John Linton .....on the basis that Telstra and TPG have lowered the cost of their 'promotions' over the past year to the point that there is no further cost cutting they, or anyone else, can do? Perhaps not but I don't seem to be able to find any "Christmas" offers from any Australian provider this year - in marked contrast to other years.Maybe I am not looking carefully enough - or maybe iinet's "Christmas Message" to its customers summed it up in their typical wankerish, obfuscatory manner:
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/371538/iinet_internode_gear_up_apps_2011/
I particularly liked the sheer lying effrontery of this (presumably a 'softening up' pre-cursor for some upcoming unpalatable back downs in the half year report figures):
"Michael Malone, said the provider was moving away from growing its
customer base - now at approximately 650,000 subscribers - and instead
looking to deploy applications over coming years."
.....almost made me spill my coffee in laughter for the incredible obvious lying stupidity of expecting anyone to believe that iinet had any part in making such a decision instead of Telstra's and TPG's cut price offers eating ever more deeply in to iinet's ADSL customer base. Does iinet think their customers are all illiterate fools - though by paying iinet's prices for their poor quality and over priced services does give an indication that might be the case. I think Telstra Retail and TPG determined that iinet's customer base would not grow and the over pricing and poor quality services have only allowed a charade of growth via constantly buying up other companies and then seeing those customer bases decline as the newly acquired customers were exposed to iinet's pricing and inadequacies. Then again I may well be quite wrong.......
.....and, in all fairness, it was nice of iinet to add a massive contribution to the general amusement of this Christmas season by publishing that incredibly stupid statement. Not many people are prepared to make such a public fool of themselves in the general interests of giving people such a good belly laugh to start their day.
The new ABS statistics in late February and the half year reports to the
ASX towards the end of January will make interesting reading. I will be particularly interested in seeing what Telstra are prepared to say about their market win back successes. It will also be interesting to see how Optus have fared over the past six months. I haven't seen any 'industry commentator' express any views about what is happening in the industry. Perhaps this indicates that no-one actually knows what is happening which is likely to be the case as most 'industry commentators' make no efforts to inform themselves or do any sort of research other than regurgitating what the different companies spin spivs feed them. Maybe 'news' always consisted of obvious lies pushed to the gullible by the unscrupulous in the interests of the venal?
Yesterday was a very pleasant day for me personally and for Exetel as a business. We ate from a very interesting menu at a lunch hosted by our largest supplier and exchanged some useful information about the market generally according to our different sources and interests...always a very useful thing to do. Corporate sales didn't quite make double figures for the day but certainly set a new record for any December day - let alone this late in December. We almost completed the 2011 operating plan with only some minor tinkering now required to finish it off today and then we can do the hard work of writing the documentation required to allow us to begin 2011 on the first day of January with decks swept clean, all brass work polished speckless and all movables stowed Bristol fashion.
A nice feeling.
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