Alex Kidman11 May 2009, 2:15 PM
MyNetFone's naked ADSL2+ packs surprisingly good value -- $39 a month for 5GB peak usage. You could pay that much to Telstra just in line rental.
Naked DSL as a proposition is one that's been very popular with Australian consumers, largely due to the obvious selling point surrounding dropping line rental fees in favour of a VoIP solution. So far, so good for the ISPs.
But what if you're a "pure" VoIP provider? We've heard plenty of talk from them to the effect that because they're specialists, they're "better suited" to delivering VoIP, but that's only part of the solution. In truth, VoIP providers that don't have their own broadband network have little ability to guarantee quality of phone calls, because they can't be sure what sort of connection you will be using their service on, and have no control of the quality of service settings at your broaband provider.
The longer term solution is for VoIP providers to become ISPs themselves, and that's what MyNetFone has done today, launching its long mooted Naked ADSL2+ plans in advance of the CeBIT trade show starting in Sydney tomorrow.
MyNetFone sells in a couple of plan varieties. MyNetFone slows you down to dialup speed once you hit your monthly usage allowance, so you won't clock up excess usage fees like you will on some plans with providers like Optus and Telstra, but it also offers a pay-to-get-out-of-purgatory option: if you hit the broadband doldrums because you've exceeded your allownace, you can buy "Data Boosts" on an ad-hoc basis and return to full speed. Boosts are sold in $10, $20 and $30 increments, with split 6GB, 14GB and 20GB allowances respectively -- though the allowances are split evenly between peak and off-peak times (so a 6GB boost gives you 3GB peak usage and 3GB off-peak usage, for example), and have a 30-day expiry.
The one slight catch here is that if you buy a boost and then your monthly allotment rolls over, you'll have to burn through the entire next month's quota before you start using your left-over Boost allocation. There are still plenty of users who fume at being shaped in the dying days of a payment month, though, so paying, say, $10 to keep things up and running isn't too bad, especially as MyNetFone doesn't count uploads against your data quota. Off-peak time hits between midnight and 10am, which is fair but not spectacular.
MyNetFone hadn't made clear to APCMag.com which wholesale provider it was using for service provision at the time of writing, although the company has used Optus' service for some of its business offerings in the past. A MyNetFone representative commenting on Whirlpool.net.au confirmed the company was using Optus -- and as a result, the service wouldn't be available in Tasmania or NT, where Optus has not rolled out DSLAMs. UPDATE: MyNetFone has replied to our query and confirmed that yes, it is definitely Optus as the wholesale network.
MyNetFone's not alone in the VoIP-provider-turned-ISP space though, with Engin being the biggest notable competitor in this space. So how do the two VoIP providers stack up?
Engin's service does include some VoIP provision built in — either free local/national landline calls or a world pack with free calls to selected international destinations, something you'd have to bundle in as an extra with the MyNetFone Plans.
However, there are some sweet spots in MyNetFone's pricing — their Standard plan is, for example, $10 cheaper than iiNet's Naked Home 3 with only 5GB less data provision. Frankly, $39 for 5GB peak and 5GB off peak usage with no line rental is exceptionally good value -- it would suit most people who are not heavy users of video and P2P sharing, and when you consider you could be paying $39 to Telstra for line rental alone, it's an impressive price point.
Currently, MyNetFone is also offering a free Linksys WiFi modem/router for new sign-ups to its Naked ADSL2+ plans though it's not clear from their website what the minimum contract length to qualify for it is. There is still a setup fee ranging from $199 for no contract, to $99 for a 24 month contract.
And it's worth mentioning that MyNetFone has a Sydney-based customer service call centre, rather than one farmed out to an offshore service.