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Thread ID: 69574 2006-06-05 23:54:00 Orcon cant wait here comes a price war Hitech (9024) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
460854 2006-06-05 23:54:00 ISP offers broadband below cost
06 June 2006
By ADRIAN BATHGATE

The first shots have been fired in what analysts expect will be a broadband war, with Orcon Internet dropping the price of one high-speed Internet service to below cost .


It also unveiled plans for a joint venture to spend $30 million on infrastructure in the next few years, to provide broadband to 250,000 households . A home phone service over an Internet connection is also expected to be introduced before the end of the year .

Orcon is undercutting the opposition by 30 per cent with its $19 . 95 a month broadband plan . It pays Telecom $21 . 50 a month for the wholesale connection, manager of operations and regulatory affairs Scott Bartlett said .

"Well, we're not going to be making a whole lot of money on it," he said, "It's designed to shake things up a bit . "

He said Orcon, New Zealand's fourth largest Internet service provider, would be able to balance the losses against its profitable dial-up customers, till cheaper access could be arranged . "We think the business is more than strong enough to handle this . It's not pie-in-the-sky, we've done months of work to get ready for this . "

Telecom's price for a comparable 256 kilobits per second plan is $29 . 95 . Orcon is looking to rapidly build its customer base, before the Government's telecommunications reforms take effect .

However, this could still be some time away and Mr Bartlett said Orcon was trying to negotiate cheaper access with Telecom in the interim .

AdvertisementAdvertisement"I'm convinced we're going to be seeing unbundling before the regulatory process, just through commercial negotiations . "

He said it was an "open secret" that Orcon had a good commercial relationship with Telecom, and that put the company in pole position for negotiations .

Last week, Macquarie Equities predicted a "customer grab" by all the ISPs, with Telecom expected to join in . Prices are expected to keep heading down in a bid to build customers .

Orcon has also signed a deal with a multinational telecommunications equipment provider to build a $30 million wholesale broadband network . Using equipment on top of Telecom's network, Orcon is ready to resell services up to 24 megabits per second to other ISPs .

"We've had expressions of interest from seven ISPs, who said they would move their wholesale business to us . "

Equipment will be installed in Telecom exchanges in the three main centres, with regional areas brought on over the next few years . Once in place, ISPs can offer voice and television over Internet connections .

It is now working on an interconnection agreement with Telecom, and the hoped-for date of a full landline service is within the next six months .

Mr Bartlett said the cost of the network will be shared between the partners . Orcon's ISP partners and its network equipment supplier will be made public in about three weeks .
Hitech (9024)
460855 2006-06-06 00:34:00 I'd say that plan is ideal for the "just email and a bit of surfing" users, as the 200Mb cap would not last me an a hour, let alone a whole month .

I also think Kiwis are being duped into thinking 256Kbps as "broadband" .

But I suppose anything is an improvement, and hopefully prices will come down as speeds go up .
Nyuuji (5460)
460856 2006-06-06 01:26:00 kinda seeing more speed go up keeping same high price instead of price come down as speeds go up...
ohwelz..can always 'hope'
heni72847 (1166)
460857 2006-06-06 01:32:00 ISP offers broadband below cost
06 June 2006
By ADRIAN BATHGATE
Orcon is undercutting the opposition by 30 per cent with its $19 . 95 a month broadband plan . It pays Telecom $21 . 50 a month for the wholesale connection, manager of operations and regulatory affairs Scott Bartlett said .


The catch is that the $19 . 95 / month you have to have your toll traffic routed thru them . . But it's a start . .
paulw (1826)
460858 2006-06-06 01:45:00 link to the story? stu161204 (123)
460859 2006-06-06 02:08:00 stuff.co.nz Morgenmuffel (187)
460860 2006-06-06 02:08:00 link to the story?

Possibly here:-0

www.stuff.co.nz

I hope this helps.
Sweep (90)
460861 2006-06-06 02:12:00 snap Morgenmuffel (187)
460862 2006-06-06 02:25:00 I find these low end plans fairly funny. People that can survive a month on say 200MB data cap are probably way better off sticking to dialup as they barely use the net anyway.


The only things these nasty plan are good for is advertising, you will excuse me if I am less than excited.
Master_Frost (9951)
460863 2006-06-06 02:57:00 So the "profitable dial-up customers" can subsidize the broadband users. Isn't that nice? I suspect that has usually been the case at all ISPs, including Xtra.

What happened to "user pays"?
Graham L (2)
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