John Linton
I completed my, reasonably, detailed survey of ADSL end user pricing yesterday and found that, as far as I could see, nothing had changed since I went on holidays or, if it had, it was via unpublished on web sites "special offers" via direct mail/phone calls to possible new customers by different carriers/suppliers. As far as I can see the next 'best' ADSL2 offer available at the moment (the best is still Exetel) is from TPG with their somewhat misleading 'headline' claim of $A49.95 per month for 80 gb a month (40 gb of which is available in either 1 am to 9 am period each day or in 2.30 am to 8 am period each day (two different plans at the same price). There are also similarly misleading plans for much lower quotas at lower prices with stranger splits of off peak/peak times.
As with all LSS plans they are also misleading in that they don't make clear that on top of the DSL plan charge any user will need to also pay another party for a telephone line rental and any calls they make on that telephone line - as telephone line rentals average around $A30.00 per month these days (and if the latest ACCC pronouncements come in to force will go even higher in the future) these plans aren't as good as they seem.....but then nothing ever is in a marketing dominated world I suppose.
So the TPG plan appears to be 40gb peak and 40 gb off peak (for either an 8 hour or 6.5 hour period for a monthly cost of $A80.00 a month ($A50 for the ADSL and $A30 for the telephone line). However, Exetel offers 30 gb peak/60gb off peak (with a whole lot more extras and a 10 hour off peak period) for $A75.00 based on the July 1 prices so the TPG plan is by no means the lowest cost plan in today's marketplace - unless you are stupid enough not to count the cost of renting a telephone line in the 'analysis' of what monthly payment is required to obtain an ADSL service.
So I remain at a loss as to what to do in terms of re-pricing Exetel's ADSL2 plans to ensure they remain the best value for money/lowest cost per gb downloaded in the Australian market and there are only less than three days to go to make such decisions. I suppose the best thing to do, assuming what I've just stated is actually correct, is to use the Powertel/AAPT provided exchanges to do something different (as those services are LSS as opposed to the Optus services which are ULL. Perhaps some simple "marketing" is required to make the comparison with the TPG 'flim flam' more directly obvious - the easiest thing to do would be to reduce the ADSL component price and increase the telephone line price for the Optus based services for instance.
Our problem, as always, is that our port costs, while competitive on the Optus services aren't as competitive on the AAPT/Powertel services and although the IP price drops have made it possible to provide lower pricing the charges AAPT make for port rental and bandwidth connectivity are far higher than should be charged at this time in the ADSL 'product cycle' - it has always been the case and has always been a problem. I am not finding anything very inspirational having mulled over the issue for a few days and as time is now running out I am thinking the best thing to do, while a cop out, is to do nothing - but that sort of 'cowardice' goes against my basic instincts in doing my part of running Exetel.
In thinking about the issue overnight, it seems to me that the best thing to do is to convince AAPT to reduce their pricing to us and to use the AAPT ports (not their wholesaled iinet ports) to provide a direct comparison to the TPG 'flim flam' and make some smaller changes to the Optus based services. I think there is probably some room to make that happen based on other business we are considering doing with AAPT which if it turns out to be viable will make a big difference to the costings involved.
Perhaps I need to let the relaxing effects of a holiday wear off as they undoubtedly will as the week progresses?