Telstra slashes wireless broadband pricing -- about time!

Tin (User):

Wow! The new CEO actually gets how to run a business... Lets hope this continues.

plutonium210 (User):

Quoting Tin:
CEO actually gets how to run a business

These first small tentative steps should be applauded.

Michael J (User):

finally!

David Neiger (APC staff):

Unfortunately this has come at a cost. As Telstra adds subscribers (which allows them to bring the cost down) the network (which ultimately is a shared resource) slows down. In some congested cells it can take a while for web pages to load although performance is still superior to the competitors.
Let's just hope that Telstra upgrade infrastructure as they add subscribers otherwise the BigPond could become a BigDribble.

Raindog (New user):

Quoting David Neiger:
Let's just hope that Telstra upgrade infrastructure as they add subscribers otherwise the BigPond could become a BigDribble.

It's a very valid point David, and despite some positive moves by DT, Telstra is still driven more by their own meglomania than by any sort of customer focus.
Dan was keen to hang it on Optus when for a time their mobile sales push overwhelmed their network expansion. At more equitable pricing it will be interesting to compare relative throughput of carriers.

K (New user):

Meh... just after I had signed up to Internode/Optus for my wireless internet... coverage can be a bit patchy compared to NextG!

scruffy (New user):

I may be being unrealistic and ungrateful. However, I want 500MB a month for $15 (or less) without bundling my land-line and mobile into the deal! 3 comes close to this. However, I can rarely connect to them.

Cheap 3G with massive infrastructure upgrades to cope with the traffic; I suppose 'pigs might fly'.

K (New user):

Internode uses the Optus network and does 500Mb/mth for $14.95. Check out their site under 'NodeMobile'

Jammit (New user):

OMG - I am about to orgasm - Telstra have scraped up a better deal....

But!

Telstra is still outrageously expensive and the download volume a pittance.

Greed + Stupidity = Telstra.

And the ONLY reason these cretins have nudged the bar down, is because EVERYONE knows they offer the scummiest deals, and everyone is going to the competition - so it's another "ME TOO" rebranding of the same crap deals from Telstra, to try and stem the haemorraging of customers.

gwmbox (New user):

To Dan Warne - are you serious about this article or were you paid to do it by the Telstra CEO? I mean how can anyone say what they have released is good value. By all means if your a user that HAS ADSL and only needs a small amount of mobile data then the lower end plans are fine. BUT if you cannot get ADSL and only have Telstra as the option and can ONLY get wirelsss then the new plans are simp;ly not enough. The top plan of 10GB is not enough, espeically with faster access which just means you can use the 10GB up faster.

So Dan get some balls and write a decent article with some credibility and stop spouting Telstra marketing rubbish!

Jammit (New user):

Dan, Telstra PR copyrighter, loves the CEO's butt print on his face in the morning.

Dan Warne (Regular user):

I think Telstra would be pretty amused at the suggestion that I am on their side, based on my coverage history of them :-)

That being said, my view of Telstra changed for the better once their antagonistic former management team departed and the new management got on with the job of running a telco with level heads rather than spending most of their time attacking everyone around them like toddlers having a tantrum.

As a journalist, I keep an open mind and am always focused on evaluating things based on their current state, not what they've been like in the past. If a company improves its products, pricing or attitude to customers, then I adjust my views on that.

The other thing that changed my mind about Telstra a bit was my extreme frustration with Optus' network quality a while back. I had been an Optus customer for 14 years, but once I moved from 2G to 3G and internet on my phone became just as important to me as voice quality, I realised how poor Optus' network was for that. I tried for years to urge Optus to improve, both through their front-end customer service staff (one of whom told me "we don't have a database to log coverage problems, and if you can't get good reception with Optus, then why don't you change to another network?") and through their PR staff and executives, all of whom listened to the feedback but couldn't promise to do anything. You can read more about it here:

http://apcmag.com/why_i_switched_to_telstra.htm

Basically, I got sick of paying money for a product that didn't work properly, and decided I'd be happier paying more money for a product that did work properly with Telstra -- and since changing to Next G I've been much happier with my mobile service.

That's not to say I've been happy about all the pricing -- however it just happens that Telstra pricing on Blackberry plans is quite competitive if you take a two year contract: $29.95 for the Blackberry plan with unlimited data, $10 a month for a 150MB data pack for applications that don't go through the Blackberry Internet Server and require a direct TCP/IP connection, and a $49 voice cap that gets me $200 worth of calls. That means I'm paying $88.95 for my Blackberry, whereas on Optus I was paying $79.95 (though their plan did offer me $100 more worth of calls -- but it turns out I easily fit into the $200 Telstra limit anyway).

If I wanted to switch to iPhone I'd have to think hard about whether I wanted to stay with Telstra -- the closest thing price-wise would be a $49 cap plan plus $59 data pack with 1GB, which quite possibly wouldn't be enough data for me, and would cost me a rather ridiculous $108 a month.

