John Linton
.........with apologies for plagiarising a memorable line from the beginning of one of Arnie's lesser known movies.
Data over 3G appears to be becoming a reality for Exetel...........maybe global warming is responsible for melting the glacial speed of progressing this implementation encountered to date?
After almost two years of trying to find a suitable mobile data service and getting absolutely nowhere either in Australia or overseas there appear to be some signs that some sort of HSDPA service will be available from Exetel before the end of the 21st century - all being well of course.
We now have the 'luxury' of considering three different services (though the way the Australian market is currently operating there is very little differentiators between the three services we are considering). I am unenthused by the likely final scenarios and even less enthused about the contract conditions that are being sought but I think I'm worn down by the efforts, not to mention the time, it's taken to reach even this point.
However, my very firm belief is that HSDPA is the only way to go for 'low end users' of broadband services and as the ADSL wholesale providers continue to make life more and more difficult for small companies like Exetel it's essential that we plan for an ADSL-less future within some not too distant timeframe.
None of the options currently available to us allow Exetel to provide the sort of HSDPA services that we believe the Australian marketplace requires but, if we actually do make a decision to proceed with one of the current three options we will be able, just as we were with our initial 'ventures' into VOIP, to set up the procurement, delivery and support processes that will enable us to have some realistic chance of continuing to survive and, hopefully, continue to grow in the Australian communications marketplaces.
My view is that there is no medium/long term way to compete with Telstra/Optus in their 'fight to the death' war over selling to the low end ADSL markets they both seem so desperate to obtain by giving away more than each other and my personal view is that they will continue to give away even more in their attempts to retain their wire line call revenues and line rentals.
However both Telstra and Optus, in their need to retain wire line rental and wire line call charges, do reveal a major weakness that HSPA ideally exploits. That is, of course, the need to keep charging for a telephone line and high priced telephone calls that they hide away when promoting their 'free' ADSL offers. HSDPA, on the other hand, allows the end customer to ditch the 'bitch' (telephone line cost and the ridiculously high call costs and use VoIP or mobile).
Ignoring the huge advantage of no installation costs and the ability to use HSDPA in different places (when you go away for the weekend, when you go on holidays (both in Australia and overseas) you save $20+ a month by not needing a telephone line and no matter which way Telstra tries to get round that issue they have the cost of the wire line monthly rental weighing down their 'give away' offers like the proverbial millstone round their metaphorical marketing necks.
So - HSDPA - no wire line telephone rental and no hugely expensive wire line telephone calls if the customer is prepared to use VoIP (which is a no hassle option for most people these days). With speeds now solidly approaching 3 mbps in many areas (against a theoretical 7.2 mbps which is planned to go to mid teens early in 2009) and included data allowances becoming more than usable for lower end users right now with some chance of becoming suitable for medium users in the not too distant future, it is a welcoming thought that might well become reality.
Looking at the current 'retail' HSPA offerings from the more aggressive Australian carriers and comparing them to the latest round of 'bundled' giveaways from Telstra and Optus an HSDPA service with VoIP would be less than half the price of the current Telstra/Optus ADSL giveaways with their line rental 'millstone'. Obviously HSDPA won't suit every lower end broadband buyer but, as far as I can see, you can make a very compelling case for it both economically and in its flexibility compared to wire line based services.
In fact I would think it would be the easiest 'marketing' job to put forward the advantages of HSDPA over ADSL that I've ever considered.
We will spend some time 'negotiating' some required changes to the various contracts and depending on the final outcome of those 'negotiations' Exetel will, hopefully, be in a position to make a decision by the end of this month.
I wonder how many times I have said that over the past 18 months?