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In fact, I suspect they'll be rejoicing -- just as they did when former Xtra head Bob Smith set up Woosh as a wireless alternative to Telecom's Jetstream broadband service.

To be honest, I sometimes wonder if the relationship between Woosh and Telecom isn't a lot cosier than it might seem at first glance.

Let's face it, so long as Woosh is in the market, Telecom can quite rightly claim that it doesn't have a monopoly on broadband (and the politicians will buy that). What Telecom don't tell us of course is that the costs associated with setting up and running DSL over existing copper using existing exchanges is a whole less than that of building a new wireless network which means they can sell their broadband offering at the same price as Woosh and make a whole heap more money.

In effect, the existence of Woosh allows Telecom to justify the high prices and low speeds of its JetSurf product by drawing direct comparisons with "the competition".

The potential for a murky relationship gets even greater when you look at what happened with Project Probe.

Woosh was able to go in and make all sorts of promises as to its rate of roll-out and pricing into the areas covered by the project. In doing this, they could effectively squeeze out other companies that might have done the job just as well or better.

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Once it came to actually delivering however, Woosh turns around and says "sorry, can't do it" and effectively hands the millions of dollars in taxpayers' money over to Telecom -- who, being the saviour on the day, can then extend their own monopoly using a massive subsidy from taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Woosh, seemingly without penalty, goes on to pick the low fruit from urban areas.

But is Woosh really a competitor to Telecom in the broadband area?

Well the last report I heard indicated that they had just 5,000 customers -- a tiny fraction of the well over 100,000 DSL users around the country so I would say that Telecom doesn't feel any pain. Besides which, having just scored a whole fistful of taxpayer dollars to extend a commercial monopoly means that right now, Telecom is pleasantly numbed to any minor irritations.

Which brings us to IHUG's wireless phone service.

Unfortunately for IHUG and despite the obvious merits of the service, it's very unlikely that hundreds of thousands of Aucklanders are going to rush out and sign up. The problem is mainly one of inertia.

The average consumer simply can't be bothered going through the hassles of ditching their landline and having a wireless phone system installed unless there's a *huge* benefit to be had. And, while to many technically literate people, simply breaking all ties with Telecom might be benefit enough, the average phone user really doesn't care about such things.

I'm sure IHUG's system will be successful and I know how *I* would market it, but I doubt that Telecom are biting their nails right now and cowering in fear that they're going to be losing significant market-share.

In fact, they're probably rejoicing because, once again, they'll be able to point out to politicians that they no longer have a monopoly on the provision of phone services (including local-calling) to the public. Who knows, the government may even feel sympathetic enough to pay buy them some new copper using our tax dollars :-)

Lighten Up
Boy, have I been waiting for a dose of lighten-up material recently, so here it is:

Here's an oldie that I've featured in the Lighten-up section before but after watching it again I just had to include it just once more.

Now this is a guy with simply too much time (and dirt) on his hands, of that there can be no doubt.

For those who aren't familiar with the acronym, PWC stands for personal water craft -- that's a Jet-ski to you and me.

Here's one that did the rounds a few weeks back but shows you should never underestimate the wrath of a mother-scorned!

Keep em coming folks!

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