Friday, March 5. 2010If VoIP Is Now 'Destroying' Fixed Line Revenue.......John Linton .....what will MoIP do to mobile telephone call revenue? I read sometime in mid January that Apple was now allowing Skype to be used on the iPhone (via its 'appstore') after presumably ending the embargo period imposed by the carriers around the world who were given rights to sell the Apple iphone product. I got my 'final' version of Exetel's MoIP app yesterday on my Nokia N96 and was delighted with it in terms of the few small improvements over the previous versions which I have been successively using for the past year or so. I called the UK, WA, two rural areas of Australia and a range of 1300 and 1800 numbers all with perfect results. So although I use Exetel's "standard" mobile service which provides very low cost calls I am now using the lowest cost mobile service I have ever used with absolutely no 'quality' difference between it and my previous Optus mobile service. Not such a big deal you might think - from Fring and Nimbuzz back in July 2008 and hundreds of similar apps onward there are any number of such offerings around the world - which is true. But there haven't been that many with servers/switches based in Australia and they did come with various issues in that we didn't write the code and therefore have access to it to integrate future applications into it nor did it run on switches that we owned. Anyway I was impressed with it and we will now start promoting it to our current and future wireless users that have compatible hand sets. Anyone who has read my comments about mobile 'capped plans' would know that I have never understood their appeal and I don't wish to waste time re-expressing my bewilderment about that marketing concept and why it works. I do wonder whether 10 cent unlimited time calls to wire lines, 15 cents a minute calls to mobiles and 5 cent SMS will do anything to affect how the carriers see future pricing once/if MoIP becomes as established in the mobile user's mind as VoIP is now established in the wire line user's mind? As wire line call charges are progressively seen as irrelevant and expensive by telephone handset users and are forcing Telstra to contemplate how to deal with that ongoing situation what will happen to the mobile carrier's future revenue plans if they are based on ever increasing call revenues? I am a very modest maker of outbound mobile calls and I never use out bound SMS but my modest mobile bill would drop by 2/3 using MoIP with very little increase in the data component of my monthly charges. So, as usual in my direct way, I can't see any reason why any buyer of an Exetel wireless phone plan for use in a mobile hand set wouldn't also buy an Exetel MoIP service plus an Exetel SMS service. What would be the point of paying double or treble for such services if there is a simple alternative? The mobile carriers saw this issue very clearly in the 'early days of HSPA' and managed, at that time, to get the hand set makers to 'disable' the use of MoIP under the threat of not buying their gigantic volumes from them - but that has long been discontinued. So if the carriers can't prevent end users preferring MoIP over their 'capped' plans what will they do if call mobile call revenues go the same way wire line call revenues? I have no idea and have more than enough problems of my own to give it any further thought. I suppose the other issue in this general scenario is the 'threat' to the mobile carrier's 'call' revenues of SMS over IP at sub ten cents per message from many sources (Exetel offers it for 5 cents). From what I read the mobile carriers make a large percentage of their mobile profits from SMS with it not being uncommon to see charges in excess of 20 cents per SMS. I don't use SMS but I have tried Exetel's version and it seems no different to the 'embedded' SMS provided as a standard service on my Exetel/Optus service. I think combining SMS over IP with MoIP would be a very compelling offering to many user types....from school children on upwards. That's the trouble with technology - it abhors a status quo. Trackbacks
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My usage fluctuates. I can travel constantly and use a moderate amount of voice and SMS or be back at home for a long period and barely use anything.
I bought my E71 mobile outright and have been using 'internet phone' and Exetel SMS for months now. Last month I was at home and such was low use month, the bill... $2. The highest bill I have ever got was in the vicinity of $30. I was interstate calling my wife's landline or mobile most nights with the MoIP. Also using E71 as a tether for wireless laptop internet access from the motel. Thank you and your team for the great VoIP and HSPA service. Brilliant! Comment (1)
Good to see you get such good results - and what you say underscores the issue I raised - how will mobile carriers deal with your sort of savings.
Comments (7)
John, given that Apple is slowly starting to release their grip on voip calls over 3G and that a large number of iPhone users will be off contract (24 months from the release of the iPhone 3G) soon, is Exetel planning an iPhone voip app inline with what you have on the Symbian platform?
Personally, I can see my $70 per month plan dropping to around $30 & a move from Virgin to Exetel!!! Comment (1)
We will release the MoIP +SMS over IP service on Monday.
The service will either work on an Exetel supplied SIM or on any other vendor's sim that is inserted into either an iPhone or a Nokia phone that has 3G capability. Prices will be pretty much along the lines of what I spelled out in the article. If buying an Exetel service there will be an option of selecting either the Optus or Vodafone network. Comments (7)
There is a difference between what Telstra has done with landlines and what is happening in the mobile sector.
One largeish supplier has a $1 per month 10c per minute 10c flagfall plan with no capping nonsense. To me that is better than trying to use MoIP if quality is the greater concern, since voice takes precedence over data on mobile networks; and those prices are close enough to VoIP as to not make the hassle of getting VoIP to work worthwhile at this stage. Telstra could have offered similar pricing on landlines, but they didn't and so we see people leaving that technology behind where possible. Comment (1)
Personally, I haven't had a "quality" issue since the previous release of the MoIP app and the current release has many improvements.
Comments (7)
Mobile calls at 15c a minute??? is 10c a minute a typo?
good news anyway and happy to see Exetel supporting the format Comments (3)
10 cents will be the corporate rate - 15 cents is the residential rate.
Comments (7)
good rate, I see also the bundles give 50 minutes for $5 so effective rate for the first 50 is also cheap as if users wanted to go that way
Comments (3)
We will make those bundles available to Exetel sim users only.
Comments (7)
well as an Exetel SIM user I'm happy to see that, cheapest way I could make mobile calls
Comments (3)
... and this is how a small business stays in business and becomes a big business. Congrats on pioneering the way forward. Want a job with NBN?
Ron Comment (1)
I was actually thinking of moving away from Exetel's MoIP service to TPG's mobile cap. I was looking at my usage over the past 6 months and most of the time I would be $10-$20 with Exetel. On a TPG $13 cap my spreadsheet told me I would be quite under the minute limit of the plan.
The only reason is coverage, as I've mentioned before, there are numerous times where Optus 3G coverage falls back to 2G in Perth making outgoing calls impossible. With that cap plan I wouldn't be worrying if I had 3G coverage. If I needed the mobile for business use there is no way I would rely on MoIP because it is too fallible whereas regular mobile is close to 100%. Comment (1)
Good point Clive - the low latency and reception required to run a MOIP connection via 3G is much greater than calls directly through the traditional network.
I imagine MOIP via the Telstra network would work quite well ironically! Will work well for the tech crowd - but for the mass market VOIP/MOIP hasn't, and won't catch on until things are dead simple. The tech crowd is a growing market though... and plenty of customers for Exetel. Comment (1)
MoIP is as simple as direct calling and of the same quality.
There is no technical 'competence' required. Comments (7)
Just a request, can you please look at supporting the Android platform too if possible, I have just brought a Nexus One and have it up and running on the Optus/Exetel service and am very happy.
I have been experimenting with Fring with limited success (due to optus coverage in Tassie I suspect), but I would just like an app to allow me to use the Exetel SMS service. Thanks Darren Comment (1)
For SMS on the Nexus One try this (working well for me and I'm also on Optus/Exetel).
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1380855 Comment (1)
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