Wednesday, November 30. 2011VoIP - The Final Residential FrontierJohn Linton We added another lower end Optus ADSL2 plan yesterday following the relative success of the 10gb plus 10 gb plan we added some ten days ago - this time a 5gb plus 5 gb plan. The reason for doing this is that, despite all the 'air time' given to unlimited a terabyte plans the fact remains that a very, very large percentage of Exetel's user base doesn't exceed more than a few gigabytes usage a month - Annette and I have never exceeded 1 gbyte of usage in any month since Exetel began providing ADSL services and we both use it for many hours each day, seven days a week. When we looked at how our lower usage customer's usage patterns had changed over the past two years we found little or no difference to them over that time and realised that we had progressively moved away from any really low end offerings over the past two plus years. One of the reasons has been that as IP costs have continued to fall and as the newer caching clusters from first Akamai and now Google have become ever more efficient that cost has more than halved over the past year alone and fallen by 75% overall. Unfortunately back haul costs have not fallen very much but the net cost of providing 'gigabytes' has continued to drop quarter by quarter. This has meant, with some, very much appreciated, accommodation from Optus that we can now offer a new lower cost ADSL2 service to those customers who (like us) use the internet constantly but for purposes that don't require 'terabytes' of downloads. The new plan at $24.50 for ADSL2 including $20.00 a month for a PSTN line is the lowest, genuine, ADSL2 offer on the Australian market and allows Exetel to begin to return to its initial basis of being in the residential telecommunications business. Telephone call costs still remain an issue in Australia with VoIP providing the only sensible solution to any 'wire line' user. Exetel's (courtesy of Optus) unlimited local, STD and calls to Optus mobile 'package' at $10.00 together with the $20.00 line rental offers, by far, the lowest PSTN service for those customers who still have some 'fears' about VOIP or at least their capabilities of implementing a home VoIP solution. While an ever increasing number of Exetel residential customers are using Exetel VoIP (and presumably many others are using another providers VoIP services) there are still customers who find VoIP, for whatever reasons, not something they are prepared to use. These customers seem to be evenly divided between not wanting to pay f0r VoIP hardware and the 'fear' of whatever they perceive VoIP to lack in terms of capabilities and reliability. Over the next two months we will try and find a way to alleviate the incorrect concerns while simultaneously finding a better way of highlighting the more obvious advantages of using VoIP (much lower cost international and mobile calls) and see what can be done about reducing the initial hardware costs. We think that the 'technical fears' of setting up VoIP could be an issue and one of the 'ideas' we are mulling over is providing 'unlimited technical set up and trouble shooting support' for VoIP services and, possibly, payg amortisation of the hardware over a twelve or twenty four month contract....plus any other 'innovations' we can come up with. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2011
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Just a headsup for anyone that misread it like I did .. that $25 includes the line rental. Amazing value!
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Sorry for the confusion. I have tried to clarify the text.
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I grabbed the OT-10 when it was offered early this month. Perfect for my "holiday" unit in Brisbane.
The newest 5 + 5 plan would have been better for me, hopefully I can move over to it at the expiry of my current plan. Similar comment for the service I bought for my 88-year old mother in Sydney. Regards, Harry. Comment (1)
Good to see such entry level plans.
As for voip implementation, I found (several years ago) that port forwarding was the issue. Firstly it took time to get the hang of port forwarding, and later with X-lite, I had to discover that it needed a port open. Comment (1)
We were thinking of not only writing much better set up instructions but providing 'unlimited' telephone support to help users set up the service.
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Given any redundant capacity in Sri Lankan personnel, uncharged may be a more preferable word.
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Dear John,
Here are some thoughts to promote both VoIP and the new Optus ADSL2 5GB+5GB plan. Perhaps we could apply “buy one, get one free” marketing technique. Basically, for new users of our new Optus ADSL2 5GB+5GB plan, they would be rewarded with a one-month trial use of VoIP with unlimited technical support. In this case, customers would appreciate the true value of our new ADSL2 plan while discovering the obvious cost-saving advantages of VoIP during the trial period. Generally, customers prefer to pay for their ADSL2 and telephone in one bill, so if the combination worked, it might earn us more reputation of a true low-cost telecommunication service provider, and eventually more sales and profit in both services. Best Regards, Eric Comments (3)
Eric,
That could be a really good way of making it happen. We would need to solve some logistics but it may well be the way of going. Comments (5)
Dear John,
I am glad you liked it. I will keep you posted if there is any other idea comeing up. Regards, Eric Comments (3)
First off, good work Exetel for A$4.50 ADSL/ A$20 line_Optus bundle. A$24.50 offer.
"... obvious advantages of using VoIP (much lower cost international and mobile calls) and see what can be done about reducing the initial hardware costs." While that remains mostly true, we should not forget the fact that this 'gap' is being closed. From Q4/11 under 'Telstra Pre-Paid Simplicity offer' see pp.19 of http://www.telstra.com.au/customer-terms/download/document/mobileprepaid.pdf for a good number of locations, our country included are available in the 15cents per 60s 'rate' (though a minimum A$30.00 for 60 days spend is requirement) but a sharp discount to the "dollar per 1 min" mobiles/long distance ONCE cost. I also notice the increased handsets ('3G') being flogged half price in supermarkets, typically ~A$24.50 for what must reduce some barrier to displacing wire line costs. Wire line will remain un-threatened for the -terabyte- plan broadband, rest assured. And the 5 GB/month senior requirement? - I think I showed you Optus Woolworths' special where you stock up the $12.60/ 45 day 'recharges' and get your both voice + data 'met'. I sure you'll agree also because its wireless. What is interesting to VoIP is the Optus-Savvytel assault, where the actual Pay For What You Use rate to Mobiles has come down this year to 10cents/min via Pre-Paid - sheerly astonishing, and scary in a sense that VoIP might become only relevant to "local calls" as a category. They've undercut PennyTel and certainly Mynetfone's 15/min is undercut in PAYU mobile. Ultimately, I agree the offers are heading the way of unlimited voice service and as is similar to the United States, this is only appropriate. Comments (2)
I have mentioned it before but will do so again. Pre-configured voip hardware, preferably using an all in one super appliance like the fritzbox. I have no idea what the implementation costs would be, but it may just tear down a barrier for some users.
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Number portability from PSTN to VoIP voice and also Fax over IP would help.
MyNetFone are offering portability. Lack of portability is a show-stopper for us and customers we look after. Comment (1)
Exetel offer PSTN to VoIP portability and also offers email2fax and fax2email (fax over IP) by ordering new Fax DIDs via your Exetel members facility.
Porting of fax numbers is unfortunately not available. Currently we are looking at a new supply of service which should allow this Comments (5)
Hmm, I'm a bit late replying to this post.
In my opinion, VoIP for Residential is almost dead. Now that Amaysim has unlimited calls $39.90 a month via the mobile network, with Boost only 10c higher; it's just not worth the effort of mucking around with ATAs, echo, the risks of PSTN fallback, etc unless the customer wants to make international calls. Add to that DSE's Bluetooth enabled cordless phones, and you can now have a landline-style experience for very little cost. Why are you still charging ADSL customers 22c/min for mobile calls vs 15c/min for HSPA customers? VoIP is still great for businesses - I just don't have many business customers... Comment (1)
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