Friday, April 3. 2009The Creativity Cup Is Down to The Last DropsJohn Linton We will finish the changes to the ADSL plans over the weekend and the results so far have been very positive with new and churn applications up on average around a little over 12%. There is little doubt that the free hundred VoIP calls has made an impact just as the $15.00 telephone line rental did and the combination of the two is, we hope, going to increase the acceleration of new and churn orders as the offering becomes more widely known.I think this is the 'last shot in the locker' in terms of improving our ADSL offerings for some time as there is really virtually nothing left to cut the costs of delivering the services. The last remaining task is to see what can be done about improving our sales of mobiles either as stand alone or as part of a 'bundle'. We have done some preliminary work on revising the 'bundled' offerings but, as throughout previous years when we have attempted to put together some sensible permutations, the costs of the basic service components at our small size simply don't allow us to offer anything particularly attractive or even 'competitive'. I have never been very good at developing sensible mobile combinations as I have never really believed in the concepts - which makes the task just about impossible. Our issues are that the concept of hundreds of minutes for a few dollars is simply beyond our abilities as we are conservative (sensible?) enough not to make extravagant promises to our suppliers to get better deals. My other issue is that I've been using VoIP on my mobile for approaching 6 months now and I really can't see how any mobile based rates can really approach HSPA mobile phone/VoIP cost effectiveness at 10 cents per un-timed call to wire line destinations and something like 10 cents a minute for calls to mobiles. So - it will come down to gambling with a very few variables and I have very great reservations about gambling and that reticence is greatly increased in the uncertain times we now find ourselves in and the ongoing situations that may come about. We need to put together an offer of 100 mobile calls for $A15.00 or thereabouts (inc GST) on a bundled ADSL offering but it is proving beyond any wild stretch of my 'bravery' to find a way of constructing any realistic method of doing that. 15 cent untimed mobile calls, at our buy levels just aren't possible but, from everything I've looked at, that is about where a mobile offer needs to be. Having now effectively 'bundled' VoIP with every Exetel broadband service offering at no additional charge has made a mobile 'bundle' even more difficult. The best suggestion we have currently come u with is to include a sim (at no charge to the customer) with every ADSL service with a special set of low cost rates if the customer chooses to activate it. That at least has the advantage of simplicity and also makes 'distribution' of the sim relatively straight forward......but it's not really 'compelling'. The alternative was to include a number of pre-paid calls with the sim so that parents could give it to their children (who more often only have pre-paid plans of some type) as a 'bonus' and hopefully those plans get re-charged once the initial credit runs out. Again not exactly a brilliant conception nor very 'compelling'.The other issue with these initiatives is to find a way of getting the on line billing meters at a real time basis which has proven to be impossible in the past nad only a vague possibility at the moment. Obviously without this facility it isn't possible to offer pre-paid services or to be in any way creative with a fixed number of calls up to a threshold. Perhaps I'm running out of lateral thinking after so many years of trying to make communications offerings attractive in residential markets where we have no real ability to compete. I am, more often these days, inclined to believe that is the case and then it actually surprises me sometimes that Exetel has got as far as it has in the various market places that produce our small, but continually growing, revenues and I get re-encouraged to believe that small companies do serve some sort of purposes in residential markets dominated by the large carriers. The situation is far easier with business services as there are higher volumes and a greater willingness, and ability, to recognise true commercial realities that see 'free' handsets and huge 'caps' for what they are and it's much easier to design truly cost effective commercial plans for businesses. This applies across the range of communications services not just for mobiles and fortunately the large carriers and medium sized communications providers have such expensive 'sales and marketing' structures they have to charge very high prices which allows small companies like Exetel to compete much more easily. It looks like being a tough and fruitless weekend. Trackbacks
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Well I do think in this case you could be at risk of complicating the matter by bundling ADSL with mobile and VoIP.
I have 3 phones on Mobile 1. Two of these are the kids phones and maybe I'm just lucky they know when it's acceptable to make an outgoing call or SMS. I always found pre-paid to be a right hassle. Buying a shed load of credit for calls you really only make because you've prepaid makes no sense to me. To my mind, 'free' SIM for all Mobile 1, 2, 3, 4, X plans (and the capped plans if you had to) for ADSL customers would be a better option. Creating new plans and bundles when you've already got the basic services available; hmmm like I said, this is not keeping it simple. Comment (1)
Voip on a mobile is definately a great way to go.
