Angus Kidman02 November 2007, 12:55 AM
The availability of naked DSL services will might well unleash a wave of anti-Telstra sentiment, as customers realise they can be freed of line rental forever.
iiNet plans to fully launch its naked DSL service by the end of November, while Internode has also begun trials ahead of a launch early next year. Does that it mean it's time to ditch your Telstra shares?
iiNet has launched a Web site, www.iinet.net.au/gonaked , for customers to register their interest in its long-rumoured 'naked DSL' product, which allow customers to ditch paying line rental for their voice connection in favour of a broadband-only offering.
Pricing for the service is due to be announced later this month, iiNet chief operating officer Mark White told APC.
Recent online rumours have suggested the entry-level package will be priced at around $45. However, White said that final details of the plans, which he described as "sensational", had only just been signed off by iiNet management.
Internode is also entering the naked fray, kicking off a trial of its proposed Internode Ultra service in Adelaide. The ISP hopes to roll out the product early next year. Pricing remains similarly secret, though trial participants will pay a $40 a month fee during the testing phase.
"We want this trial to prove that Naked DSL allows us to bypass Telstra’s artificial distance limitation, which is imposed on all 'line sharing' based ADSL2+ services," Internode CEO Simon Hackett said in a statement. "By providing greater reach for current ADSL2+ services, Naked DSL has the potential to fill in many metropolitan blackspots."
Even in non-blackspot areas, interest in such services is likely to be strong. "We're overwhelmed with the amount of enquiry we're getting already, and we haven't done anything to promote it," White said.
"We've had a number of customers on trial for the last couple of months and it's been going well," White said. "That's given us an opportunity to test out the provisioning process and work through some of the issues later." White wouldn't specify the exact extent of the trial, but said it had covered a number of states.
iiNet's package will include its iiTalk VOIP product, meaning customers can still retain their existing phone number. Arguably, that means that the service isn't completely naked; while it's optional to actually use the iiTalk service, you can't have it removed. Internode's package uses a similar approach.
White holds no truck with such semantic quibbling. "It is literally naked," he said. "We're using the data component of the copper going into your house. Up until now you've needed the voice line as well, from Telstra or somebody else.
"We've been looking at this for an awfully long time, and the technology is not new. If you go to Europe, everybody operates on this basis. It's been new in Australia because the regulatory regime has prohibited it until now."
White wouldn't be drawn on whether initial adoption would draw from iiNet's existing customer base or attract new users. "That's the $64,000 question and I don't know the answer."
The availability of naked services might well unleash a wave of anti-Telstra sentiment, as customers whose communication needs are largely met by email, mobiles and Skype take advantage of the chance to stop paying $25 or so a month for an unused voice line.
However, the shift isn't all bad news for Telstra; as it still controls the majority of Australia's copper infrastructure, most providers will still be paying it line rental fees for at least some customers.