Saturday, April 3. 2010Wire Line Telephone Calls.......John Linton ........joining horse drawn carriages and hand written letters as dim memories of times past? For whatever strange reason Exetel had a sudden 'surge' in telephone call revenue last month - an increase of almost 20% - which was very welcome but had no rhyme or reason and I doubt whether it will be repeated in the coming months. However it did cause me to consider the future of telephone revenue for Exetel which has only ever been a very small percentage of our business and we have never provided telephone rental line services except as part of the Optus based ADSL2 service. My view has always been that VoIP is so much cheaper than wire line telephone calls costs (let alone the additional line rental) that the markets for such services would rapidly decline and should be left to the carriers that operate them. I am clearly wrong in that view but we have always had much more important things to do over the past six years. So I read this article: http://www.zdnet.com.au/voip-the-default-for-optus-hfc-customers-339302201.htm without any real interest and found it riddled with the usual sloppy reporting and incorrect 'facts' as all such articles are but was a little surprised that, assuming it was reporting correctly, that a company like Internode was, apparently, charging "$A29.95 for a NodePhone" linked to a VoIP service. Of course it wasn't being reported correctly and the 'tweely' titled "NodePhone was simply a stupidly titled name for a re-billed Telstra line to which Internode adds nothing other than the billing of the telephone line....it remains a standard Telstra PSTN service....a service that has been offered by, literally, hundreds of re-billers since 1995 or so. What the 'reporter' of this breath taking article fails to understand is that a very large amount of VoIP is used by major carriers around the world and in Australia in their telephone networks so the 'shock/horror revelation' that Optus is using it on its HFC network is not either news or some sort of misrepresentation - just more sloppy, inaccurate and irrelevant Australian communications industry journalism. Having said that, the fact remains about the impact on all Australians of the accelerating decline of usage of the Australia wide (Telstra operated) residential PSTN and the future implications of not having it at all. There are now, according to unverified media reports, almost twice as many mobile telephone services in use in Australia than there are wire line telephone services. So if there were no wire line services available then it would make very little difference to wire line end users except those that currently have wire line services and are too remote to obtain wireless signals. As Telstra is being hounded by the current government to abandon its copper based services there is a probability at some time in the future that there will be no PSTN - bad news for a few but otherwise no problem - or is it? It is no problem if, as a supplier, you aren't dependent on ADSL type technologies and VoIP services that are dependent on ADSL. That market will disappear with all of the long drawn out operational problems and financial problems that are part and parcel of such changes. And it will. Only the time frame is uncertain. Having a wire line telephone (or a data service based on a telephone wire line) in some not so distant point in time will be as common as seeing a pony and trap on Parramatta Road. I'm sure that must be obvious to anyone vaguely associated with providing such services. So, 'everyone' can see this evident trend and will move from providing services over the Telstra copper network to whatever replaces it - pretty obvious scenario....even Exetel can see that necessity and at this stage a little less than 15% of the data service revenue we derive comes from non Telstra copper based services and that figure has grown from less than 3% some three years ago....presumably other communications companies will have similar trends. So it is 'inevitable' that the habits all Australians have developed over the past 100 years of basing their communications lives on a highly reliable copper based telephone call oriented network will, at some not too far distant time, have to change. But to misquote Henry Ford (who most people regard as the agent of change between 19th century and 20th century transport methods) "if I'd asked people what they wanted to improve their transportation needs they'd have said - 'faster horses'". I wonder if there is a corrolary there? Perhaps if you ask Labor/Green politicians or other generally uninformed people today what they wanted to improve their communications experiences they would tell you "faster in ground wire". If that thinking had prevailed 100 years ago the world's cities would be covered in horse shit.....though come to think of it...........
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I love VoIP, use it all the time and have no hiccups with my properly configured network.
Of course, VoIP still needs a lot of improving in the usability area. VoIP providers and manufacturers need to implement the 'girlfriend' or (if they want to be really thorough), the 'grandparent' test. The only provider that is really close to this is iiNet with their Bob device however, I've read reviews of even this device being put to the Girfriend test and there was a lot of support calls as the device just didn't work like an average telephone. I'm sure we'll get there, VoIP is still young technology. Comment (1)
Perhaps you're right.
