What a shock. Teltra's new prices suck

[Vympel]

Link

TELSTRA'S new home-grown chief executive, David Thodey, has been a welcome breath of fresh air since he replaced American Sol Trujillo in April.

He has seemed a rather nicer, gentler kind of chap, focused more on community concerns than stirring controversy.

So there was much anticipation when he announced at an investor briefing in October that he intended taking the knife to Telstra's stratospheric broadband pricing.

"In some parts of the market we've gone too far out of line and we need to come back," Thodey admitted.

Unveiling the new price plans several weeks later, he said: "This is all about a new Telstra, a Telstra being responsive to customers, looking after what's important to them."

Uh-huh. We seem to have heard that before.

Here at Doubleclick, where we've been running our eyes over the new broadband pricing plans that came into effect on December 1, it sounds pretty much like the old Telstra.

Many of the BigPond home internet plans have not had a price cut at all, although data allowances and in some cases speeds have been increased.

As Telstra puts it in its media release: "(The) new consumer broadband plans will offer many customers faster speed plans and higher data allowances for the same price, with excess usage charges removed on most plans."

Telstra says customers can save between $20 and $80 a month on the new plans, but it turns out that's only true if you choose to sign up for 24 months rather than 12, and include internet, home phone or optional Foxtel connection on the one bill.

There's no doubting that people on the most basic BigPond plan will henceforth get a better deal. And about time: the one they had was a distinctly crummy offering, in Doubleclick's view. Under the old deal, customers paid $29.95 a month for a measly 256Kbps connection, and got hit with extra charges of 15c a megabyte if they downloaded more than 200MB in a month.

It didn't take much to exceed 200MB -- a few iTunes downloads could easily exceed that. Henceforth these users will pay the same, but receive a 2GB monthly data allowance.

They also score a vastly better turn of speed: a minimum 1.5Mbps, and possibly much better, depending on how far they live from an exchange.

They still cop the 15c per megabyte charge for anything over the limit and they're the only Telstra customers who do. On all its higher priced plans, Telstra doesn't charge for extra megabytes. It throttles back your connection speed to a snail-paced 64Kbps for the remainder of the month. That's barely usable, so outraged users who ring and complain are urged to take a more expensive plan and have the throttling lifted the same day.

For instance, Telstra offers its BigPond Elite Liberty ADSL plan, which includes 12GB monthly downloads for $59.95 a month, and likes to say this is $10 a month cheaper than the old 12GB plan. But to get the $10 reduction you have to sign up for 24 months rather than 12, so you end up paying Telstra more.

Many people, Doubleclick included, don't see why there should be download limits at all. In the US, and many other countries, limits are unknown.

Meanwhile Telstra is being undercut in the marketplace by a number of competitors.

For instance TPG, which is part of the SP Telemedia (Soul) group, offers a 100GB ADSL2+ plan at $49.95 a month. Adelaide-based Internode, which has been making big inroads into BigPond's business nationally, charges $39.95 for 5GB, $49.95 for 20GB and $69.95 for 50GB. Telstra says it will be contacting existing customers and moving them to the updated broadband plans "over the coming months".

It could be a lengthy wait.Customers who would like to hurry things along can cut the waiting time by checking in online at MyBigPond, and choosing the service they prefer. Just don't expect any huge bargains.

I've looked at the plans, and I cannot for the life of me see any savings for me. Fuck Telstra, I'm out. Ringing TPG tomorrow, see what kind of ADSL2+ deal I can get.

[Mr Bean]

Thank you Vympel because of you I remembered to hug my Fiber modem today as somtimes I think I don't appreciate my 20 Mb down/10 Mb up connection as much as I should for which I pay the equivalent of 43.25$ Aussy a month at current exchange rates.

Damn what a change it's been since I left Time Warner/Comcast behind and got with the Verizon FIOS.

[Stark]

Let's beat that dead horse some more. Needs more worthless one-dimensional analysis!

