John Linton
.....you never know what you are going to get.....assuming, like Forrest and Mrs Gump, you don't bother to read the piece of paper that has little depictions of the design on the top of each type of chocolate with a brief description of what it contains. If you do 'read the instructions', and interpret the depictions correctly in making your selection, then you know exactly what you are going to get....unless of course the particular box of chocolates you have selected doesn't come with 'instructions'. Then again.....the point of that is simply that if you make decisions without ensuring you are as well informed as you need to be then you may end up with a bad taste in your mouth - depending on how precious you are.
So I was actually quite unprepared over the past three working days to receive approaches from 4 ISPs - three smaller and one much larger than Exetel. Over the years of Exetel's existence contacts with other ISPs have been perhaps one or two a year and evenly divided between offers to investigate buying Exetel and demands for retractions of personal comments I have expressed - none of which were of any use to either party. I am not someone who has ever considered any form of competitor with Exetel as being an entity with which to enter into any sort of dialogue - the concept of a "friendly competitor" is beyond my ability to understand. So to get one approach was unusual to get four such approaches seems to indicate market changes of cataclysmic proportions.
The four approaches were split - two wanted to discuss Exetel joining them and a "select group of other ISPs" to buy HSPA hardware (one HSPA modems, the other HSPA routers) and the other two wanted to buy IP bandwidth from Exetel. Perhaps it is just the fact that four different approaches occurred in such a very short space of time that surprised me. Perhaps there is something occurring in the marketplace that I haven't noticed. In any event, after asking for details of exactly what products/service they were thinking of buying/selling and at what prices, I advised each of the 'enquirers' that Exetel was in no position to enter into speculative buying with unknown parties using 'contracts' over which we had no control and had no interest in 'wholesaling' services that we bought wholesale and suggested they approach the suppliers of such services themselves.....although it was obvious that they had already done that and had failed to reach a suitable agreement.
I didn't really think much about it, other than to wonder whether there was some reason for the sudden 'rush' of 'fellowship' and good will towards all men as it seemed, even in this commercial age, to be much too early for Christmas. But, unlike Forrest and Mrs Gump, I don't like surprises and I'm wondering whether there is something I'm missing.
Now there never would be any sort of circumstances where a small company like Exetel would take the financial risks of selling to ISPs even smaller than ourselves (when we started Exetel I was always very grateful to the early suppliers who provided Exetel with services onĀ credit - which we have repaid with almost six years of 'supplier loyalty' - but it has been obvious that so many start ups like Exetel didn't end up paying their bills) - so those were easy approaches to reject. What was vaguely interesting was how much above the current market rates the two small ISPs were prepared to pay for IP bandwidth - around 80% more than the current offers we know about....another reason not to think of supplying to them....goodness knows how they would be able to make a profit if all of their costs were similarly inflated above what is commonly available.
The two offers of hardware were similarly unappealing on the pricing being suggested but, at least in one case, I think that was because the person making the offer thought I was a moron with no knowledge of HSPA modem pricing out of the PRC. The HSPA router price sounded appealing, at least on price, but when I questioned the specifications it became apparent that the box would not meet the requirements we believe are essential. The company concerned was also among the scummier organisations associated with the Australian data communications business - as judged by me.
I will try and find some commonality in the approaches over the next few days - if in fact there is any other than a very strange co-incidence....I wouldn't want to bite into a marzipan one.