Sunday, February 8. 2009What Do Customers Want From Their ISP? (2).......John Linton .....or in this context, what can an ISP of the future give their customers? When Steve and I were first associated with each other, and coincidentally in setting up one of the early ISP services at TPG as it then was (obviously on dial up), providing the customer with one email account was the limit of the service 'add ons' that could be offered. Email in those days (mid 1990s) was not widely used - how could it be? - internet generally was in its infancy - so this 'add on' probably had a limited value to the residential user of the time. As we parted and re-joined ways over the succeeding ten years on various internet set up assignments for different companies (OneTel and Swiftel jointly and Paradox for Steve and Apple/iGreen for me separately) we gradually added to the 'add ons' but, when I thought about it at the time or think about it now, those add ons were not of particularly good value or even widely used by the various customers of those four different ISPs. I watched other ISPs similarly struggle to provide 'added value' including "free streaming radio", free 'PIPE' peering data, free mirror services, free garbage TV stations and so on - all of which were characterised by being of extremely limited value to less than a fraction of any ISP's customer base. ISPs have continued to struggle to 'add value' to a basic internet service since I was first involved in the ISP business and most of the 'added value' provided, across the board by every ISP in Australia, doesn't seem to add any customer value at all - only cost and in the "bundle your telephone line and call cost" scenarios they add massive costs to the customer, entrench Telstra's revenue and profit position in communications and ensure that progress in implementing new technologies is slowed to a crawl. Exetel has, since February 2004, tried to really add value to the basic internet service but I doubt that we have, as yet, succeeded in doing that in the ways we had hoped to do. Our current line up of 'added value' services either free or at minimal cost is, probably, more comprehensive than all other Australian ISPs but with a base premise of providing base internet at the lowest cost of any provider in the Australian marketplace our abilities are very constrained. So: We offer 20 email addresses rather than 1 or a few and we offer 500 megabytes of free web space rather than a few megabytes and a free blog service but Google and a plethora of others offer free emails and free web space and blog space that "have the advantage of not being ISP dependent".The cost to Exetel of offering these three services is around $A8,000 a month at the moment and I can think of plenty of uses for another $A100,000 a year rather than wasting it on providing services that can be obtained 'free' somewhere better. So perhaps we should drop those three services and spend the money on something more valuable to our customers? Unfortunately every time this suggestion is made the arguments for not providing these services fall away very quickly under a storm of protest from the customers who use the services (almost 80,000 of these services are in regular use at the moment so the appeal of "ISP Independent" email addresses and web space isn't as 'universal' as some proponents make out. No such arguments are advanced for our three most popular 'add on services': 100 free VoIP calls, 30 free SMS and 20 free FAXs each month and the rapid take up of those services, the majority of all Exetel broadband users use at least two of them each month and the use of FAX has now rapidly increased since we made the first 20 ten page faxes free. Our most popular add on, the currently 54 gb of uncharged downloads that can be used 12 hours a day, is unquestionably the greatest add on value offered by any ISP in Australia. Although one or two ISPs, clearly bereft of any ability to think up their own ideas have begun to try and offer a similar "add on" they are not currently succeeding with too many constraints and too little thought and control implementation to make it as valuable as Exetel's add on benefit. So, on balance, we have provided 4 'unique' value adds to a base Exetel broad band service that is the lowest price avaialble but these have not been enough to grow the overall ADSL business very rapidly so they are clearly not what the 'majority' of internet users deem to be particularly important let alone essential. I have given this a lot of thought over the past year as I tried to come up with a residential user broad band strategy for the second five years of Exetel's existence (should it continue to survive of course). I'm now, more than ever, happy that Exetel decided against our own ADSL2 DSLAMs in favour of a Layer 2 HSPS strategic future and give ourselves a 'tick' for logically looking in to the future and not seeing a place for a small company's own "infrastructure roll out" (sorry Peter). My problem is that at current costings Exetel can't continue that logical thinking and drop wire based broad band completely in favour of an HSPA based 'total communications solution' which is what is required. So what Exetel has to put in place as being what 90% of Australian users want from their ISP is this ten point plan/strategy/implementation/call it what you like: 1) An all in one 'communications centre' that is essentially a wireless router/HSPA modem with ATA capability for customer buy of $240.00. 