar-2008 14:32

paradoxsm:
Good on them for trying initially but something went very wrong internally I think.

They had the misfortune of being sucked into the whole "3G is fantastic" world and ended up with technology that was obsolete the day it launched, had terrible performance and no future since there was only IPWireless serious about TDD-WCDMA and they had no vision for the future. They've since suffered from extremely poor confused management with no clear business model, especially when they were never even close to breaking even, poor marketing and a product that isn't really much better than dialup.

Despite that I actually do feel sorry for them, at a time where everybody was bleating about Telecom's monopoly they did what very few others were doing - investing in an alternative. It's just unfortunate they ended up buying a lemon from a used car salesman and have had to pump huge amounts of money into that lemon.

Fraktul

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# 114341 3-Mar-2008 15:08

Wrong technology, wrong time, wrong buisiness model.

I dont feel sorry for any of them, they made informed decisions which were bad at the time and are still bad decisions now. It's not like we are looking back and saying in hindsight wow that was a bad idea - people were saying this from day one.

megasquid

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# 114350 3-Mar-2008 16:47

I'm lucky to be living in downtown Auckland where we get good Woosh Internet reception (around 1800 - 2100 Mbs) and good (not brilliant but good) phone reception. As an ordanary phone and internet user who persisted with Telecom and Telstra for years, I was happy to give Woosh a go. I'm real happy with;

The concept of not being with Telecom
Not paying for voicemail and caller ID
not paying a monthly $45.00 phone line bill
Freedom to take my phone No out of the exchange (Point Chev to City)
Cheap VOIP International and national toll calls
Free local calls
etc, etc, etc.

It's just not brilliant but I love it. If they put as much effort into their new WiMax service as they have with this handicapped technology they'll be fine.

paradoxsm

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# 114359 3-Mar-2008 17:17

OMG! I won't spoil this one.

Call the wellington office 04 907 0058 and wait for the voicemail greeting and then press *

You will probably howl with laughter as much as I did and of course I recorded it for evidence.

freitasm

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# 114363 3-Mar-2008 17:30

I couldn't understand the heavy Indian accent. What does he say?

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paradoxsm

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# 114372 3-Mar-2008 18:18

Listen to the mailbox name, not the greeting. (press * when the greeting plays)

Here is a recording. Disgruntled Woosh Employee.

freitasm

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# 114435 3-Mar-2008 21:06

Yes, I did that but couldn't understand... But when I heard your record it was clear...

Good one capturing that.

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gomez

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# 114752 5-Mar-2008 07:18

Well, why doesn't that amaze me at all. The amount of staff there that bailed out of that company is incredible.

BarTender

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# 114816 5-Mar-2008 13:02

Just came back to this thread after a few days... Crack me up on the Voicemail prompt... that sounds very much like the Telecom voicemail service prompt.... Too funny.
Personally I hope that woosh will survive. If they choose to implement the WiMax instead of the IPWireless solution I can only see how if they had sufficient capacity things would be a lot rosier for them.
I don't think the technology is flawed myself, however the implementation with lack of backhaul, requiring CPE equipment when all other ADSL providers give you a router for free for you to keep, plus their poor customer service has left woosh without any real way to go but down.

chiefie

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# 114822 5-Mar-2008 13:33

May be Woosh should merge with NZ Communications (a.k.a. Econet)...

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paradoxsm

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# 115618 9-Mar-2008 21:51

Update: I went into that branch in person and spoke to a guy whom would not give me the updated maps, apparently "Telecom people kept coming in" so they are no longer available.

Tried the voicemail now, it worked fine, though they obviously got notified of this little whopsy (or is that a wooshsy) and have since changed the name to a very positive sounding "Woosh Wellington" in a female voice.

But it seems my Vodafone-at-home box seems to be permanenetly stuck on GSM Half Rate now and it sounds terrible, just like a Woosh phone actually...

As of this post I'm now SuperGeek!

ajobbins

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# 115619 9-Mar-2008 21:55

Here is a recording of what I just got when calling 04 907 0058 from an ID restricted number (Several actually) and pressing * at the prompt.

Please note that all I did was hang up the call at this point. I did not proceed (Although I clearly could have...)

ajobbins

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# 115625 9-Mar-2008 22:52

Seems to work only from restricted numbers. Couldnt replicate with our Call Minder here at home.