We keep looking for a simple telephone hand set that plugs in to a router and also into a PSTN line. We have been looking for a long time and the models keep improving and we can now supply a 3 x DID plus PSTN device that I think would pass any technophobe test - you literally just plug it in and enter the numbers you wish to use. We will probably sell it for $A80.00 (inc GST). In the meantime we continue to look for an affordable 'magic box'. Comments (3)
Our family has been using VoIP exclusively for 4 years now and it certainly passes the 'Mum & Dad' test. It's so simple - PSTN calls still ring through as per normal but outgoing calls on any of the 4 cordless phones go through VoIP.
To make it easier for technophobe customers just setting up the device before shipping them out would nearly be enough. A sticker on each RJ11 port saying "ADSL goes here", "Telephone goes here" "PSTN line goes here" would probably do it. If people can setup their ADSL connections themselves, I can't see why it's so hard to setup VoIP, it's essentially 1 or 2 more plugs and 1 more username and password. Sure, VoIP isn't 100% reliable, and that's why we have one desktop phone that directly connects to PSTN (perhaps for emergency calls and whatnot). Comment (1)
> "For whatever strange reason Exetel had a sudden 'surge' in telephone call revenue last month"
I'm amused that this increase is 'unexpected' - as you removed the 'free inclusions' from all plans (as of the 1st March) - even from the in-contract customers. As such, customers were (possible unexpectedly) paying for their VoIP calls to landlines this month. Comment (1)
Perhaps, you should have noticed that I was writing about wire line revenues.?
Perhaps, you should expect a person who runs a company, in detail, would actually understand what the likely results of the decisions he makes would be? Comments (3)
At home I keep a POTS only because it is rental accommodation and I am pretty sure the owner would not like my going naked leaving him to reconnect a POTS at a later time.
At work in a new building all the phones are IP with a fixed cost per month for all use. I do not use wireless anything because it affects my body too much. Even sitting next to a mobile phone user leaves my head feeling strange for a couple of hours. And a wireless router gives me a mild nausea. I wonder if domestic wireless transmitters are the next asbestos. I stick with wired everything. Comment (1)
With the saturation use of mobile telephony it had never occurred to me that wireless data could be a problem.
Comments (3)
As antiquated as it may seem, I like the security and service guarantees of PSTN. There are two situations that make it superior to VOIP and mobile which when combined with an emergency, make it a necessary tool.
Firstly, provided you have one of those old powered-from-the-line handsets, it will work in a power failure. This is clearly an advantage over VOIP. (There are some smaller advantages over mobile in this situation.) Secondly, have you tried to use a mobile in mass disruption situations? For example bush fires or major train disruptions. You can't get on a cell let alone a call out. They just don't work. So my concern is the problem of an emergency. Congestion stops a mobile and power outages stop VOIP. PSTN will work and has priority routing for emergencies. PSTN just works - and it nearly always works (a lot more than the alternatives). Having said that, it isn't our primary communication method. We use VOIP over ADSL. But it is our security blanket. Comments (2)
Just following up on this I'm an Exetel customer on an exchange without Optus equipment. So I have to have Telstra PSTN and use Exetel BYO ADSL2. This means I can't use Telstra's budget PSTN plan due to their restrictions on line sharing.
I know it is a niche market but if a bundled resold Telstra PSTN line and ADSL2 could beat the bottom Telstra plan, I'd be interested. Comments (2)
I think the Optus VOIP use is a big deal - because it means a copper line is no longer necessary, from Optus or Telstra. All you need is a cable or fibre service.
Obviously this has been the case for many resellers for years, but Optus and Telstra do not offer a VOIP service to consumers. Furthermore - the point of no access during a blackout is moot for VOIP - how many people are using cordless phones? Even with PSTN, you still cannot dial 000 during a blackout. So, a VOIP connection is as 'dangerous' as a cordless phone. Comment (1)
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