I just think as a customer you have to shop judiciously, spot the bargains and buy when you see them, and not buy bad deals. It's the only way you can send a message to a company that its executives will understand (as long as there is a competitive market, and the company is not the only choice.)

apt.pupil (New user):

Quoting Dan Warne:
If I wanted to switch to iPhone I'd have to think hard about whether I wanted to stay with Telstra -- the closest thing price-wise would be a $49 cap plan plus $59 data pack with 1GB, which quite possibly wouldn't be enough data for me, and would cost me a rather ridiculous $108 a month.

I just think as a customer you have to shop judiciously, spot the bargains and buy when you see them, and not buy bad deals. It's the only way you can send a message to a company that its executives will understand (as long as there is a competitive market, and the company is not the only choice.)

i do understand the need for that both as a telstra dealer and customer, however what you say is 100% correct. When it comes to having a mobile phone network that is actually mobile and gives you coverage in backwash towns- as well as in obvious city places(i am looking at upper coomera- ormeau), Telstra is undoubtedly the only network of choice. Unlike the other networks- at least as a Telstra customer- i will be able to be able to communicate to people when i need to.

As for the new bigpond deals- they are good, simply because Telstra are dropping the prices- and with cheaper plans as well as an offer to have up to $480 further discounted off my bills for already having these previously active services through Telstra- it sure is better than no change at all. change does not happen overnight people.

Dan Warne (Regular user):

I didn't say they were good value -- I said that they had "more approachable" pricing. Big difference. That being said, value is always a ratio between product quality and price, and Telstra undoubtedly has a better quality product in the wireless broadband space than the competitors. Obviously, we all want the best quality product at an affordable price -- but if you look at another category of product, you don't expect to get a BMW for the same price as a Holden Astra.

On your point about wireless broadband as an alternative to ADSL, I completely agree that BigPond Wireless is not an affordable product for full-time home broadband -- and I also agree that most people need more than 10GB download allowance (unless you're the kind of person that uses the internet very lightly and basically avoids online videos).

However, mobile networks are not like ADSL. With ADSL, there's a dedicated copper line for each customer, connected to an exchange that has fibre optic backhaul with a practically unlimited bandwidth upgrade potential. In comparison, with mobile networks, there is a fixed amount of radio spectrum in each cell, and if capacity is not managed carefully, then you get the problems people see on some other mobile networks: slow speeds, very bad latency, and so on.

The primary way a mobile network operator can control capacity utilisation is through pricing -- and if the company is responsible, it -should- plough back the money raised into network expansion if utilisation grows -- more cell towers, more segments in each cell, licensing more radio bandwidth, and so on.

This is, of course, the big question mark -- whether Telstra can continue upgrading Next G to retain its good performance. If Next G slows down and Telstra continues charging top-of-the-market prices, I would be the first to criticise them and call for urgent network upgrades.

Raindog (New user):

Quoting Dan Warne:
I completely agree that BigPond Wireless is not an affordable product for full-time home broadband

Neither is wireless broadband a functional replacement for ADSL, unfortunately this has not stopped NextG being marketed for this purpose. Marketing which has been copied by all the Telcos.

I have examples where Telstra has denied ADSL supply as leverage to sales of more expensive Mobile Broadband. The patronising reply citing quality of service. Telstra has not as yet explained how they can offer comparable and price comparable service to within the Metal structure where service is required.
Even with revised pricing NextG fails to offer a viable alternative to fixed IP ADSL, Telstra has a long way to go to attain that customer friendly reputation. If DT can revise the nonsense and bastardry of decades then all power to him. I still wait to be convinced.

gankul (User):

Wonder how long before the other ISP's complain to the ACCC about telstra being anti-competative.

Jammit (New user):

Ahhhhhhh rubbish!

"Telstra undoubtedly has a better quality product in the wireless broadband space than the competitors. Obviously, we all want the best quality product at an affordable price -- but if you look at another category of product, you don't expect to get a BMW for the same price as a Holden Astra"

Telztra OBVIOUSLY has a better quality product, "cough up own doofus cough"....

"Obviously, we all want the best quality product at an affordable price" and getting ripped off BLIND by the craps who run Telstra, relative to the cost of providing the service, just doesn't factor into the situation... "Affordable" and stupid enough to use Telsta, only add up if you are extremely stupid - or have no alternative.

And the BMW vs Holden Astra argument is so limp dicked as well - I mean the pistons in the holes go up and down up and down and the wheels under the cars go round and round, round and round......

All I see is ways to get from A to B, that is the fundamental worth of a car; not the "associated prestiege" and price tag - and insurance and repair costs and and and and and and -

Same thing goes for any service - It just has to work; as and to how you can start pulling this bum fluff out of your rectum - Oh the radio waves from Telstra are worth 10x as much for 1/10th the amount of the other radio waves from other carriers - so you must pay accordingly.....

So how much extra in the paypacket - or under the counter for a Telstra PR stunt like this?

gankul (User):

right.

So they dont have better service? ignoring the fact that they have more consistant speeds and are availble in more places?

If you dont like Astra vs BMW go for the TPG vs internode/exetel.

Tpg have better prices and better download bandwitdh and now withere there capped speeds being so high, just better, however internode has better speeds and quality of service (on average).