2) An HSPA service with multiple sims per user that share a single account allowing the 'home' to use wireless/Ethernet to connect to multiple PCs/Laptops with the additional sims being used in mobile phones and or lap tops while traveling. 3) A low cost Yagi (or equivalent/replacement) aerial for rural/regional users that will extend distance from the nearest tower required for a good signal to 30+ kilometers. 4) Voice, SMS and FAX over IP for both all desktops/Laptops and mobile handsets to reduce all mobile telephone call costs to a minimum. 5) An HSPA service with a consistent speed of in excess of 10 mbps and a latency that allows playing the most popular games. 6) Data charges that are equivalent to current ADSL2 data charges (plus the cost of the lowest priced telephone line and ADSL2 service charge rental) 7) No service or part of any service to be dependent on Telstra's horrendous pricing models) 8.) A network of 1,000 agents across Australia who will provide the installation and early support for these installations where an end user requires it. 9) The ability, if required, to migrate a PSTN number to become a VoIP number without the current hassles and delays 10) A 'migration' strategy that will satisfy even the most cautious and conservative buyer that they can make such a move with no down side. If you've followed Exetel's service developments over the past two plus years you would see that we have been pursuing this 'holy grail' of residential communications for some time and put many of the base 'building blocks' in place. We are closer than we were three years ago. Trackbacks
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G'day
"so the appeal of "ISP Independent" email addresses and web space isn't as 'universal' as some proponents make out." Choice is a good thing Also, the free third party services may lack local support, etc. "we have provided 4 'unique' value adds to a base Exetel broad band service but these have not been enough to grow the overall business very rapidly" I am more of the opinion that this lack of growth comes down more to the simple question I am asked regularly which is "who is Exetel". Exetel is not a known brand name like Optus or Holden, so you can have the best services but still people are none the wiser until they actually find out who you are. While word of mouth is probably the most effective advertising you have, it is not exactly the BGP of advertising But then, traditional advertising can be such a money sink so it's a tricky balance I guess, and certainly not one I claim to have an answer for. (I'll still keep an eye out for the rural advertising setup mooted last year.) I think your suggestions for the future are great. They do sound a little similar to the Virgin home wireless broadband package that came out last year, and indeed the modem they supply (with HSPA and VoIP via PSTN) are quite an attractive little unit that seem to work well. Perhaps if you can overcome the hurdle of porting PSTN numbers then you're really in with a chance with that sort of product. PS - Tried to write all this on a mobile earlier this morning, but it looks like Opera Mini can't handle Captchas, it kept giving me the same one. Didn't try the Nokia browswer, figured I'd just wait. Comments (2)
"1) An all in one 'communications centre' that is essentially a wireless router/HSPA modem with ATA capability for customer buy of $240.00."
You would really need to be sure that this device is rock solid. I have had 4 pieces of equipment that I have used to connect to Exetel. My original Netcomm NB5580W (ADSL1+wireless) supplied by Exetel in late 2004. A Netcomm V300 (VOIP) supplied by Exetel a year later. A Netcomm NB9W I purchased myself when the 5580W partially failed (after warranty had expired - but I wanted ADSL2 anyway) and an OPEN824RLW that I bought because the NB9W was a piece of junk. That last box has failed twice so far - fortunately inside it's warranty both times so it was replaced. And fortunately I had enough other bits to hobble along until it was replaced. I don't recall exactly what problem I had with the V300, but there was definitely something about the way it handled phone calls that repeatedly annoyed me. The short story is that every piece of equipment I have bought has been decidedly less than perfect. Maybe I've just been unlucky. (Or maybe the fact that I don't use MS-Windows allows me to keep my expectation that technology should "just work"). But it has all made me very reluctant to recommend VOIP to any friends. Hence my suggestion that you be really confident that your device is rock-solid. (Note to self... that reminds me - my wife often has problems using the Exetel VOIP service to talk to some answering machines. I should get to that bottom of that and report it) Comments (2)
Not sure why your devices are failing so often, although I must admit I lost my trust in NetComm back in the NB3 days, and slowly getting it back with the HSPA routers. (A number of NB3s, and NB5580Ws were not reliable. NB5580Ws are prone to overheating so those that I still use have cpu fans attached to them.)
