John Linton
I noticed in one of the weekend paper inserts that Optus retail appears to be 'ending' its promotions of some of its recent bundling offers. There are so many of those offers that it's hard to keep track of them and this current "offer ends soon" could simply be the pre-cursor to even more attractive offers in the standard "run up to Christmas" advertising splurges so beloved of marketing departments.
I also had a look at the recently announced iiNet "naked" ADSL plans yesterday afternoon when I was in that very pleasant frame of mind that comes after an excellent leisurely lunch overlooking splendid views and in good company. As with everything in advertising it seemed to me that all any marketing department does is simply copy what some other marketing department has done (exactly) and to cover the aspects they have financial difficult copying they just obfuscate and , at least it seems to me,they obfuscate to the point of lying.
I don't see how some of the statements made about iiNet's "naked ADSL plans on the iiNet web site have got past their legal department's scrutiny - but presumably they have so I didn't worry about it other than to be amused at how stupid marketing departments think the human race is - perhaps they base that on what they see in their make up mirrors?
My view of 'naked' ADSL is that it's going to be an advantage to a customer who makes very few PSTN/ISDN telephone calls and either uses their mobile for that purpose or uses VoIP - it seems a good opportunity for someone who wants ADSL but doesn't want telephone call services on the line that is necessary for ADSL to also have to pay a rental for a telephone line they won't use - I guess even a marketing person can grasp that simple scenario?
There are three problems that have to be overcome to make a 'naked' adsl offering attractive.
1) Convince the carrier that 'owns' the telephone line from the end user to the exchange where your DSLAM/MSAN is located to sell it to you for a realistically low price - in which negotiation you will get significant help from the Telecommunications Act and the ACCC.
2) Ensure that the end user can make telephone calls cost effectively (either by using their mobile or by you providing them with an unbelievably simple to use VoIP service).
3) You also then have to price the 'naked' ADSL service so that it's more attractive than a 'normal' ADSL service that is offered by other people (including yourself).
1) is pretty much a no brainer thanks to the recent decisions of the ACCC and you can get a 'naked' ADSL line for around $A10.00 a month in some realistic volume spend.
2) is solved by companies such as Optus by using their low cost buy price of ULL to continue to offer 'unlimited' local and national calls (and calls to Optus mobiles) for no charge having shifted the cost of the telephone line to the ADSL service charge but by giving the free calls the service looks like "naked" adsl but more attractive. For iiNet its 'solved' by the marketing department obfuscation (....just plug your current handset in to your modem.....). I guess the iiNet support desk will get to explain to the customers who try that they should have bought a VoIP compatible modem and made sure their handset is compatible with that modem - maybe then the iiNet legal department will look up who approved the advertising for the service?
3) Now this is a little tricky as neither Optus nor iiNet's offerings actually seem to be at a lower cost than 'normal' ADSL (though it's true that the Optus bundled free telephone calls makes this a cost judgement based on the call spend of each individual).
As Exetel continues to slowly increase the number of ADSL customers who also use our VoIP services as a percentage of total customers we are interested in dropping the requirement for the customer to pay either us or another provider for a telephone line that is basically not going to be used. Our current barrier to doing this is that Powertel don't offer such a service and Optus charge, effectively, the same price for an ADSL service with a 'live' telephone line as they do for just an ADSL line - yes - not a typo or mis-print - that is what is charged (at least to Exetel).
I've never been able to work out why Optus do this but, once again, some marketing department obviously came up with the concept which, I assume, made some sort of sense 2 years ago but has been overtaken by events and will continue to be increasingly uncompetitive - at least for companies like Exetel.
Fortunately the combination of the pleasant lunch and a perfect Sydney summer late afternoon allowed the positive aspects of this strange situation to overcome the irritation factors and I think we will be able to come up with a solution that allows Exetel users to gain the key benefit of VoIP which is much reduced call costs and the saving from not paying for a telephone line they don't really need any more.
So after a bit of 'number crunching' I came up with these plans which I think will address the current issues while allowing the customer to actually use their current telephone exactly the way its currently set up with no change of number or line or anything else:
plans data line speed peak + offpeak total cost
Naked 1 ADSL2+ speeds 2GB + 48GB $45.00
Naked 2 ADSL2+ speeds 4GB + 48GB $55.00
Naked 3 ADSL2+ speeds 12GB + 48GB $65.00
Naked 4 ADSL2+ speeds 16GB + 48GB $75.00
Naked 5 ADSL2+ speeds 32GB + 64GB $85.00
Naked 6 ADSL2+ speeds 64GB + 64GB $111.00
All plans would include unlimited local and national calls with low cost international calls and calls to mobiles....and of course "not playing with the big boys" nor having a 'marketing department' it won't be necessary to weasel out of delivering the apparent downloads by including uploads in the data usage calculations!!
I must get the costings verified so we can 'launch' the new plans by the end of the week.
(I must get 'legal' to check I haven't somehow mis-lead any potential customer with the claims made or 'inadvertently' breached anyone's copyright!!!)