John Linton We went to the Botanic Gardens this morning - something we have always meant to do on previous trips but never got around to. It was a really great place and the orchids were fantastic including many, many species we have never seen before including one that was breath takingly beautiful. So we wandered around for an hour or so before beginning the walk back to our hotel. On the way we passed the American embassy which was like an armoured pill box with small widows set on a hill with tank trap type road hazards, among other things, to prevent any motor borne assault. It is a sad commentary that America, once the 'saviour of the world' is now perhaps the most hated country on the planet for so many of the world's population. What went so badly wrong?
We had a good day wandering hither and yon and completed it by eating beef sukiyaki at the hotel's Japanese restaurant - something we haven't done since before we were married. So now we are back in our room having placed a wake up call and packed and are trying to keep ourselves awake by watching War of the Worlds. It has been a very nice, if very brief, break and it has certainly provided the relaxation that such breaks can do. I have made up my mind as to what direction Exetel now needs to take which I wasn't sure about when we landed at Changi 72 hours ago. So it has served its purpose and I feel happy that I can discuss our future plans more sensibly with Exetel's decision makers than would have been possible a few days ago.
The issue is really what does anyone aim to achieve when they set up a business as we did eight years ago? We didn't do it for money and we didn't do it to 'conquer the world' or to attempt any other of the things that seem to be involved in commercial life. We set out to do something better than anyone else who operated in an environment that we believed we knew quite a bit about and could deliver a limited range of telecommunications services to enough end customers to make a difference to the overall marketplace. It was a pretty ambitious objective but at the time we entered the market every other provider was charging very high prices and delivering not very much for the money they were charging. Everyone were slavishly following the "Telstra less X%" pricing model and doing nothing else 'real'.
Of course a few years later the TexMex bandit arrived and Telstra began to destroy its wholesale customers and ended up charging less than wholesale prices to end users and Exetel's raison d'etre evaporated. Now Telstra charged the lowest prices in the Australian marketplace and was driving every other provider out of business. Fair enough - that's what monopolists do and the end user voted with their feet/wallet/credit card and churned away from Exetel to Telstra. Depressing but that's the way of commercial markets so no tears or recriminations - we needed to move on before we ended up like all the other ISPs who had called it quits or taken iinet's money for their business. A decision had to be made because if you are going to work for money then residential ADSL is not a place to be right now - or for the past few years.
So we need to decide what we now do about residential ADSL. The easiest option is to get out of that market - there is no money in it for Exetel - and there never has been - it doesn't lose money but it does take a lot of effort to provide such services which, if you are not making much better than break even is not a sensible way for adults to spend their time. However it isn't that straight forward now the 'NBN2' is still not going to be delivered for an unknown number of years. Much as it would financially suit Exetel's owners (including me) to sell the whole or part of the business to someone who sees more value in it than I do it can't be done right now....at least it can't be done without a lot of hassle which I am just not prepared to go through.
So - I will oppose any changes to our 'status quo'. Decision made.
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