Certainly devices attached to the PSTN and to a wired PC are quite vulnerable to storm damage, and I've lost one 824RLW to this. Pretty much all recent modems customers have lost in my history (bar one Billion that just died because it could, and early Thomson modems with failing power supply capacitors) have been traced to lightning damage. Thus I generally recommend customers use wireless connections to their router as it reduces the risk by removing the path to ground. I certainly concur that a stable device is very important Comments (2)
I agree with Mr Kean in that Exetel isn't a well recognised brand name, and that to increase growth you should try to work on making Exetel known to the general public. Perhaps this can coincide with your more aggressive 'launch' this month(?) of the HSPA services?
Comment (1)
John,
are you able to do mobile phone plans through the optus network? As far as Im aware you use Vodaphone network for Mobile, please correct me if im wrong. Im seriuosly looking at the TPG $19.99 mobile plan with $300 calls pm included, plus changing my Exetel C1 HSPA Broadband plan to the 5GB one for $37.50 and completely ditching the fixed phone line. ( A -- 10GB HSPA plan under $60pm is really what I am after.). HSPA is the future and alot of areas outside of major cities will use this option, but Vodaphone coverage in the country is very poor and I cant see how I can bundle Exetel mobile phone and Exetel HSPA broadband together. Would you consider using offering Optus mobile phone plans and Optus HSPA broadband in regional areas. Sorry, if you do offer Optus mobile phone services -- but still TPG $19.95 / $300 per month calls included sounds great. Tpg $19.99 inc. $300 Per Month calls @ 40¢ / 30 sec - 35¢ flagfall - 25.3¢ connect with - No Contract put with an Exetel $37.50 HSPA 5GB plan- It seems like a perfect match together. I just want to ditch Telstra Forever. Can you offer something like this. cheers bill Comments (4)
Surely you are intelligent enough to see the total stupidity of that ridiculous "capped" offering from TPG (and every charlatan like them) for what it is.
If you truly believe you get "$300 worth of calls for $20.00" do you also believe in the tooth fairy? FGS!!! Comments (11)
whoa -- didnt expect a reply like that .
i have added up our voip calls per month and it is definately a viable proposition. you must be oppertating on tighter margins than i though. please im not trying to upset you, im just explaining as a dedicated believer in exetel what i was considering was a good deal. sorry / sorry / sorry --- i truly didnt think this was such a revalation. may i still ask though do you use vodaphone for your mobile phone plans and would their be a possibility of offering optus network plans in regional areas where vodaphone does not cover. ---- goes and hides in my concrete bunker out back. Comments (4)
"Capped Plans" are aimed at the terminally unintelligent that some how can't seem to see that mobile carriers aren't benificient angels giving them unbelievable discounts but commercial enterprises that prey on the stupidity of the innumerate.
Exetel, run by real people who actually respect the fact that people have trouble with the smoke and mirrors and sheer lying of mobile carriers provide per minute rates (charged per second) that allow an end user to pay as little as possible for their mobile calls. It sickens me, almost physically, when supposedly intelligent people seem to think that the ridiculously high charges ALWAYS applied to each element of these lyong capped plans result in a lower cost. Do you think that slimeball companies such as TPG really offer you $300 worth of mobile calls (as, say an Exetel plan would offer you) for $20.00? How dumb would anyone have to be to believe that? A 94% discount on retail just for you because you are so special?????? FCS!!! Wake Up!!!! Mobile calls these day last on average less than 40 seconds. And don't argue with me about that - they are mobile call carrier averages. This means that flag falls, charging per minute/per 30 seconds etc multiply the "appparent" call cost by 12!!!!! Only a total idiot believes these stupid capped call plan "promises". I'm ABSOLUTELY the wrong person to talk about this with. Try putting in a little real analysis before you accept such stupidly transparent marketing scams. Or do you really believe David Teoh and his muppets want to give you, personally, an extra special deal? Last time I had an intimate knowledge of David Teoh's apprach to a good deal it was for him to remove one third of the tubes from the office lighting and turn off the hot water in the ladies bathrooms to reduce costs. And you think a TPG "capped mobie deal" is aimed at giving you a financial advantage????? Read the f***ing ts and cs! Comments (11)
