Saturday, October 29. 2011October Is Almost Over....John Linton ....which means the second quarter of the year will be gone in the blink of an eye. October has been a better month than September and the observable 'slowing' has either flattened out or turned upwards in most areas of Exetel's business - though not 'dramatically' by any means. The early successes of the newly trained Sri Lankan business teams in the first week of their actual selling activities were a very encouraging indication of things to come and we will be sending more Australian based resources to Colombo over the last two months of the calendar year to continue the sales training and the technical understanding of EOC services (this being done by one of our carrier suppliers who is quite enthusiastic about supporting this 'venture'). So, in almost every respect the week was very positive and sales were the best they have been for the month..... .....which are very positive indications for November - itself almost always the best month of the year in terms of new customer acquisition. From what I can see in a 'forecasting sense' we have very good prospects for a record November by some considerable margin and that will be a heartening result in this toughest of years we have experienced to date. This, if it in fact happens, will be mostly because we are finally seeing some of the benefits from the investments of time and money we have put into our corporate and voip businesses which are now providing solid growth that has more than compensated for the Telstra depredations in the residential ADSL markets we once relied on for our revenues and growth. That turnaround is also helped by Optus in the residential ADSL area of our business whose assistance has finally slowed the Telstra attrition and turned that part of the business to positive growth. What we do about the Telstra ADSL business remains unresolved. The ACCC is making some noises and Telstra is also making some veiled threats concerning a post wholesale/retail separation which remain to be actually put in to effect but it seems unlikely that they will do anything to change the current position. Almost two thirds of our Telstra based residential ADSL customers are in Telstra zones two and three where neither Optus nor AAPT can offer residential ADSL services. So we have zero 'room to manouvre' in providing services to those customers and even providing ADSL2 service at a fraction above break in those areas is not good enough to prevent Telstra Retail offering the same service at a lower price. It seems that only a long ingrained hatred of all things Telstra keeps those customers with Exetel....we certainly don't offer a better price. A conundrum we have never been able to solve but we do need to do something before the new calendar year. We did decide at our board meeting last week that we would decide what we did to resolve the ongoing Telstra problems which have basically just got worse each year since the TexMex invasion and, if anything, have continued to get worse under the Thodey 'reign'. I really detest people who just talk and talk about how bad things are and don't fix them and I am now realising I am becoming one of those useless people. The problem is, at least for me, that there simply is no solution other than to stop dealing with Telstra and I am finding that hard to find a sensible time frame in which to make that happen. The NBN2 seemed to provide some sort of alternative to an in non capital city ares but God knows what sort of time frame that will be - in the event that it happens at all. (I have just about given up on wireless broadband providing a sensible solution in rural Australia, or even the larger country towns). We need to find a sensible future residential customer strategy that uses completely different bases than those we have relied upon for the past eight years. I wish I had an inkling of what those may be. In the meantime we will continue to expand the business offerings and increase the sales and support resources allocated to them. Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2011 Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
Regarding your comment: "... even providing ADSL2 service at a fraction above break even in those areas is not good enough to prevent Telstra Retail offering the same service at a lower price." The Exetel B30 plan provides far better value than the Telstra $60/10G 2c/M excess business plan. I did a very thorough search before selecting Exetel. There are more things required for business services than just flowing IP traffic. The Optus and Telstra retail offerings all block ports so they are useless for business. I may have to buy another copper line and DSL service to replace my current problematic link (Telstra infrustructure issues, not Exetel's fault). Even with all those problems and extra cost, Exetel is still cheaper. Exetel has the right attitude towards the customer whereas Telstra doesn't seem to care. I hope that Exetel can continue to provide reseller DSL business services in my area as I would hate to be forced to go to Telstra because of anti competitive actions by Telstra.
Comment (1)
The "B" plans are business only plans - I was referring to residential ADSL offerings from Telstra that 'behind the scenes' offer cash bonuses of up to $300.00 as well as various 'bundling' discounts.
We pitch our business ADSL services at lowest market prices and with a full array of inclusions and will continue to do that as our 'small' business market continues to grow strongly. Comments (3)
"residential ADSL offerings from Telstra that 'behind the scenes' offer cash bonuses of up to $300.00 as well as various 'bundling' discounts."
Really? The cost for a Telstra 200gb ADSL2+ "Complete home saver" phone/internet bundle is $88/mth. And for that price I have to lock-in to a 24mth contract, and uploads are counted towards my quota with shaping at 256kbps. Or I can get "BigPond Elite 200GB Liberty" ADSL2+ (must include phone on the same bill) for $69.95 plus phone at a minimum cost of $22.95 - total cost = $92.90. Again, 24mth contract required and uploads counted. Or I can get "BigPond Elite 200GB Liberty" ADSL2+ on a 12mth contract for $89.95/mth. (plus phone) Or I can get "BigPond Elite 200GB Liberty" ADSL2+ on a 12 mth contract as a standalone product for $99.95/mth The same thing costs me $49.50 with Exetel, plus $22.05 for my Homeline Plus telephone. Total = $72.45 (Uploads not counted towards quota, and shaping at 512kbps.) There's no comparison. I have no need or desire for Foxtel or T-Box, or any of that other stuff, and I don't think I'm unusual or alone in that. And I find the extras which Exetel includes with each plan and Telstra don't (multiple email addresses, webspace, fax and sms from the desktop, VoIP, etc), to be really sensible and useful. Now I understand that Telstra apparently makes certain discounted offers available to selected customers from time to time, but I'm not aware of what these might be, and they're certainly not available to the average man-in-the-street. I've been a Telstra phone customer for over 30 years and an Exetel customer for almost 7 years, and I've never been offered any "special" Telstra pricing. In terms of the other ISPs, your closest competitor (TPG) separates their downloads into peak/offpeak (with just 6hrs each day for the offpeak componant), doesn't provide even half the benefits of Exetel's plans, and has a contended network, while at the same time counting uploads and costing over $10/mth more. So I really don't see how you can come to the conclusion that Exetel is not competitive against Telstra. (or anyone else) Unless of course you're referring to the amount of profit which Exetel can make from re-selling these services rather than the actual cost to the customer. As someone with a functioning brain and without excesses of money to throw away, I'm certainly not intending to switch ISPs any time soon. (I also appreciate and admire Exetel's "reason for being", care for the environment, and the way you do business) Comment (1)
Thank you for your support for all those years - perhaps I get a different view from reading the churn away reports and the emails detailing the 'special offers' that Telstra Retail provide to people who have churned away.
Obviously there are no reports from the many tens of thousands of customers who just continue to use the service. Comments (3)
"I've been a Telstra phone customer for over 30 years and an Exetel customer for almost 7 years, and I've never been offered any "special" Telstra pricing."
Me too. I'm amazed a Telstra salesperson has never called. Agree with all your comments AJL. Comments (2)
"A conundrum we have never been able to solve but we do need to do something before the new calendar year."
Is Telstra managing to reduce Exetel customer numbers in these zones two and three? I'm wondering if it's an option to continue "as is" until the future of the NBN is clarified? I can't really see the situation changing in these zones until then. Comments (2)
I think you are right in that until the NBN2 is available in zone 2 and 3 areas there is no alternative.
Yes, Telstra takes a significant number of customers from Exetel in those zones. I wish there was a solution. Comments (3)
|
Calendar
QuicksearchArchivesCategoriesBlog AdministrationExternal PHP Application |