renee, what I'm worried about is not that they won't get to the...

renee, what I'm worried about is not that they won't get to the break even point but of what happens after that. In the metro area there is increased competition from optic fiber and ADSL2 while in the regional area there is nothing close to the speed of WiMAX that would be economically viable to roll out. Also the number of people living in the regional area is increasing at great speed with the aging population moving to the country/sea side. I didn't think much of the deal with Austar and even less of the one with Freshtel because while FRE will gain from exposure of Firefly to UNW customers most of FRE clients already use broadband in one form or another so its not much of a deal for UNW at least until they get the WiMAX. Reading FRE announcements I'd be surprised to see them lasting that long, it reminds me to much of Onetel and Telco Aus. aka FUT these days. :-)
Anyway, good luck with UNW as I no longer hold it. Would have stayed for the ride a bit longer but I got in at 30c in May so yesterday the temptation was just too much. I cashed in my chips and got some AUN instead which I think will do quite well in regional area with the voice,data and pay TV bundle, even more so if they manage to get their hands on gov. subsidies.