Thursday, October 1. 2009I Have Always Liked "Billing Day"......John Linton .....because it is the one 'tangible' moment in each month that tells you that, despite all of your own doubts and the 'criticisms' that you receive at every other moment of every day you are in business, that you did better over the previous 28/29/30/31 days of 'business' than Exetel has ever done before. While I have little doubt that many other companies in the communications marketplace does better than Exetel does - that has never concerned me....it is a genuinely pleasurable feeling that is generated by the email summary of billing by category with its comparisons to the previous month and, above all, its total that briefly assures you that you made enough correct long, medium and short term decisions to have, once again for the 66th consecutive month, for Exetel to grow a little further. Perhaps it reflects poorly on me that I get so much pleasure from such a short term result but I suppose Exetel is still run on the knowledge that this is a very tough industry and this is a very tough time to be in business. I have also, personally, never lost the 'back of the mind' feeling that we are a tiny start up company (although if I ever really think about it I know that this is no longer true) where 'survival at all' is still something to be pleased about and wondered at as it was in the very early times of Exetel's existence. In any event and for whatever reason it still gives me a few moments of great pleasure. While the "GFC" (the other relatively unimportant GFC - not the Geelong Football Club) has had little/no effect on the Australian communications industry (including Exetel) in any obvious way that I can see/determine there appears to be the first signs of some effects in some parts of the results I have just looked at. Our business services grew more strongly in the past month than at at any time in the past which is partly to be expected because of the extra resources we have deployed in that area of our business but I think it is more than that. I think it is partly that more businesses have decided to reduce costs where they can given the 'straw poll' analysis of some of the accounts we acquired during the month and some of the 'agents' we acquired over the past few weeks have decided to choose Exetel rather than their long association with more expensive resellers of the identical services - I guess big mark ups are becoming harder to justify. The other thing that 'appeared out of the blue' was the sudden decline in two of the three types of ADSL2 new sign ups during September which broke an almost seamless month on month increase while, again for no discernible reason, ADSL1 new orders virtually doubled. I can make no sense at all of that situation and, despite a comment from a reader of yesterday's blog that "1500 is as fast as anyone can usefully use" (which I would personally agree with for a non child user) the fact is that ADSL2 is lower cost because of Telstra's ludicrously high charges, to Exetel, for 1500 ADSL1 monthly connections. I have absolutely no idea what caused this and as I was away for the whole of September I didn't pick up the daily analysis so I can only look at the 'tracking' in retrospect without being able to look at what might have happened each day of September in terms of competitor activity. Our HSPA results, while showing a reasonable percentage increase for September were also very disappointing but the explanation for that is probably known to us - or at least a contributor to it. I really don't have a clue how to address that issue and will need time to decide what to do....although time is no longer on 'our side' as it once was with two of the key plusses no longer available to us via circumstances and my own naivete - perhaps stupidity would be a better word. Then, of course, there are the ABS figures for the first half of 2009 which, despite their somewhat dubious source, are, at the very least, an indicator that the ADSL part of the communications market is either at saturation point or rapidly nearing it. I don't know whether that is something temporary or is in fact truly indicative that growth in residential data communications has reached a hiatus for any one of a number of reasons including all the uncertainty caused by the Labor Party's 'NBN2' scam/cover up/whatever. It doesn't have much relevance as to what has caused it - only that it is a puzzlingly abrupt change in the previous scenario. We would normally do a business plan review at the end of the first quarter to ensure that we are 'tracking' as expected and we will complete this review around mid-month. While overall revenue by product/service is tracking as expected (and profit is tracking in excess of the forecast for the first three months) there are clearly indications that thins have begun to change away from the assumptions we made only three months ago. So, having got the benefits of the 'instant hit' of reading the monthly recurrent billing results it's back to the endless, grinding, prosaicity of trying to understand the un-understandable and then making some sorts of decisions on how to proceed from there in the hope that you might be taking, if not the best possible action, then at least not the worst.
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I signed up with ADSL1 8mb as that is all i could get at the exchange i would have loved to go with exetel adsl2 naked again but yeah cant get it.
maybe that could be the reason? but still seems high for everyone doing that. Has it got something to do with Tasmania? Comment (1)
Perhaps the 'NBN2' available in Tasmania in the not too distant future will give you a sensible option.
Comments (6)
We're in a similar situation. Just moved into a greenfield estate and only had the option of resold Telstra ADSL2 or ADSL1 on the CMUX, so we chose ADSL1 8Mbit... would have signed up to naked ADSL2 in a heartbeat if it was available to us.
Comment (1)
What percentage of exchanges that were available for Exetel ADSL2 still have free ports? Could that be a factor in ADSL2 signups?
Comment (1)
The figures I quoted were 'gross' applications received - not net after rejection for no capacity.
Comments (6)
Gareth and Anonymous,
Do you find that you actually often obtain 8Mbps in practical use ? In accessing overseas web sites ? Or maybe just in peer-to-peer with local connections ? Comment (1)
Hi John,
I am a bit concern about the new plan... (1) There is no more Free 100 VOIP calls/month... From my past experience, this is an attractive selling point to 'encourage' customer to take up the plan. (Other than the low cost) (2) A continuous decrease in Off-Peak hour... One of the big attraction for Exetel compares to other ISP is a longer off-Peak hour. From 12 hour to 10 hour is a concern but still manageable... (as it was a temporary measure for the purpose of clear up the clog for the 12AM-1AM traffic congestion) But now I am a bit concern as the Off-Peak hour is further reduced from 10 to 8 hours. My guessing is that the off-Peak will not go back to 12 hours as it was planned on November (I hope I was wrong ) I would not call it unfair as this is only for the new client... What worries me a bit is that Exetel is losing a few selling point that is clearly leading other ISPs... For example, 100 Free VOIP calls is clearly beats TPG's 500 Free VOIP min. by a mile (or more)... But now the advantage is lost (or even reverse) as there is no more Free VOIP calls. There is no doubt Exetel's rate is still better. But with a number (20 or 50 ...if not 100) of Free VOIP calls is always handy when selling Exetel's products.... I know there must be a lot more concerns in deciding price for products... Just hope to contribute a little bit of experience from my end... Comments (2)
The TPG "500 minutes of VoIP" (for which they charge $10.00 is a typical scummy company scam.
