Price Increases For Out Of Contract Customers

[Mike G]

I'm a bit confused about which new plans I can change to. In my member facility there is a Manage Sevices/ADSL option which has a Change Service selection.

I'm currently on a TL-BB plan and have a Telstra phone service. Under the Change Service option are a series of plans starting at A30. The table is headed "ADSL2 (No Telephone)". If I change to one of these plans, does this mean I would no longer be able to use the Telstra phone service? Are these plans old or new plans? They seem to have the new offpeak times.

Mike G

[ForumAdmin]

It's disappointing that Exetel are ignoring the 'light' to 'normal' use (as defined by Whirlpool). I have been with Exetel for many years, lots of ups and downs and plan changes! But, paying $40 for a 5Gb plan is not competitive at all, and looking at Whirlpool I can get much better value elsewhere....

+1 to this. I have been a happy customer of Exetel for a number of years, and because fo the good service I brought my sister on to Exetel as well. Even though this household is a "normal" use customer, we appear to be very light by Exetel standards (12-20GB pm), and my sister's usage is minimal. Nevertheless in both cases, Exetel offered the best value service for the cost. We both changed plans last March with a previous push to change from "old" plans. That cost us $5 a month extra for unused additional benefits.

I am currently on a $45 TL-C1 plan and my sister on a $40 NF1500 plan. In our area we are stuck with Telstra WS ADSL1, so only poor value options available. Our only option with Exetel now is to accept the $50pm plan for no additional benefits to us, as we will not fully utilise the peak download limits at all. We would be interested in a higher upload speed option to improve VOIP quality, even with lower useage limits, but no ISP offers such an option, given the existing pricing structures.

However, at $50pm there are a range of other major ISPs that offer competitive 1500 plans that can cater for our useage requirements. I thought Exetel was marvellous when the plans were about $20 less than market with much greater benefits, but for us that is no longer true. So unless the situation changes over the next 2 weeks, Exetel has just lost 2 more longer term loyal and previously happy customers, because of a lack of a suitable "low useage" plan. I wonder how much longer Exetel will survive in competition with the bigger players.

You might like to consider the costs of providing a 1500/256 ADSL1 connection to a customer:

Monthly port cost - a little over $30.00
12 gbps of back haul - a little over $5.50
12 gbps of IP - a little over $5.00
Support/Billing/Provisioning/Overheads - a little under $1.50

So, at the very best, Exetel would make $3.00 profit from providing you a service at your estimate of a minimum 12 gbps of use and would lose money at your stated 20 gb per month. We have to rely on other users of your plan using much less than you do for a $50.00 per month charge breaking even.

Your 'loyalty' (according to your own words) seems to have been based on paying $20.00 per month less that you could obtain your service from other providers....I don't think that situation can really be described as "loyalty".....more self interest. Now that you are being asked to pay what it costs Exetel to provide the service (we make little or no profit) your loyalty dictates that you move elsewhere to either a provider who buys at much lower costs than Exetel does or who is not intending to provide you with what you have come to accept.

Perhaps you are right and Exetel will not continuing to exist because it sees a need to make a very slight profit from providing services. It would certainly cease to exist if it continued to provide you services at the prices you are currently paying.

[ForumAdmin]

I'm a bit confused about which new plans I can change to. In my member facility there is a Manage Sevices/ADSL option which has a Change Service selection.

I'm currently on a TL-BB plan and have a Telstra phone service. Under the Change Service option are a series of plans starting at A30. The table is headed "ADSL2 (No Telephone)". If I change to one of these plans, does this mean I would no longer be able to use the Telstra phone service? Are these plans old or new plans? They seem to have the new offpeak times.

Mike G

Plans that start with a "T" are Telstra plans.

Plans that start with an "A" are AAPT plans. These are at ADSL2 speeds

As a Telstra user you have a choice of plans - in both circumstances your telephone service is provided by whoever provides it now.

[gong_guy]

You might like to consider the costs of providing a 1500/256 ADSL1 connection to a customer:

Monthly port cost - a little over $30.00
12 gbps of back haul - a little over $5.50
12 gbps of IP - a little over $5.00
Support/Billing/Provisioning/Overheads - a little under $1.50

So, at the very best, Exetel would make $3.00 profit from providing you a service at your estimate of a minimum 12 gbps of use and would lose money at your stated 20 gb per month. We have to rely on other users of your plan using much less than you do for a $50.00 per month charge breaking even.

[/quote]

I believe there is an always profitable market segment you are ignoring.

The low usage customer who does not want an off-peak period.

How about a $40 1500 plan with 4 or 5 GB of 24hr data with $1 per GB excess?

You would never lose money, the more they use the more you make.

