Monday, April 20. 2009NBN2 - Already Unnecesary From What I SeeJohn Linton I finished working on the remaining 'loose ends' of our changes to various aspects of our 'product line ups' yesterday morning and we will now make decisions on what we do to improve our mobile, VoIP and wireless data services for 'release' by May 1st (having comprehensively missed the April 1st dead line). It has taken a lot longer than I thought it would partly because of the constant changes in those market areas and partly because of our inability to obtain improvements in our 'component' costs from our suppliers or prospective new suppliers. We have one further meeting with a possible new provider today which is a long shot in terms of any advantages to what we currently have a need for but may prove more useful in the future if they do decide to do 'real things' in Australia having made some half hearted attempts in the past but never achieving very much. With the current carriers focus on how they can get money from the government during the new 'investigation phase' of Krudd's latest fantasy "No Broadband Now" election promise breaking distraction maybe there is a chance for a new carrier to make some 'waves' in the Australian market and stir up the increasingly stolid status quo - not much of a chance but some chance perhaps. I had hoped to be able to reduce our current mobile offerings by around 30% for business users and 15% to 20% for residential users and may still be able to do that but not with the required level of 'comfort' that we would have liked to have seen and be able to have a 'safety net' for. However I guess we'll just have to factor in more 'risk' than we would normally do to be able to meet the price points and content required by the majority of today's users. Similarly, apart from the modem prices, we haven't been able to do much in terms of reducing the costs of HSPA services though, again, we should be able to improve their wider appeal from May onwards by taking more risk ourselves. We had planned to do some, for us, significant amount of promotion this month but we encountered some unexpected concerns over the past week and I put that on hold pending their resolution. However we now need to proceed more 'forcefully'. The lack of the 'magic box' remains a barrier but we inch ever closer to finding the exact product that is needed to make this more widely appealing. So we will make some changes to the HSPA plans by COB on Friday of this week and then change the mobile and VoIP plans by COB on Friday next week with lower end user prices on all of those services - not of the magnitude we had hoped for but significant nonetheless. Like every other provider, I assume, I continue to be impressed with the rate of VoIP take up and the increasing use by both residential and business customers who make the move away from their PSTN/ISDN land lines. Exetel has run all of its business via VoIP for over two years now and I have done the same at home and for the past six months or so on my mobile. I can't tell the difference in quality between a VoIP call and a 'standard' call and I very much doubt that anyone else can - on either my mobile or the office phones in Sydney and Sri Lanka and my home phone. I suppose the only surprising thing now is that any sensible person uses the 'standard' telephone services at all these days. I find myself using HSPA more and more even at home and although it seldom operates at much above 1 mbps I really can't notice any difference between my home ADSL2 and the 40 mbps connection at the Exetel North Sydney office. While I understand that my usage (no major downloading) is not 'typical' of many broad band users it is certainly typical of the heavy business user and someone who recreationally uses internet in every aspect of their personal life (except for stealing other people's property). I no longer use the internet connections supplied by hotels, both because of the price and the speeds, and have more and more often begun to use my note book when way from the office or home and have even started to carry a note book as a 'standard' item in my brief case. I notice more and more people using their notebook/laptop in coffee shops and pubs as well as on buses and trains. It seems to me that there has been a change in internet use over the past three or so years towards mobility and the cost savings of VoIP and I also notice that in our monthly revenue streams with those services gradually becoming a larger proportion of our revenues each month. Our volumes are insignificant in a 'whole of market, context and our focus is more concentrated than the large companies so I'm not reading anything into that other than for many people an NBN2 (in the unlikely event it ever happens) will not very important for the majority of current or future broadband users. There appears to be an increasing similarity between the ways mobile telephony has replaced wire line telephony and the way that mobile data is beginning to become more important - even at this early stage of its development. However Krudd seems to have fooled the stupider members of the Australian electorate with his latest insanely stupid lies just as he did with his original insanely stupid lie (does anyone remember how he promised a 98% national broadband coverage for $A4.7 billion dollars with the first areas switched on by October 2008???? and if they do, and have seen Krudd now say it would never have worked WHY ON EARTH do they go along with his latest lie????? - oh I forgot - they're stupid). If there is anyone who hasn't become aware of this remarkable story it should lift your spirits: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/minette_marrin/article6122594.ece Trackbacks
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Thank you for the feel good link. Maybe there is some hope for the older folk with "Real Talent" instead of younger generation that think they know it all and have never experienced the hard times.
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Out of interest, are you getting great voip service on your mobile by using a native voip client or by using fring?
