Sponsor's Message

Yes, it seems that, in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Woosh has managed to overcome the technical problems that have previously dogged their efforts to layer a VOIP product on their wireless network.

It's interesting to compare the NZ Herald's report based on Woosh's PR, and the IDG report written by Paul Brislen.

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It strikes me that Woosh's offering is pretty "old hat" these days, providing a mere 256Kbps of download speed when Telecom (bless their hearts) are claiming speeds of up to 2Mbps for their serious home-DSL customers.

Woosh says that their service currently has the capacity to support 2Mbps, but they're not going to offer it and before they can deliver it, customers would have to buy new modems ($$).

Note also that the VOIP service is only being trialed at present and it would appear that not all the problems have been overcome - so there are no guarantees that it will eventually become a viable commercial part of the company's offering.

Despite the claims made in this week's spin, I remain unconvinced that Woosh will prosper in the face of the competition it faces.

We all knew it
Well wouldn't you know it - reports just published show that those evil sods who illegally download music really do spend more money on legitimate recordings than the rest of us.

Yes, despite years of whining and bitching from the recording industry, who claim that illegal downloads are killing their industry, a report released this week indicates that those who download the most also buy the most.

Could it be, as many have suggested, that a goodly number of folks are using illegal downloads as a method of simply sampling tracks that they'd otherwise never have bothered with? And could this sampling actually result in sales that would never have otherwise occurred?

Further evidence perhaps that the existing business models for music distribution are now well past their best-by date.

Of course the recording industry remains filled with people who aren't happy unless they're moaning about something so they've responded by saying that these illegal downloads are still costing them money -- so they're still a bad thing.

Someone give them a new gun and more bullets please -- it looks like they need it because their toes are regrowing at an alarming rate.

Questions for today: Has Woosh missed its window of opportunity? Are its offerings too slow and out-dated to compete with Telecom's latest DSL offerings? Is the PR spin of this week something real or just an attempt to hike the perceived value of the company ahead of a share float?

Does the illegal download of music harm or hike the sale of legal recordings (on CD or via legal download services)? Is the recording industry's reaction to the latest report a valid one or are they just whining again?

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