Mobile Offerings From Exetel

[ForumAdmin]

We are in the final stages of deciding on what we do with mobile services moving forward.

Before we make any final decisions we would be interested in receiving any feedback you would care to provide bearing in mind that we are only a very small company and are limited in what we can do.

Our current thinking is based around what is possible for us rather than attempting to meet the large carriers 'capped' plans that are way beyond our ability to address.

So our current thoughts on residential mobile is to move right away from 'capped' minute inclusions and offer mobile services bundled with ADSL services on some basis such as:

100 mobile calls a month for $25.00 or 50 mobile calls a month for $12.50 or some simple variation of charging per call (irrespective of the type of call or actual length).

This could be offered as 100 calls included in the initial 'sign up' with the ability to 'top up' in blocks of 50 calls.....or anything else that makes sense.

There could be an option to include SMS as a separate allowance (at a fixed cost) though we would think cost conscious people would use the 5 - 8 cent Exetel facility for that function.

[Munka]

Not sure if this 'Mobile offerings" is referencing both of your carrier options, but want to reiterate that the vodafone network often has little or no relevance to rural users, of the two, Optus being the strongest choice.
So as a rural user my vote is for the 50 calls at $12.50pm on the optus network, bundled with HSPA as I would also sign my wife up for this.

[microbe]

If you do something as simple as 50 calls for $12.50 with a reasonable fair use allowance (instead of complex nonsense I currently have to put with) I will be one of the first to sign up.

[peter_mcc]

We've got 3 mobile phones linked to our ADSL account - how would that work with the new ideas?
peter

[soaper]

would this change would affect the current *mobile * plans..... ie non capped per minute plans ??

i am reading it as not affecting

thanks

[vk3xem]

Not sure if this 'Mobile offerings" is referencing both of your carrier options, but want to reiterate that the vodafone network often has little or no relevance to rural users, of the two, Optus being the strongest choice.
So as a rural user my vote is for the 50 calls at $12.50pm on the optus network, bundled with HSPA as I would also sign my wife up for this.

I am using Mobile X (Vodafone) as my primary mobile plan at the moment. I do have a HSPA (Exetel) plan that I use for occasional data on my laptop, but I have zero signal on Optus at home at this time. I really want to switch completely to HSPA for mobile but until Optus sorts their coverage in my area I am unable to.

The fixed call cost does sound interesting whilst I'm still on the Mobile X deal, if it was possible to to have the 50 call option and automatically step up to say 25 and 100 calls on the deal it might be a really good option, (Similar to Excess download of 1G or part there of) or revert to timed calls.

[Mort]

I have my current mobile on the $0/month plan as it is effectively just forwarded to a work provided phone. All I'm paying is for the redirect charges which are only a couple of dollars at most. I'd probably be keen to move my wife over to one of these new plans, but I'd still like to keep my current one.

Another idea, what if you do have more than one mobile, can you bundle them together to create a pool allocation. i.e. 2 phones = 200 call pool, but one phone could use 150 of them and the other phone use 50?

[neilbags]

I am a current Exetel HSPA customer, but am now thinking of switching to PennySIM.

Their new deal allows free calls between PennySIM users as well as free calls to Pennytel VOIP DIDs and their VOIP gateway number. So I can use their gateway to make all my calls and all I pay are the VOIP rates.

Here are the details:
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=PennySim_FAQ

I really think that tying mobile plans in with VOIP is the way forward. If Pennytel can strike this type of deal with Optus then maybe Exetel can do something similar.

[rrdesign]

Not sure if this 'Mobile offerings" is referencing both of your carrier options, but want to reiterate that the vodafone network often has little or no relevance to rural users, of the two, Optus being the strongest choice.
So as a rural user my vote is for the 50 calls at $12.50pm on the optus network, bundled with HSPA as I would also sign my wife up for this.

I'm in the opposite position to Munka, having found the Optus coverage in my area of Sydney to be so abysmal, that I have had to revert to the Vodafone service, and pay the higher data charges.

I think the Mobile X plan is very good as my call volume varies greatly from month to month and I am happy to pay for what I use. I would never use any kind of capped plan as I would either not be using much of the cap or I would exceed it by such a huge amount that the bill would be outrageous.

Some suggestions on the new mobile proposals:

Please keep Vodafone.

We currently have 5 Exetel mobile accounts, it would great if the proposed 50 or 100 call blocks be able to be spread over all of the accounts.

There should be an option for an automatic top-up facility where we would be charged for the next 50 calls when we had used up our allocation, rather than having to do it manually.

It would be great if the free Exetel to Exetel allowance still applied.

[dbr]

One of the reasons I joined Exetel for mobile was the basis of the plans. No monthly cost with a fair usage cost. I detest the idea of minimum spend, feel caps are overrated and 'oblige' one to spend more.

So my main request / suggestion is that you retain at least one low volume plan with reasonable call rates on a no minimum spend.

Secondly, I like the bonus of the Exetel - Exetel freebies, but can obviously recognise that they might not be able to be retained.

[atmint]

Hello,
What about an iPhone offering?
atmint

[peteru]

I'd like to see an option with no ongoing fixed cost component, only pay-as-you-use costs.

I use a mobile phone on a very irregular basis. It may not get any use for 7 months, then be used for 3 or 4 phone calls in one weekend. On occasion (about once every 14 months), I go through a period of heavy use, where I may go through $80-$120 worth of calls in a short span of time.

I've been using Vodafone pre-paid credit which lasts 365 days - that works out mostly OK for me, although at one point I have not recharged for more than 370 days and Vodafone "confiscated" the remaining credit and cancelled my SIM.

I'd like to see a plan with:

* $0 - $10 establishment fee (to get the SIM and a number) (My Vodafone SIM was $2)
* $0 per month fixed fee
* no calls included
* $0.xx per minute calls (the lower the better)
* $0.yy per SMS
* Monthly invoices for periods when I make calls.

Basically a plan that costs nothing when I don't use the phone and when I do use the phone, I pay a fair rate for my usage.

[CyclingJase]

So long as the new plans stay comparable or better than the Moble X plan, I'm happy. I've been really happy with that plan, despite vodafone coverage being dismal - even in Sydney's innerwest!

A key component for me is mobile internet. I only use it while travelling which isn't often. Paying 7c/mb is quite nice (even though it was 4c!).

[rrdesign]

Hello,
What about an iPhone offering?
atmint

I have used both the HSPA M1 HB Optus sourced service and the Mobile X Vodafone service on my iPhone and depending on coverage the services worked perfectly AND were much better value than any of the capped plans from the big telcos. The inclusion of a VoIP service on the HSPA plan is great, again depending on coverage. You just need to jailbreak your iPhone to use the really good 3G VoIP client SIAX.

[David.Melbourne]

The plans we (family) are on. VirginMobile Bean Counter
So anything that offers a better deal than this and we'd like to sign up quite a few!

Call rate: 10cents per minute
Text rate : 10 cents in OZ, 20 cents OS
Mobile data browsing 0.2cents per kb
Voicemail FREE in OZ
Recharge value $25

(more info from their website)
It's cheap. 10c a minute calls*, 10c texts in Oz, FREE voicemail. That's 24/7, NO catches.
It's simple. No confusing CAP deals, no exclusions, no peak/off peak times, just great value!
It's long-life. Your credit lasts for 45 days, so it gets you through the month, and then some. No need to refrigerate, just keep it in your pocket.
It's all online. So you save time: manage your account, set auto-top up options, check usage history and more. You control everything!