No need to slander the writer, you seem to hate telstra so much, dont like them, dont choose them, if they are the only option you have, complain to the other providers about not providing the service.

Dan Warne (Regular user):

I'm no apologist for Telstra. I'd never recommend them for home phone or home broadband -- there's just one part of their business that I think is good, and that's wireless broadband, and that's because the service quality is much better than the other networks.

You can go on all you like about a car just getting you from A to B, but that doesn't mean the market for BMW / Mercedes / Audi or whatever is illegitimate.

As for your point about the radio waves for Telstra not being more expensive than the radio waves for the other networks, but it's not radio waves you're paying for -- it's access to network equipment. Telstra's Next G network was massively more expensive to build than any mobile network Australia has ever seen previously. There are fibre-optic links to every single tower in the network -- whereas other networks like Optus use microwave links between towers which are orders of magnitude cheaper to build, but are susceptible to interference and can't be easily expanded in capacity if a tower becomes congested.

Once again, I'm NOT a general supporter of Telstra, but there ARE legitimate reasons for Next G to be more expensive than the other networks. And my article is about substantial price cuts -- that's surely something Telstra should be commended on, even if the prices still aren't as low as we might like.

Tin (User):

Quoting Dan Warne:
There are fibre-optic links to every single tower in the network


I expect that's true for in town/city sites, but I doubt it's true of the entire network... Remote rural sites would be microwave links, I'd have thought.

Dan Warne (Regular user):

They have claimed in the past that there is fibre to every tower, but I will double-check with them.

Raindog (New user):

Quoting Dan Warne:
but it's not radio waves you're paying for -- it's access to network equipment. Telstra's Next G network was massively more expensive to build than any mobile network Australia has ever seen previously.

That point is very much debatable debatable. While the NextG infrastructure is certainly the most extensive, you have to be mindful of where the expense lies. Telstra took great advantage of the legacy of control of a heavily government subsidised CDMA network for the basis of much of the NextG roll-out. Telstra also holds control of the existing copper network and pays a very different access price than it's competitors.
In percentage terms Telstra has not really made a bigger commitment and given Telstra's monopoly position their public offerings leave a lot to be desired.

The real tragedy is that the real improvements that this new and improved management at Telstra can make are essentially held in limbo by the incompetent bumblings of one Sen Conroy and his vaporware NBN.

Pauly (New user):

Jammit if there are 10 times more towers then surely it costs 10 times more to build and operate.
Im not sure what your point is anyway. Are you saying that there is a network out there that competes with Next G for speed and coverage?

apt.pupil (New user):

Quoting Pauly:
Pauly Jammit if there are 10 times more towers then surely it costs 10 times more to build and operate.
Im not sure what your point is anyway. Are you saying that there is a network out there that competes with Next G for speed and coverage?

that is a whole truckload of rubbish.
you can not put a performance improvement ratio in the way that 10X the price= 10X the performance. that would be like saying a Z9 series BMW is 10X faster than the Holden Astra.
What also comes into play is not raw downlink and uplink speed and ping performance, but also the network stability and ability to put greater coverage per tower onto more towers than the rest.

think of it as the astra versus the BMW. you are getting extra benefits just by owning the BMW.

as for the comment to downplay the cars argument- if you think with that kind of narrow mind, you will miss out on the extra benefits and comforts offered with the higher price tag. With telstra- it is a sure- fire guarantee you will get a greater range in which you can use your wireless broadband, but you will also certainly get the faster access speeds. Optus, Virgin and Voda/Hutch are all operating on a 3.6mbit modem. this means the maximum downlink speeds possible are up to 3.6mbits, divide convert that into MB, and you will see you actual speeds. Telstras slowest possible modems are 7.2mbits, which offer easily up to double the maximum downlink speed.

cough up a little extra and you have an even higher capacity modem, although real time speeds give you up to 3mbits in metropolitan and selected non-metro areas

i call it comparing woolworths cuts of steak with a butcher's cuts of steak. the butchers is a helluva lot more expensive, but you get a finer tasting meat.

Tin (User):

Quoting Jammit:
And the BMW vs Holden Astra argument is so limp dicked as well
All I see is ways to get from A to B, that is the fundamental worth of a car; not the "associated prestiege" and price tag


I gather you drive an old crappy hatchback with dodgy seats, etc. Good cars are far nicer to be inside for the journey from point A to point B. Much like a quality internet service is far nicer to use to get data from point A to point B.

Aubrey (New user):

I wonder if the timing of this (unusual) move by Telstra has anything do with the ACCC Inquiry starting today?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/15/2793407.htm

Raindog (New user):

Quoting Aubrey:
I wonder if the timing of this (unusual) move by Telstra has anything do with the ACCC Inquiry starting today?

You've gone and done it now Aubrey, here was Telstra convincing all who'd listing that they'd become cute and cuddly post Amigos, and you let this one out of the bag.

You can expect a knock on your door late one evening. :)

The DT era dose look like a major improve but no one should be under any illusion that Telstra gives a stuff about their consumers, any concessions offered are simply damage limitation exercises. it's still Telstra Corp.