Woza to offer cut-price Internet by 1 June

Johannesburg, 17 May 2002

Woza founder Kevin Davie today confirmed that the company has signed a deal with an as yet unnamed partner that will see the company become a cut-price Internet service provider (ISP) by next month.

Davie says that as an ISP, Woza will offer a full range of Internet services for "just under R60" and he expects to start signing up its first clients by 1 June.

"Our basic plan is to offer access at the R60 level, our differentiator being that we will also have a full content offering included. None of the financial service companies which offer connectivity include this," says Davie. The full Woza archive, currently around 8GB`s worth, will also be re-instated online.

Although Davie declines to reveal the partner in this deal, he says the alliance will provide users with a full range of services with "a competitive number" of access points throughout the country. The initial offering will be based on a straight subscriber model, although the company has "much bigger plans in the pipeline".

Woza initially announced its intention to enter the ISP market almost a year ago, but when Absa launched its free service, Davie decided to "put the project on the backburner [as] it didn`t make sense to launch a budget ISP into that market".

Plans for the launch of an ISP were rekindled earlier this year when Absa announced the closure of its free Internet service for non-banking clients.

Davie says that with the imminent launch of the second national operator, now is the ideal time to launch a budget ISP. "This is just a first step to be in the market to take advantage of the opportunities which we believe that deregulation will bring."

For Woza, this is a "first toe in the water ... and we also expect to be concluding further deals in the coming months and are in discussion with an offshore player and a leading empowerment party".

Davie says the current market leaders offer "over-priced and undifferentiated products which are susceptible to low-priced, usage-based fees which are likely to be coming our way in the next few months".

Davie believes that Woza already has a "considerable marketing advantage" with around 50 000 users already subscribed to the various sections of the existing Woza site. He adds that the structure of the new ISP service makes it "relatively easy to be profitable" and he believes the venture could reach profitability within the first three months.

Davie`s partner in the venture is Jon Oliver, a founding shareholder and technical director of Global Internet Access, a company ultimately sold to WorldOnline.