John Linton
....and therefore thank the people who've misused this term about Exetel for so long.
I maundered on yesterday about trying to finalise new directions for wire line broad band plans in time for July 1st which over the past 24 hours I think I've finally done - at least for the ADSL1 plans and I've passed through the details to the data base administrators to put them in place some time in the next day or so. I'm pretty happy that what we eventually came up with are the very best ADSL1 plans available for the majority of Australian users who can't get ADSL2 and don't use P2P. I base this statement on looking at the alternatives from the largest ten ISPs in Australia and, as far as that has been possible, compared "apples with apples" and then removed every sort of obfuscation that exists in understanding the base premise of:
"what you think you see, is what you really do get" - and you get it at 10% - 15% less than you can get it from any other provider.
(It may sound really easy to do but it wasn't and it took weeks longer than it should have).
But the 'cherry on the top' is thanks to all the Exetel detractors who have tried to deride Exetel by using the inappropriate tag of a "no frills ISP". Really great idea to all of those people - thank you very much for the concept...we have decided to use the concept in creating a set of plans that don't have all the 'frills' the current plans do but allow us to reduce the 'entry' price at all four ADSL1 speeds and each of the three 'flavours' of ADSL2.......thus making available a range of "no frills" plans for incredibly low prices - and by definition elevating the current range of plans to.......haven't found an antonym for "no frills" yet but we will soon.
We will leave the current ADSL1 and ADSL2 plans in place exactly as they are, and we will leave them crammed full of all the 'frills' that add huge value for the average user but allow us to remove those values, sorry 'frills' to allow much lower cost plans to be offered that more than match the "frilled" plans of other ISPs but which are in fact very much "no frills". While that was very clumsily worded I think you should get the basic thrust of the logic. So over the next little while we will provide seven new plans (ADSL1 = 256/512/1500/8192 and ADSL2 = Naked/Exetel Phone Line Inc/Other Provider Phone Line).
Looking at our user's usage patterns over the past year - although they have risen appreciably as an average over the past 12 months it may surprise some people to know that over 60% of Exetel's end users use less than 6 gb of downloads in the noon to midnight period - which is why we eventually chose 6 gb as the included download for each of the seven new plans, in a different peak to the current and 'old' plans, period of 10 am to 2 am.
The major issue (after all the other major issues) was to determine whether we should offer an "off peak" plan component - given that so many inexperienced users seem to think they have to stay up to the start of off peak so they can start their downloads - apparently completely unaware of the myriad of download planners there are available at no charge to do this for them. In the end we decided to do this, but with a shorter time period and a much lower amount than the current plans. the decision was made more for consistency of plan presentation than for actual value to the average 'end user' and will be reviewed over the coming months. At this stage we think an off peak allowance of 12 gb on these 6 gb peak plans will be suitable.
As far as I can see, having looked at ten other ISP's prices, the new plans (no frills or not) have lower monthly prices by 10% to 15% than the lowest competitor's plan but with more included download allowance in peak time and even more in off peak times. So on an "apples for apples" basis the new plans significantly increase the 'margin of advantage' over every competitor's offerings.
So the issue now is what happens (if anything) when we put these new plans up? Will there be a gradual realisation by new prospective customers that every other ISP is ripping them off by charging huge margins? Very unlikely that will happen as we remain a completely unknown entity as far as the Australian marketplace is concerned. However I do think it will help us convince more country agents that there is a much lower cost (high quality) ADSL service than those they are currently selling - maybe that won't happen either but it is a possibility. Overall, and after a series of U-turns and mind changes, we think the new plans will add a new dimension to Exetel's wire line broad band offerings - no frills or not (stupid phrase) they stack up very well as the new base point in terms of pricing for ADSL services.
We will try and see whether we can get some "publicity" from providing this set of plans. I sometimes smile to myself when I see what Australia's 'technical media' deem to be "newsworthy" but in this brave new phase of Exetel's 'life' we will try to use 'publicity' for the first time in our short history. As we have no idea how to do that it will be a challenge to 'use' these different methods to attempt to make Exetel more widely known.
In any event, like many other things we have managed to use to our advantage over the last five and a half years, we have taken an 'attack' on our tiny company and are working on turning it around to a permanent advantage....may not work out completely but I would take any bet that the pejorative term "no frills ISP" will not be heard applied to Exetel beyond calendar 2009.