[ForumAdmin]

You might like to consider the costs of providing a 1500/256 ADSL1 connection to a customer:

Monthly port cost - a little over $30.00
12 gbps of back haul - a little over $5.50
12 gbps of IP - a little over $5.00
Support/Billing/Provisioning/Overheads - a little under $1.50

So, at the very best, Exetel would make $3.00 profit from providing you a service at your estimate of a minimum 12 gbps of use and would lose money at your stated 20 gb per month. We have to rely on other users of your plan using much less than you do for a $50.00 per month charge breaking even.

I believe there is an always profitable market segment you are ignoring.

The low usage customer who does not want an off-peak period.

How about a $40 1500 plan with 4 or 5 GB of 24hr data with $1 per GB excess?

You would never lose money, the more they use the more you make.

You could well be right.

We will look at something like that or a simple PAYU plan for each service type.

[d5.lam]

I've got 2 places that have out of contract naked adsl2+ plans that i would now like to move to the OT30 plans.

They both have had the PSTN number ported to VOIP. There is no issues keeping the VOIP number and the VOIP option when moving to the OT30 plans right?

We have no intention of using the free PSTN calls options offered in the new naked OT200 plans so going back to adsl2+ + line rental would be more beneficial.

Cheers

[ForumAdmin]

I've got 2 places that have out of contract naked adsl2+ plans that i would now like to move to the OT30 plans.

They both have had the PSTN number ported to VOIP. There is no issues keeping the VOIP number and the VOIP option when moving to the OT30 plans right?

We have no intention of using the free PSTN calls options offered in the new naked OT200 plans so going back to adsl2+ + line rental would be more beneficial.

Cheers

There are no problems in doing that.

[Spectator]

You could well be right.

We will look at something like that or a simple PAYU plan for each service type.

If you could do this and offer a profitable service I think that would be ideal for many. Is this likely to occur before decisions customers are required to decide about the naked ADSL upgrade offer? Not trying to hassle you, I just don't want to sign up to that deal (or worse go to another provider) only to find out a deal that meets my needs becomes available soon after.

I think it is probably a little over a year ago that you introduced a range of plans with a lower base cost and and more of a pay for what you use emphasis so there are likely to be a lot of people on those plans either recently out of contract or soon to be out of contract. I think the lowest cost service you were offering was a $35 naked service (with all downloads paid for) whereas the cheapest plan available now across all products (excluding those that require you to pay another telco for line rental) is $55. From memory, I think this approach also helped to reduce demands on the network.

I currently pay $43 per month for a naked DSL service with the highest I've downloaded around 7GB (which on numbers previously provided by FA I think is still profitable for an Optus based service) but typically less than 5GB and go out of contract in a few days . From what I understand my choices include:
- stay on current plan but pay $53 per month from 1 April;
- take up the upgrade from naked offer for $60 per month which includes a generous allowance of free calls (but as I currently pay around $6 per month for voip to another provider and don't really want to mess around with my current voip arrangements and numbers this is not as appealing to me as it seems)
- change to an ADSL2 plan the cheapest of which is $55 but requires me to pay a fee of about $98 for reconnecting the wireline
- change to another provider.

As I don't expect my download habits to dramatically increase, It would be great if there was still a low download low cost option to either stay on naked or move to a wireline plus ADSL bundle.

[ForumAdmin]

You could well be right.

We will look at something like that or a simple PAYU plan for each service type.

If you could do this and offer a profitable service I think that would be ideal for many. Is this likely to occur before decisions customers are required to decide about the naked ADSL upgrade offer? Not trying to hassle you, I just don't want to sign up to that deal (or worse go to another provider) only to find out a deal that meets my needs becomes available soon after.

I think it is probably a little over a year ago that you introduced a range of plans with a lower base cost and and more of a pay for what you use emphasis so there are likely to be a lot of people on those plans either recently out of contract or soon to be out of contract. I think the lowest cost service you were offering was a $35 naked service (with all downloads paid for) whereas the cheapest plan available now across all products (excluding those that require you to pay another telco for line rental) is $55. From memory, I think this approach also helped to reduce demands on the network.

I currently pay $43 per month for a naked DSL service with the highest I've downloaded around 7GB (which on numbers previously provided by FA I think is still profitable for an Optus based service) but typically less than 5GB and go out of contract in a few days . From what I understand my choices include:
- stay on current plan but pay $53 per month from 1 April;
- take up the upgrade from naked offer for $60 per month which includes a generous allowance of free calls (but as I currently pay around $6 per month for voip to another provider and don't really want to mess around with my current voip arrangements and numbers this is not as appealing to me as it seems)
- change to an ADSL2 plan the cheapest of which is $55 but requires me to pay a fee of about $98 for reconnecting the wireline
- change to another provider.

As I don't expect my download habits to dramatically increase, It would be great if there was still a low download low cost option to either stay on naked or move to a wireline plus ADSL bundle.

We could look at a $50.00 plan with 10 gb of downloads and with the included free local, national and calls to Optus mobiles.

