John Linton
......alternatively I need a refresher course in both reading comprehension and simple arithmetic.
I spent some time over the weekend re-looking at the ADSL2 plans and going through a fairly detailed analysis of the various offerings provided by a number of ISPs with whom I think Exetel 'competes'. It is a laborious and boring thing to do on a weekend and because of that it takes more time than it should and is prone to error because of the difficulty in so many cases of interpreting the 'qualifications' to what appears to be said. However, if you apply yourself long enough to any task, and check the results sensibly enough more than once you will almost always produce a result. I obviously failed in one of those aspects of addressing this particular task as I didn't end up with anything usable and will have to start the whole process again today....not a great thought with which to start the week.
I had expected, for no rational reason other than two years of statements in the media and hype from Pipe, that prices of ADSL services would have fallen by now from those ISPs who had helped Pipe through their financial difficulties and in return got 'incredibly advantageous preferential pricing' - as has so often been stated in the communications media I read most days of the week. If this has in fact happened then I see no sign of it at all anywhere. Unless my recent two analyses deceive me (and that may well be the case) the only thing I can see is that, if anything, the prices have increased slightly across at least four of those ISP's offerings - which can't be right - can it? Admittedly the 'included downloads' have increased.
The other thing I noticed was the re-emphasis on "off peak" time with the dishonest depiction of "included downloads" being scummily depicted as a single figure when in fact at least half, or in the case of TPG up to 70%, actually being in an "off peak" period of varying duration and starting time....and of course there was the unlimited 12 hour period offered by AAPT with its amazing start time of 8 pm (which in all the years I have been associated with providing internet services is the START of absolute "peak time". I initially had trouble with working out why that would be done until I thought about how AAPT uses their owned network and that peak time for them probably ends before 8 pm so it makes eminent sense to use their owned network usage advantage against companies that are essentially data only service providers. So, having taken for granted that Exetel has enjoyed a marketing advantage in using the off peak period to benefit end users since March 2004 that is either no longer the case or of dubious value.
Ignoring my deficient 'competitive analysis' it seems that the 'off peak' scenario needs a radical overhaul and some 'back to the future' thinking. I was very slow to pick up the AAPT rationale although Exetel has, since June 2004, used the reverse of that rationale to price our business plan offerings (our residential users required much more bandwidth in the evenings which left the business 8 - 5 period as basically unused for many years) thus making the data used in that period effectively 'free'. We have been offered/asked to be offered new pricing from the 5 providers we have some reasonable contacts with for new IP pricing based on different periods of the day and also just plain lower pricing for IP bandwidth to cater for the growth above the 3.3 gb of "contracted" IP bandwidth which together with the Akamai, Pipe and PeerApp contributions gives us a 4.8 gb "base" which we increment each month depending on growth. Our usual pattern of buying is to contract for the current level of bandwidth plus the estimated next three months growth on an annual basis and then buy additional bandwidth each month from a different provider to allow us to take advantage of the lower rates that occur every quarter that we have been in business. Steve is also working out whether we can expand the PeerApp boxes (or NetApp or some other provider) to provide for a more general caching solution than the one we used for P2P traffic for some 18 months before switching it off.
The intention was to increase the time and capability of the off peak period but I can't see how that is now possible to even match the AAPT offering let alone do it better.....it appears to me that is a truly innovative offering with great appeal to most families and to many other types of user. It's only weakness is, of course, its cost and its 'peak period' configuration but that still doesn't give a lot to work with - at least as far as I can work out at the moment. I was very reluctant to 'give up' the marketing advantage of a 12 hour free download period and would still favour a return to that but the AAPT offering is a stand out differentiator and the low 'peak' download inclusion may well prevent the wrong sort of customers from taking it up - another clever idea if that's what it is and how it works out. If it didn't go against the very core of why Exetel is in business I would actually consider just copying it at a lower monthly price - maybe I can justify it based on all the ideas AAPT have 'copied from Exetel over the years?
Now I come to think of it that may well be the way to go - it is genuinely innovative and has brought the first truly fresh concept to the market in .....I can't remember when. It would not be innovative for Exetel (just copying someone else isn't something I ever thought we would do) but it is hard/impossible to see how we can come up with anything better.....and they have pitched the price too high...as such a company would always have to. It would be ironic to copy a providers concepts for once having watched our providers pick up so many of the ideas that Exetel brought to the market.
(one of the advantages of writing a daily blog based on what is on your mind at the time of writing is that it sometimes 'crystalises' your thinking in strange and different ways).