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I'm using the Exetel developed beta test version on my Nokia N96.
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this is here previous song also, even better I think
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/04/16/exclusive-susan-boyle-s-first-ever-song-release-revealed-listen-to-it-here-86908-21283564/ Comment (1)
John,
While I understand your concerns about the NBN, (I have the same concerns about the ability to deliver as well). There are some people, like myself, that believe this piece of infrastructure is necessary to the ongoing needs of this country. Currently, my exchange is one of a small number of exchanges with a full MDF at the exchange level. As a result, no provider is willing or able to install their equipment at the exchange for adsl2 services. This means I am stuck with an adsl1 service and must pay for a telephone line that I dont use. I would prefer the option to change to exetel's adsl2 offerings and have the option of using your fixed line service or VOIP service as my primary phone line. Currently, its not viable for me to do this. What excites me is that from a personal perspective, the prospect of an NBN potentially removes Telstra from the process (or at least neutralises them). I could have a wider range of providers available to me and get services that better meet my needs. In terms of the bigger picture, I think your concerns are valid, wouldn't the thought of an NBN would excite you and your business? Should you decide to move in the direction of utilising the NBN, you could provide better services to residential users and potentially move further towards a full service telco (paytv, internet, fixed line and mobile services). You can't dispute that one of the successes of the bigger telco's is their ability to "bundle" services and an NBN could potentially allow you to further develop this type of "bundling" services. I suppose that what I am saying is that I am still trying to comprehend your negativity towards this proposal. I agree that there are a lot of inherent risks (including the govt's alibility to deliver), but arent they risks worth taking? Your comments reminded me of Bill Gates who was once rumoured to say: “640K ought to be enough for anybody." Isn't taking the view of adsl2 and hspa being all we require, making a similar type of claim to what Bill said back in 1981?? I would be interested in your thoughts? Comments (2)
I'm not saying, nor have ever said, that continually improving the communications infrastructure is anything but a good thing.
My comments are purely related to Krudd's lying insanities that are designed to get him re-elected and can never be delivered. He promised NBN1 to get himself elected, turned round after he was forced to admit (his words) "it could never have worked' and then promised NBN2 at ten times the cost having bought himself two years based on his previous lie. if you can't see that then - fine - please allow me to have a different view. Comments (4)
I can agree with your take on the political way the whole NBN is being done.
It has to be said tho that if the govt. didn't do this, that private industry wouldn't step up within the next 15-20 and do it, so once more, Australia would become a telecommunications backwater far more than we are currently. Comment (1)
With due respect - your comment is factless speculation.
There will be no NBN2 arising from Krudd's current lies just as there wasn't from his "get me elected" lies. The simple point is that Krudd has simply assumed that Australians are stupid, pretty accurate assessment based on the reactions to hus insane statements, and has winged a figure and a timeframe for delivering a totally unscoped project that is unnecessary. It ALL 'get me re-elected" and NOTHING about an actual network implementation. Comments (4)
In terms of the political aspect of the NBN's 1&2 I actually totally agree with you!!! They are political stunts that are typical of government rhetoric.
I also have grave concerns about the governments ability to deliver the project on budget (if at all). My concern with your post today was that it (from my personal perspective), seemed to knock the idea of the NBN as an "idea". I'm glad that in a roundabout way you support the idea of the NBN from an ideological perspective, just not the political reality that we are faced with. While I am not a supporter of KRudd, (I am the complete opposite). I will continue to support the NBN from an ideological point of view in the hope that we can partly right the wrongs committed on the telco landscape by previous govt's (both Labor and Liberal). I just pray to the telco god that it works to the benefit of all of us. Comments (2)
So we will make some changes to the HSPA plans by COB on Friday of this week
Have you instigated these changes as yet. Comments (2)
No - I took a day and most of the weekend off - I'll re-look at them this week.
Comments (4)
Hi John ,
Ive been hanging off from making my decision as to which Exetel plan I can return too after my ADSL2+ 6 month try out with Pacnet, in the hope that whatever HSPA plan offers you may be considering my have come to fruition. Im left at present with needing 10GB pm ( min) on HSPA - is their any likely hood that the 10GB $57-50 plan may return again as it was up for only such a short time and my 6 months contract was not up with Pacnet then. I currently have a HSPA C3 plan with Exetel and was wanting to change to the higher 10GB HSPA $57-50 plan upon my return but it no longer exists - any chance I could get onto this plan -- as Im sure I can get you several other NEW HSPA users pretty quick -- sometimes the cheapest advertising is recomdendation from a user that others ask when they need help. cheers bill Comments (2)
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