Woza, once one of the country`s most popular Web news sites, plans to bounce back in the new year as a cut-price Internet service provider (ISP), says founder Kevin Davie.
Davie, who still sees "enormous value in the ISP market", says negotiations with potential partners are already well advanced and he hopes to finalise one of the potential partners this week.
He explains that although the plan to start an ISP has been on the agenda for a long time, the demise of Absa`s free connectivity offering has opened up the space significantly. Davie says the introduction of Absa`s offering, "which no one believed was sustainable", had initially put Woza`s plan on hold because it was "the wrong time to introduce an ISP". Since the down-scaling of Absa`s offering, he says, there are many players eyeing out the market and he hopes to grab a first-mover advantage in the next few weeks.
Davie, who hopes to kick off the Woza ISP venture early next month, says the company would offer many advantages in the local market, particularly a cheaper Internet experience. "I see our entry-level fees working out to be significantly lower that existing offerings."
He plans to build the ISP on Woza`s strengths by operating on a content and connectivity model, not unlike America Online and the bigger local ISPs. Davie says the content model is a successful one that "offers a lot of value to users".
He says there has to be added value for users in the offering, which he believes Woza will provide through its content offerings.
On the infrastructure side, Davie says Woza will not invest in its own hardware, but will "rent ports" from an infrastructure partner and limit the business to "taking care of customers and the billing process".
"The nature of the business has changed over the last few years, but it still looks like a very profitable business opportunity. There are currently around 600 000 dial-up users in the country," says Davie. He believes this number could increase to around 700 000 in the coming year or so.
Davie also sees a significant opportunity further down the line with the proposed announcement of a second national telecommunications operator.
He did not name potential partners, nor how much the proposed ISP service would cost.
Davie says the Woza Web site still receives more than 50 000 page impressions a month despite its official demise last year.
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