John Linton
I received an email last Thursday requesting information from the journalist who wrote this article:
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/68669,iprimus-to-launch-%E2%80%9Cnaked%E2%80%9D-broadband.aspx
I provided some brief answers to the questions in the email but didn't receive any request for clarification and his foreshadowed telephone call never eventuated and I can now see why.
If you bother to read the article (it's mercifully short) it appears to be a 'free' advertisement for iPrimus who are "planning to introduce "naked" ADSL "soon". I was amused by the claim by the iPrimus spokesperson that they had actually been delivering it to business customers since 2000 as that is such transparent BS - of course - EVERY provider of business DSL services has been providing DSL over standard non dial tone lines since DSL over PSTN first became available around 1998!
So much of that little article was about how iPrimus, InterNode and some company called "Adam" were "about" to provide "naked" ADSL that I wondered why the article was written when:
a) That's not exactly 'news'
b) No pricing was given
c) No coverage was given
d) No advantages over current 'naked' ADSL services were even claimed
iiNet, as far as I know, was the first company to provide 'naked' ADSL and has been offering 'naked' ADSL for some months and even Exetel has had customers
using 'naked' ADSL2 since mid-December 2007. What's the big deal?
One of the comments in the article:
"Like iPrimus, Internode will also offer the option of an Internet-only plan without VOIP. This will be followed later by a voice and data bundle."
was both a nonsense and, it appeared to me, a deliberately untruthful and pointless statement - obviously the vast majority of 'naked' ADSL users will use the service for VoIP (it's the main attraction of 'naked' ADSL). As far as I know iiNet offers "free" unlimited national VoIP calls and Exetel includes 100 national calls (effectively unlimited for 99% of users) and there is no "extra charge" for these services other than the end user having the equipment that can utilise VoIP - so a "bundled" VoIP service is a great cost advantage to those users who take it up and only a 'disadvantage' if the ISP is offering a 'naked' ADSL service at an inflated price.
To release a 'naked' ADSL service without an included VoIP offer (and of course some users will prefer to remain with their current VoIP provider) is pointlessly stupid - it doesn't cost anything if the ISP already has a VoIP service and the actual cost of the calls (like the cost of the other IP traffic) is costed in to the plan. OK the estimated cost of the calls could be deducted from the plan cost but and a "VoIPless" plan could be a few dollars lower cost but what's the point? VoIP calls are currently 'standardised' at 10 cents anywhere in Australia and there's little end user advantage/disadvantage in using any other provider's VoIP service to make such calls.
From what I can see of the early stages of take up of ADSL2 without a usable PSTN telephone service there are two main advantages which will mean that a person to whom this service is available will prefer it to a service that is based on also having a standard telephone service:
1) The customer will like the advantages of a slightly lower cost for the base services (at least currently the ULL needed to deliver 'naked' ADSL is some $8.00 more expensive than sharing the line with a telephone service - LSS) and the much lower cost for the telephone calls.
2) The provider will like the advantages of not having to provide assistance and resolution of telephone service faults. While the CSG is not particularly onerous the demands of a customer who has trouble making telephone calls is significantly more demanding that someone with ADSL issues.
If iPrimus/Internode et alia think that introducing 'naked' ADSL2 sometime in the future is somehow newsworthy it must be a very slow news day - that horse bolted some months ago.