Saturday, August 9. 2008Finalizing Exetel's HSPA Service OfferingsJohn Linton We expect to start 'customer' testing of the new HSPA service next week - at least in terms of establishing 'benchmark' speeds and latencies around Australia and determining what the issues in terms of gaming and VoIP and other applications might be. We have started to put the HSPA details up on the Exetel web site and will add the rest of the 'content' by the end of next week. At least the coverage 'maps' are now in place and the first two plan prices. The testing we will do will be aimed at three major tasks: 1) Establishing the likely performance of VoIP over the service in areas where 3G is available 2) Determining latency impacts on local gaming servers 3) Seeing how the iPhone handles VoIP and SMS via broadband compared to a standard mobile service The third task came from a 'blog reader's suggestion' yesterday - "if Exetel isn't going to offer a mobile voice service will it offer a VoIP service". Until that suggestion was made I was in despair about how we would be able to compete with the "570 minutes for $0.00" type offers from the Carriers and their dealers - the mobile voice wholesale pricing offered to Exetel by Optus is an embarrassment in terms of the mobile call costs expected by an end user (which is why we have always used Vodafone for our mobile services - at least their rates allow us to be competitive). We can, I think, make an iPhone data offer that is very attractive to iPhone users. We can also offer a very attractive SMS (via broadband) service as part of the data service - I think 5 cents for an Australian destination SMS of 160 characters is far better than any mobile based SMS service I am aware of. The problem is a mobile outbound service (obviously inbound isn't a problem). We can't offer outbound voice calls using the wholesale rates Optus have provided to us at this time - they are just so ridiculously expensive it would kill the appeal of the service and we might as well forget about an HSPA service for a mobile phone user completely. However, following that reader's suggestion, it would be a major benefit to be able to offer outbound calls via VoIP if we could make that happen in an easy to set up/use way - basically using one of the 'soft phone' implementations that the vast majority of PC VoIP users have used since VoIP first became avaialble. Many of the most popular 'soft phone' applicatons are now very, very feature 'rich' and are pretty much 'plug n play' in terms of installation and set up. While I undersand the limitations of VoIP (and the particular difficulties of use where there is no 3G coverage) I can't help but conjure with the ability to compete with all the mobile cost based "free million minute" offers with a 10 cent unlimited time national calls , low cost calls to mobiles and very, very cheap international calls that are available via VoIP. (of course it helps that Exetel had the farsightedness to put in place its own SMS via Broadband and VoIP switches and connectivity a long time ago and therefore have the delivery, billing and programming capablities to integrate those services into a new 'platform'). We could beat the current offer by Virgin by a very long way using VoIP and SMS over broadband and have a very large amount of 'spare' money available to subsidise the cost of additional data that would allow us to also compete with the most aggressive data inclusion offerings currently beng offered by Three and Vodafone (and Optus for that matter). I hear, 'on the grape vine', that both Optus and Vodafone wil be introducing new plans in the very near future aiming at simialar markets to those Exetel had 'identified'. I suppose it was inevitable but I had hoped they would stay with their current pointless attempts at competing with ADSL for a bit longer - at least until we had been able to deliver pur planned HSPA services. Of course, it may not work out as I would hope it would but we will do some extensive testing using iPhones over the next few weeks to determine exactly what can be sensibly achieved - particularly call quality in various coverages and, of course, ease of use. If it can be made to work well and easily - well the future suddenly looks very much brighter than I had ever thought it could. Trackbacks
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John,
Do the modems your offering support HSPA at 900MHz or is your initial HSPA offering restricted to 2100MHz coverage areas? I assume the fact your charging more for data once you exceed 1GB is to initally discourage sign-ups by anyone except low usage users. Les Comment (1)
Tey are just the first lans aimed at travelling users and low volume users.
The modems sync at either speed. Comments (6)
There is a difference in effective range from a given base station when comparing 3G and GSM at 900Mhz.
GSM has a hard limit of 35Km due to signal timing, where 3G does not. However I'm pretty sure the latest Huwaei gumstick style USB modems are compatible with 3G/HSPDA at 900Mhz. Comment (1)
This is something I would be interested to try, a VoIP offering on an iPhone might be a problem though, any VoIP application (officially there is only one at the moment from Truephone http://www.truphone.com/iphone/ ) is only allowed to offer VoIP over Wi-Fi, even so the ability to do VoIP over Wi-Fi is still worthwhile and other options such as SMS or ANI callback could be viable ways to offer some flexible solutions, there is no one size fits all solution I guess
Once the deal is at least in place then there are all number of ways it could be sliced and diced to come up with some useful solutions. I've been a long time VoIP user and use 3G data from two providers (Optus, Vodafone) with a variety of hardware (iPhone, Nokia, Netcomm, Mobidata, Huawei) and there is definitely some worthwhile things that can be done with affordable data offers. The iPhone is certainly flavor of the month right now but don't discount some of the other handsets in the market, thank the iPhone for raising awareness I guess, (I believe they have, I mentioned previously that they would be the catalyst to data taking off here) Nokia have some very good handsets with built in SIP clients, Wi-Fi etc that are ideal for this kind of application. If you do look at Nokia as an option then have a look at their sipvoipsettings app for access to a much wider range of options than what the handset normally offers, it's possibly to configure codecs, ports, stun servers etc to fine tune the setup, this can make a world of difference to the end result of doing VoIP over mobile Either way will look forward to what you can come up with, I'm finally getting an Exetel ADSL2+ service next week after months of waiting for available ports and then multiple issues with Telstra and the buffoons in their organisation, can't wait! and look forward to what you can offer in a mobile data deal Comments (5)
Thanks for the information - it's going to be an interesting few months.