Unfortunately, A lot of us live outside of the metro area's, which means we then end up with patchy Optus reception, or Vodaphone reception, Or we have good Optus reception, But its only 900Mhz. The problem with 900Mhz, Is that most of the phones available in Australia do 850/2100 UMTS, which is utterly useless for Optus + voip in rural areas, because we have to switch back to 900GSM I'd get one straight away if i could find an affordable phone, To me, $400+ for a phone which can do it is just too much. A "Nokia 6220/6121 Classic" would suit, 900Mhz HSDPA & SIP Support builtin. But then you realise the 6121 available in Australia is a 850/2100 device, The 900/2100 is mainly available in USA. - That leaves us with only the 6220. The only thing better than that would be something with Wifi (Face it, Why use 3G data when you're within Wifi range 90% of your day? - Not to mention better Wifi reception than 3G reception at many work places..), But anything with Wifi comes with a Touch screen, and a Wanna-be-an-iphone look - And these are the main phones which i mentioned about above (>400) Many of us just want a mobile phone, something which lets us keep in touch, and has cheap calls, Voip provides that, Its just the hardware isnt fully there yet for many. I dont care about touchscreen, I dont care about looks, I just want a simple phone, That connects to HSDPA 900 + Wifi + SIP - Doesnt seem like much of an ask does it? They all go hand-in-hand rather nicely. It's a good choice for those in Metro areas, Since you've got nice 2100 HSDPA reception, and plenty of phones which can do it.. (There of course, is a risk that i've completely missed a range of devices which fit the bill nicely..) Comment (1)
Have you considered offering a sim card that has a freecall to a local voip gateway.
Then people with low cost gsm mobile phones can also get the benefit of voip without needing to have an expensive mobile phone. I am pretty sure that would be a winner for Exetel and residential customers. Regards, Harry Comments (2)
It's probably not possible, but if you could get your Vodafone data pricing closer to your Optus data pricing I think you'd have a very competitive offer.
I always recommend your service for customers who's usage varies from month to month. Comment (1)
Prepaid caps are the go for kids/teens. Whilst voip generally works on a mobile, it is too early for it to be mainstream.
Your cap plans are very good as they are, but they need to become truly prepaid before they can grab the 12-35yr market as so many of them want prepaid. I know you don't have access to real-time billing, but is there any way for that to change without blowing the budget? Comment (1)
The Nokia 6121 is actually HSDPA on both 900 and 2100 MHz, and it is easily available in Australia (I have one ).
The Nokia 6120 is the 850/2100 version. Comment (1)
John,
Given that Mobile penetration in Australai is 111.4% (ACCC figures) this means that also most all your growth in mobile subscribers has to come through winning customers from other providers which is going to be a difficult task. I would suggest that waiving the $20 activation fee could help as it will incentivate those people you have been sitting on the fence to take up a Exetel mobile service without the cost of sending SIMs to people who may not want them. I know that from my personal perspective as a low volume mobile user the $20 activation charge combined with the unlock fee for my existing mobile were the main reasons that delayed me from moving my primary mobile services to Exetel as it was going to take 2 1/2 months to recover the $20 activation fee and a further 6 1/4 months to recover the $50 unlock fee through the monthly savings I will make by switching my mobile to Exetel. If I had to purchase a new mobile that was the equivalent of the handset I was provided for free under by my old provider then it would have taken 50 months to recover the handset cost through the monthly savings I will make by switching my mobile to Exetel. Les PS: You mention "something like 10 cents a minute for calls to mobiles" in todays post, and have mentioned a similar rate in previous posts, yet the listed (and charged) VOIP rates for calls to mobiles are still 22c per minute. The per minute rates for calls to mobiles is the reason that one of my clients that currently spends over $500 per month on Exetel VOIP is planning to move to another VOIP provider as their fixed to mobile calls make up about 75% of their VOIP spend. Comment (1)
Thank you for the suggestion - I'll add it to the list of implementations.
Similarly we will reduce the T2M rate in the same 'round' of adjustments. Comments (3)
Has Exetel considered bundling a netbook with its 3G plans?
E.g. Vodafone bundle the Dell Mini 9 netbook with 5GB of data for $60 per month... http://store.vodafone.com.au/dell-inspiron-mini-9-5gb-mobile-broadband-offer.aspx The netbook market is white hot at the moment. Comment (1)
...a modification to a "free" gateway call could be to charge a nominal cost to the gateway number...... say 5 cents per call?
It would be considered like a flagfall then. Comments (2)
I'm with you on your view of bundles John. I have never bought a bundled plan, ever, as they have never added any value to simply buying them separately. Perhaps it is because I never found a bundle that is targeted at me. In any case, I don't even bother looking at anything with the word 'bundle' in it anymore.
There is only one thing I can think of that made me delay a little before porting my partner and I to Exetel Mobile, and that is getting charged for voicemail deposits. My partner spends very little on actual calls, but gets a fair few voicemail deposits from work, so we don't end up saving much on her bill after porting to Exetel Mobile from Optus pre-paid (which has free voicemail deposits). Though, we do save quite a bit on my mobile bill, and having us both with Exetel gives us the benefit of the free Exetel-to-Exetel calls. Comment (1)
I'll add it to the list of issues to be looked at over the next two days.
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