John ,
i would like to outline our phone / internet / mobile expenditure for January 2009. - pacific adsl2+ internet [[ why am i with pacific because Exetel does not deal with Telstra for adsl2+ and they where the cheapest 30GB plan]] $74.95 for 30GB [ uploads not counted] $20 for phone line from Telstra -- [thieving bastards] $10-60 Exetel HSPA C1 PLAN -- $12.10 Exetel VoIP - Consisting of-- Intercapital: 20 calls $2.00 Regional: 27 calls $2.70 Mobile: 3 calls $1.55 Special: 1 calls $0.30 Total: 51 calls $6.55 $12-00 TELSTA next g mobile - no calls this month -- just throw the mobile in glovebox of car incase of breakdown TOTAL -- $129-00 APPROX PER MONTH. ----- If i should drop adsl2+ with pacific and mobile with Telstra and phone line rental with Telstra and VoIP with Exetel -- Total outlay per month - $120 per month. - Now with TPG using only 51 calls per month even at .80 cents per minute and 35 cents flag fall and average call 7 minutes. By my calculations i would be $50 dollars better per month approx. by Changing to Exetel $37-50 5GB per month HSPA and using Optus / TPG $19.95 per month with #300 dollars calls included. That’s - $37-50 + $19.95 ------- $57-45 ------- per month for [[ 5GB Broadband & $300 calls free]]... $300-00 per month phone calls -- and yes our current phone usage would support this plan. --Its Not just for Fairies but for those that can use it.-- cheers Bill Comments (4)
Total crap.
51 calls (of any length to a land line)from a mobile using VoIP over HSPA = $5.10 not $19.95. Your "averages" are also crap as low connection time calls radically drive up the per call cost and carriers depend on the gullible attempting to use average to try and work out their likely charges. ALL "Capped Call" plans from ALL carriers/re-sellers are sheer nonsense designed to take money from the gullible/stupid. However this is a blog on an unrelated topic to TPG's lying mobile call plans so - that's it from me. I am attempting to run a small business in a highly competitive environment - not run lessons on carrier pricing models. I could be quite wrong in everything I've said - but if you think that - you have to consider why these carriers can't just give you a per second call price that could be easily compared? I can add nothing further. Comments (11)
"may i still ask though do you use vodaphone for your mobile phone plans and would their be a possibility of offering optus network plans in regional areas where vodaphone does not cover."
My Exetel mobile is certainly with Vodafone (which means I can buy the Vodafone-subsidised prepaid handsets without having to use their prepaid plans - I'm sure they'll wise up to that one day). And if I read the detail on exetel.com.au correctly, the HSPA plans are with Optus and can include regular mobile (3G) calls, though not as cheaply as the vodafone calls. So I think the answer is "yes" and "yes". Comments (2)
Standalone mobile = Vodafone = really low per minute rates charged per second.
HSPA - tied to the Optus network (fair enough) pretty ordinary rates that are nowhere near as good as those from Vodafone. Comments (11)
Exetel provide 'standalone' mobile via Vodafone because Vodafone offer us a simple price per minute (cahrged per second) tariffing wholesale plan.
Optus want to use their retail scamming methods of convouted lock in pricing with high up front bonus discounts thate is anathema to honest people. We have put the case to Optus for over three years that we would like honest tariffs but compared to the sleazes in the mobile wholesale business our volumes are infinitisimal and we don't expect Optus to offer plans that suit tiny suppliers like Exetel. We will NEVER become a DODO or a Crazy John or any thing like those companies. Comments (11)
Sorry for a second comment before you could respond -
but is it worth offering some Loss leading bundled packages [ Mobile & Broadband pckages - on Optus Network for region 1 / 2 Areas ] - into the new HSPA frontier while its still in its infancy. You may only get one shot at this. Region 1 and 2 will have a far greater pickup where adsl2+ is not availible. I remember the Early Swiftel and Exetel days where you gained market share by offering very close to the bone pricing. Comments (4)
Exetel's offerings are lower cost to the end user than ANY other provider and we make barely any profit a month at this level.