Comments (6)
l have a Nokia E71 which has 2100 and 900 mhz 3G if you want some testing done in Hobart. It has built in voip so it'd be easy to test quality in a variety of places.
Comment (1)
Please send an email to:
j.linton@exetel.com.au with your suburb/town/postcode and check that there is coverage in your area via the checker on the Exetel web site. Comments (6)
I am not sure if I interpret your post correctly, but I think it might be difficult to market a product with no traditional outbound voice calls (regardless of costs).
I have been a long time user of VOIP on various land lines, and the reliability is great. However I would be extremely hesitant to have a VOIP only outbound cellular service. Even if they are ludicrously expensive, it would still be worthwhile allowing that option to the end user. I am all for marketing VOIP minutes to increase the value proposition, but expensive or otherwise, no GSM/3G voice calls at all might be a tough ask for some people. I guess it just shows how lop sided the mobile network pricing structure is when VOIP is so much more cost effective than voice traffic. Hopefully now that data is a key market the ship will eventually right itself. Comment (1)
We will provide standard GSM calls at ridiculously high rates and make the point that VoIP is far less cost.
Of course, it won't suit everyone but it may well suit people who aren't fooled by the "million minutes for zero" so beloved by mobile carriers and understand how to set up a simple program. Comments (6)
even if more expensive having mobile calls available is still a must, it has far higher reliability as a fail over mechanism and even though the calls might be dear they still need to be an option, for those that want Optus coverage for data couldn't use a straight Optus based solution as they don't allow calls on the cellular network as part of the deal
What are your thoughts on the network setup, public or private IP's (is a static IP possible at all, would make life easy for some applications if it was, understand this might not be feasible though) etc, advantages and disadvantages to different setups but at least having an ISP that understands how a customer wants to use a service gives a huge advantage. The competitors in the mobile data space have some strange restrictions imposed on parts of their networks that can make the service somewhat limiting at times, even things like instant messaging is restricted by some, not surprising I guess when they sell add on packages for this kind of thing Comments (5)
Just thinking about this some more, if I were an Exetel VoIP customer and you could offer something like call hunt which can incorporate the mobile VoIP solution with fall over to cellular network if needed could be a valuable offer
eg, I can publish my regular VoIP number and an incoming call can go to my regular DID, if I'm out and about the call can be redirected to my mobile VoIP number, (the calls can generally ring simultaneously anyway) inter network calls are normally free so a cost effective way for me to take calls when out and about and it would be transparent to the caller, if I wasn't available on mobile VoIP I could elect to have that call redirected to my cellular number and pay the cost of that call, I know wholesale rates would make this workable to have the call redirected out of the back end (you could even have those calls go out via Vodafone if your wholesale rates are better), miss the call it can go to voicemail, voicemail to email delivered to my handset I know this stuff is available as I do it all now but using a variety of systems, providers and technologies which is probably too confusing for some people, having it brought under one provider with a nice web based interface (a mobile focused version would make it even better) or even an iPhone app if you want to take it up a level would make this a good solution to attract the mobile worker, small business operator etc Things like this mobile banking terminal app for the iPhone http://www.xilo.com/ic4ip.htm start to get people thinking outside the square on how technology can be used more effectively, having something packaged as a solution does make life easier for many Hope you guys are thinking about all the possibilities, I feel there are plenty of opportunities coming for not just mobile data but data solutions Comments (5)
We have already 'innovated' the SMS via broadband and FAX via broadband services following our installation of our own VoIP switches and associated hardware and software.
We also put in place our own mobile plans and the associated admin and billing software to allow us to integrate, in our minor way, an increasing number of communications services for our customers. There are many options in roviding 'combined' comms services once HSPA coverage increases and the reliabiliy improves to an acceptable level under most operating conditions. We have limited technical and engineering resources but we do have the ability, and 'bravery' to continue to innovate and we are not tied down to being just an ISP or just a mobile retailer - we can do anything we like - within the constraints of our wholesale argreements. It's early days but it's very exciting to think of ways of offering better services that the entrenched organisations in these times of radical changes in infrastructures. (one of the few benefits of not involving ourselves in ADSL2 roll outs or WiMax commitments that we had contemplated). Comments (6)
Have seen some of the innovation you have provided in other areas, I know I'll be making use of those once my service is connected next week, indeed some of these things were deciding factors in changing ISP's in the first place, even if it did take a while to finally happen (no fault of Exetel)
In the wireless broadband space the ability and bravery is what will set you apart from the crowd, good to see and keep up the good work Comments (5)
I am pleased that my suggestion was of use to you.
Something to look at in your testing is whether your data SIM will work in an iPhone that is still network locked to Optus, or whether the user will have to have an 'unlocked' iPhone. Network unlocking is a $150 service from Telstra and $80 from Vodafone. Comments (3)
And another question, if a user travels outside a 2100mhz HSPA area will the VoIP still work satisfactorily via GPRS/GSM or will they have to use regular GSM Mobile?
Comments (3)
Yes to VoIP will still work
or Yes to have to use GSM Mobile? Comments (3)
VoIP over GPRS is a stretch, I think you would be relying on the cellular network in those cases, there are still cost effective ways to use the network under these circumstances, web callback, ANI callback etc, depends what systems are implemented into the backend as to what's possible, I would hope that these would be avenues that Exetel would explore at some time
Comments (5)
hi John,
for your interest, PCUser Sept '08 issue on page 14 has a 1 pager on mobile data plans comparing - Optus - TElstra - Three - Virgin - Vodafone Upshot is basically Virgin is hard to beat. Cheers, F Comment (1)
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