Small print says "each call is deemed to be ten minutes....irrespective of how short it is. Therefore at ten minutes a call the user gets a maximum of 50 calls for $10 - a minimum cost per call of 20 cents - as far as know double the cost of most other VoIP calls. Similarly TPG's 'off peak time is as little as five and half hours per day compared to Exetel's eight on the new plans. Exetel provides 60 gb of off peak time - TPG provides 40 gb Exetel charges zero activation - TPG charges $60.00. Do you really think the TPG plan is better? Comments (6)
Hi John,
I'd get ADSL2 tomorrow but it apparently isn't available at the Wodonga exchange. Apparently it is available over the river in Albury. Why would that be? Comments (2)
Hi John,
The TPG deals was/is never anywhere close to Exetel's.... Otherwise I wouldnt be using Exetel since you started Exetel.... I was only referring to the 'Free' component of the package... You know how Residential clients would whinge about the "Free XYZ" from different ISP ...etc. (The usual marketing trick) Good to see Exetel has $0 activation for now~ 1 more extra edge to pull clients in...... Comments (2)
Unfortunately it doesn't work for everyone, some users would rather pay $60 setup/transfer and 50c per peak GB excess.
Perhaps a "no contract" plan with a $60-160 setup cost - and very low peak/off-peak rates - might be a nice option? Comment (1)
Hi John,
Did you get a chance to check the postcodes of your ADSL1 applications to see if the surge may have been country based and affected by your Exetel Country 3G advertising? I thought that was a very interesting question. Also you've often mentioned the "me tooism" of the Australian BB market. To that end it's a shame to see your offpeak quota move from 12 hours to 10 hours to 8 hours. midnight to 8am is the same as what I used to get with my previous iiNet service. I really appreciate the larger offpeak time. Two questions: 1/ Any chance Annex M can be enabled and therefore purchased on the Optus DSLAMs? 2/ Any thoughts of having upgrade options to increase a customers traffic prioritisation? say + 1 level for each type of traffic for $10 / month. + 2 for $50 / month. + 3 for $100 / month. May be useful for selling plans to SOHO and business customers. Regards, Michael. Comment (1)
Exetel is already saving them money with the $0 activation so I don't think they would discount the early termination fee. If a person wants no contract they can pay $100 when they leave (beats paying it upfront).
Comment (1)
The 'surge' was partly in the regional areas in which we advertised - but not wholly.
The new plans are based on aiming at a different demographic and aren't intended to appeal to Exetel's current ADSL2 customers. Exetel pretty much 'invented' the off peak period concept and has tried many versions of it over the existence of Exetel and on at least two occasions while designing other ISP's plans going back to dial up days. AnnexM is an Optus/AAPT decision which at our tiny volumes we can't influence. Prioritising traffic shouldn't ever be required on a correctly provisioned network. Comments (6)
Do all Exetel customers have the same billing date? Does that not cause havoc with your business in the few days before and after rollover? (e.g. spike in usage as everyone tries to use up their quota at the end of the month, spike in calls to the accounts dept., etc.)
Comment (1)
Stanley,
Since Exetel first sent out a bill and up to now that has been the case. It doesn't cause any issues either on the network or in terms of administration and is a clean and simple way of operating the business. We have had to upgrade the hardware power that runs the billing platform on several occasions as the volumes grew and one day we may use multiple bill cycles but for the moment we are happy enough with the current process. Comments (6)
I agree with those who have expressed concerns about the drop in off-peak hours (and the loss of free VOIP calls, SMS, Fax etc). Certainly the 12 hour off-peak was something I found extremely compelling with Exetel...
(Not so much the volume (I've never got anywhere near to 60GB) but the fact I could do things in the morning (like manually starting big OS updates that can't (easily) be automated) without worrying about blowing out my peak allowance. It is of course more a psychological effect (especially at $1.50 or even $3.00 per excess GB) but it "feels" significant nonetheless). I know you have said you are aiming at a different demographic and are not expecting to appeal to current customers... but what about the previous demographic who would have signed up for Exetel based on the old plans but for some reason could not/did not (on contract, not aware of Exetel, no ADSL2 in area but about to move etc) but would given the opportunity (which might be as simple as a current user referring them or becoming aware of Exetel through some other means)? From you previous blog posts it seemed that you were still getting a significant number of people signing up with the old plans. Now you have changed things significantly to attract a new demographic at the apparent risk of significantly decreasing your attraction to a group you were previously (seemingly?) doing very well with? eg what proportion of previous sign-ups were on referral? If you've now changed the target will you also change the likelihood that current users (no longer targeted) will refer new users from a different demographic? I guess time will tell... Comment (1)
I will. I was always under the impression it was not available because when I plug my phone number into the Exetel website's availability section, I always get the following reply:
ADSL2 Number: 0260xxxxxx Exchange Code: WDGA Exchange Availability: NO Exchange Capacity Reached: NO Telephone Service Availability: Not available now ADSL2 Service Availability: Not available now Theoretically Estimated Low Speed: Theoretically Estimated High Speed: Comments (2)
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