I don't know why you say the free calls would be on no use to you - they are free - and they don't affect your inbound arrangements if you really want to stay with another VoIP provider. So if the free calls were used you would save whatever you are spending with another provider on those call types and would not be spending very much more than you are today.

[Steves]

You might like to consider the costs of providing a 1500/256 ADSL1 connection to a customer:

Monthly port cost - a little over $30.00
12 gbps of back haul - a little over $5.50
12 gbps of IP - a little over $5.00
Support/Billing/Provisioning/Overheads - a little under $1.50

So, at the very best, Exetel would make $3.00 profit from providing you a service at your estimate of a minimum 12 gbps of use and would lose money at your stated 20 gb per month. We have to rely on other users of your plan using much less than you do for a $50.00 per month charge breaking even.

I believe there is an always profitable market segment you are ignoring.

The low usage customer who does not want an off-peak period.

How about a $40 1500 plan with 4 or 5 GB of 24hr data with $1 per GB excess?

You would never lose money, the more they use the more you make.

You could well be right.

We will look at something like that or a simple PAYU plan for each service type.

I would gladly trade in 3/4 or more of my off-peak period just to keep the price of my plan as it is, or for a cheaper option. If high usage is what cost Exetel why have the off-peak allowance so high?

Steve

[jokiin]

We could look at a $50.00 plan with 10 gb of downloads and with the included free local, national and calls to Optus mobiles.

is there anything similar in the pipeline for customers on Optus plans currently, something that has some kind of data allowance and phone calls included? The deal for the current naked users is quite good I feel

[Spectator]

We could look at a $50.00 plan with 10 gb of downloads and with the included free local, national and calls to Optus mobiles.

I don't know why you say the free calls would be on no use to you - they are free - and they don't affect your inbound arrangements if you really want to stay with another VoIP provider. So if the free calls were used you would save whatever you are spending with another provider on those call types and would not be spending very much more than you are today.

Would this be available as the upgrade from naked offer (ie no cost for reconnecting the pstn part of the line)? If so I think that would probably be enough for me to sign up.

You are mostly right about me being able to save most of the voip costs. I guess it is a personal preference to have the one voip number for all outbound and inbound calls but that is a matter of personal convenience and I certainly wouldn't expect Exetel to have to consider my convenience in making their residential offers (especially when you have your own voip service) but I don't think I would be alone in preferring to present a single number (well actually I don't care that much as I don't talk much on phone but I think it would be my wife's preference).

Appreciate you taking the time and effort to listen to what is said on the forum and potentially respond in your offerings. If you are able to make this plan possible it is a very good plan (even if those offered it may not fully appreciate it as naked users are used to the low voip costs) as is the existing $60 plan for those it suits.

[ForumAdmin]

We could look at a $50.00 plan with 10 gb of downloads and with the included free local, national and calls to Optus mobiles.

I don't know why you say the free calls would be on no use to you - they are free - and they don't affect your inbound arrangements if you really want to stay with another VoIP provider. So if the free calls were used you would save whatever you are spending with another provider on those call types and would not be spending very much more than you are today.

Would this be available as the upgrade from naked offer (ie no cost for reconnecting the pstn part of the line)? If so I think that would probably be enough for me to sign up.

You are mostly right about me being able to save most of the voip costs. I guess it is a personal preference to have the one voip number for all outbound and inbound calls but that is a matter of personal convenience and I certainly wouldn't expect Exetel to have to consider my convenience in making their residential offers (especially when you have your own voip service) but I don't think I would be alone in preferring to present a single number (well actually I don't care that much as I don't talk much on phone but I think it would be my wife's preference).

Appreciate you taking the time and effort to listen to what is said on the forum and potentially respond in your offerings. If you are able to make this plan possible it is a very good plan (even if those offered it may not fully appreciate it as naked users are used to the low voip costs) as is the existing $60 plan for those it suits.

It would be a CV plan that involves no downtime to restore the line.

Again, I remain puzzled as to why anyone thinks paying 10 cents for a VoIP call is somehow an advantage over paying zero for a PSTN call.

[ForumAdmin]

We could look at a $50.00 plan with 10 gb of downloads and with the included free local, national and calls to Optus mobiles.

is there anything similar in the pipeline for customers on Optus plans currently, something that has some kind of data allowance and phone calls included? The deal for the current naked users is quite good I feel

These are Optus services.

[Dazzled]

I manage an often absent family member's affairs, whose service usually uses a couple of gigs a month on a Powertel $30 plan, now facing a $15 increase for much more data that won't be used. Telstra's phone fees are on top of that. I could cop the no-change surcharge, or I could try and find my power of attorney and either shift the service to an Optus bundle at $55 or drop ADSL completely for wireless broadband at about the same total cost. It is for me, of course, to guess what is best. I'm male, so I'll be wrong any way.

However the thought that comes to mind is that these might be common courses of action, which would simply erase much Powertel/AAPT business.