John Linton .......towards overtaking PSTN based broadband. I read this:
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/finding-the-ring-of-confidence-in-citys-great-beep-test-20110304-1bhz8.html
(amazingly in the paper version of the paper before having to search to find it on the online version) which, while it doesn't add all that much to the general knowledge about the progress of wireless generally it does put Telstra's more outrageous claims about its "technology lead" in deploying wireless networks in some sort of perspective. As I have said on several occasions, every time I test my Exetel/Optus wireless service against Optus own wireless service or Telstra's wireless service the Exetel/Optus wireless service is always faster and sometimes by a quite noticeable margin. So it was nice to see that this set of tests showed that the Optus service is now pretty close to the Telstra service in terms of 'general use' in a relatively thorough test.
However, irrespective of the reality, it will make no difference to the lying 'marketing' and stupid exaggeration that characterises all consumer separation from their money activities. Exetel, finally, made the new wireless 'Standard' plans available on our web site and user facilities late last week. These are simply Layer 3 're-sells' of the equivalent Optus retail plans at a lesser cost (typically 20% or so). It allows us to offer a 5 gbyte plan for $25.00 a month and similarly low prices for 9, 12 and 18 gbyte plans. The target market for these plans is the residential user who uses the internet for web browsing and email with a few gigabytes of downloading. Over 40% of Exetel's current ADSL user base downloads less than 5 gbytes per month and $25.00 is far less than an ADSL service costs. Using wireless also allows those people to disconnect their PSTN line and save themselves the $30.00 or so they pay monthly for something they don't really use any more to make calls (using their mobile or voip for that purpose).
It will be interesting to see an update on what percentage of Australian residences have no PSTN or other telephone line and also see where the updated trend is heading.....in terms of percentage. The ABS statistics are still a month away but I would be surprised if they show anything other than a significant increase in wireless users and a further decline in ADSL users - for whatever those figures are worth. It would be nice to have some trusted repository of user statistics that seem so readily available in the EU countries and in the USA but a need for such information is apparently unnecessary in this country.
Apart from making new wireless broadband plans available last week we made progress towards finalising new IP and inter-State back haul provisioning. While its true that IP pricing continues to fall like a stone dropped from the top of a very high cliff it is equally (perhaps more so?) true that inter-State back haul is falling even faster. So we will gain some financial benefits from the new deals that we hope to put in place by the end of March which will be one positive in these 'end of days' ADSL marketplaces. Our recruiting is going much better now - almost certainly due to the time of year (past the end of university year long lay off) - and our challenge now becomes training and a need to find more sales team leaders - particularly in Colombo. We will address the Colombo problem by sending an Australian to head up the development and training of an 80 or so person addition to the business sales force over the coming twelve months to support the 40 person business and corporate sales force we are half way through building in Australia - assuming we can stay on track in doing that.
Overall it was a productive week.
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