It's impossible for us to reduce our end user pricing and remain in business, We simply don't price to make a profit - only to break even. If that isn't clear by now (5 years) then there is nothing more we can do. Buy from TPG if you actually think that is sensible for your personal circumstances. Comments (11)
John,
I also believe your inclusion of Static IP and uncounted upload for wireline broadband as significant attractions or 'value adds'. Comment (1)
I agree with the Static IP but a lot of residential users don't know what it is so I didn't count it as a benefit.
Same with not counting uploads - that's such a scummy/sleazy thing to do I didn't see not doing it as a plus.....it's sort of like saying as a plus for yourself "hey, and I'm not a child molester". Comments (11)
LOL, Love it! Oh and I'm not a child molester! Must use that line sometime soon
+ I love the analogy that counted uploads = child molesting Comments (3)
I am a recently retired user and currently have (ADSL1 and ADSL2) broadband at 2 locations (home plus holiday flat) and use Exetel for voip, fax, sms and mobile phone. I also have a HSPA C3 account as backup. I use gmail for email.
My communication needs are: - a “mobile” broadband solution (about 1-2 GB downloads) - fax in and fax out (10’s per month) - voip (100 calls per month) - sms (10-20 sms per month) - mobile phone (less than $5 per month) I am attracted my low entry costs and PAYG. I am staying with my current plans because they are cheaper than changing over to the current PAYG alternatives. When I can get a better HSPA signal at my home, I’ll probably change over to only HSPA My current mobile and voip call charges are so low that I can’t yet justify paying out for an expensive mobile phone to use Voip over HSPA. Comments (2)
As HSPA improves it will be your ideal solution - and your demographic actually is the one we created the current add ons for.
Comments (11)
The YAGI antenna that you keep talking about and that Steve tested will probably help HarryL out here reception-wise.
Comments (3)
We will, hopefully, get some test samples from the manuacturer soon.
Comments (11)
A low cost mobile phone that can access (Exetel) voip would be great too!
It seems the only phones that currently can do that are optioned up with so much more than I want (camera, navigation, etc...). H. Comments (2)
There are going to be a large number of new HSPA phones available from now onwards.
Whether they come without cameras etc - hard to think that will be the case. Comments (11)
Offtopic, but have you seen today's announcement that 3 and Vodafone are merging? http://business.smh.com.au/business/vodafone-and-3-hook-up-for-new-venture-20090209-81cw.html
Comments (3)
yes - I had heard that was going to happen from our Vodafone contacts.
It is a sensible decision but it leaves a question about 3's current arrangements with Telstra. Comments (11)
for my mind the add ons that Exetel include with each account are excellent, the problem as I see it though is that for the most part the descriptions are straightforward and easily understood for those with a bit of technical know how, for a lot of people however they are not, I'm sure the agents do a great job explaining to their customers what the benefits are but if you are now looking at a different type of customer that hasn't looked at Exetel previously then more explanation is needed
Ideally each of the features listed should have a link to more information about that feature, some screenshots, a working example of the account interface, screenshots of the eXeSMS program, maybe some examples of what can be done with the hosted web space and the blog, some examples of call detail records from the VoIP service and some real examples of what the benefits of each feature is, to you and your team I'm sure all these features are obvious but to someone that's not so tech savvy you're speaking another language, I think you need to spell it out, not just what the feature is but show them how it's used and give some real world examples, how for $1 a month they could have an inbound number for a Fax service, how many people still pay $25 a month line rental for a fax machine, it happens but they don't always know about the alternatives, all great features here but plenty of potential customers need more than a one line description of a service or feature before they can understand the potential I'm sure in a web based environment providing this added detail is not too hard and the benefits would far outweigh the time and effort taken to implement, if nothing else I'm sure it would be useful for the agents and help them to make sales Comment (1)
By far the biggest add-on that I've seen costs Exetel nothing.
That is a total no-nonsense, what you is is what you get approach, with simple offerings and no extra complications. Not sure what proportion of users I speak for, but those of us who have been (and will be ) members for the long haul were also intially attracted to not having to pay for 24-7 call centres, marketing depts and other office bullshit. Exetel's continued promise of "not expensive, not razzle-dazzle, not perfect, but a high a quality as we can possibly manage (which has been pretty damned good) is not something seen too often in the market. Comment (1)
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