Anyway Vymp, I'm honestly not sure what you were expecting. Telstra wasn't going to suddenly become a fair trading organisation overnight. Since it's still shit compared to iinet etc, there's no point beyond coverage not to use a better, cheaper service.

Ie, not TPG.

[Vympel]

I've done no research yet so I have fuck all idea what kind of deal I can get. Who's got the best quality + deal?

[Stark]

TPG's more expensive plans are okay, but the one they push (the $50 100Gb one) is apparently pretty dodgey. At the higher costs (around $70) they're comparable to iinet and internode etc, except those have better service and more 'free stuff'. iinet is the best if you use 360 since Live is unmetered (as is iTunes, I believe) and Internode has shitloads of PC stuff mirrored (although it's not relevant if all your shit is through Steam or whatever). iPrimus are also still pretty good. Outside of that I wouldn't risk signing up.

Sydney metro I think might be able to get Internode's FIOS trial rollout; you certainly can in the nicer parts of Adelaide. No idea how ludicrously expensive that is, though.

[GuppyShark]

Internode has shitloads of PC stuff mirrored (although it's not relevant if all your shit is through Steam or whatever).

Actually, Steam* is unmetered for Internode customers.

As long as your steam content download originates from an Australian hosted Steam server, it will not count toward your Broadband usage.

* There are applications you can run that will prevent Steam downloading from servers outside Australia.

[Stark]

Ha! I didn't know that. That's pretty boss. I never use Steam, you see. I figured the availablility of free manual patches might be less useful in this digital distribution age, but free Steam is pretty cool (especially with the whole 1.5Gb patch situation).

[Vympel]

I'm looking at internodes website and the plethora of options make my fucking head hurt. I don't even know how the fuck ADSL works in the first place (I have cable) which makes it even more confusing. I hate the freaking technical aspects of the internet. Huge blindspot for me.

EDIT: there's no ADSL2+ coverage from internode in my area.

[Norade]

I still can't get my head around how Aussies fare stuck in the internet dark ages while also not being able to play games because one dick veto's changes to the rating system. I pay $53.95 CAN ($56.45 AUS) for this package:

# Up to 15 Mbps download speed
# Up to 1 Mbps upload speed
# 100 GB/month data transfer
# 10 personal email accounts
# 8 No-Cost Extras
# Up to two IP addresses (*2)
# 24/7/365 technical assistance
# Modem included

This isn't even that good compared to their next step up at $105 a month that ups the speed considerably, that package looks like this:

* Up to 25 Mbps download speed
* Up to 2 Mbps upload speed
* 150 GB/month data transfer
* 10 personal email accounts
* 8 No-Cost Extras
* Up to two IP addresses (*2)
* 24/7/365 technical assistance
* Modem included

Now I understand that Australia is in a bad place and has limited fiber lines with the rest of the world and my nation sits right next door to the biggest net using nation, however I still can't imagine why people in Australia let themselves be bent over like that.

[fnord]

Vympel, not even through Telstra equipment (they call it ADSL Fast now after this week's plan changes)? Said changes lumped higher speed (beyond 1500/256) ADSL plans on Telstra kit, be they ADSL1 or ADSL2+, into one category.

[Zac Naloen]

For £17.95 a month

I get

# Up to 20 Mbps download speed
# Up to 1 Mbps upload speed
# No download limits
# A Static IP Address
# 24/7/365 technical assistance
# modem/router included.


Internet is pretty cheap in the UK these days.

[phongn]

Now I understand that Australia is in a bad place and has limited fiber lines with the rest of the world and my nation sits right next door to the biggest net using nation, however I still can't imagine why people in Australia let themselves be bent over like that.

Telstra's natural monopoly gives them uncompetitive power and they also refuse to peer with any other provider on the continent. It's reached the point where the Australian government will break up the company's retail and wholesale operations; the government is also planning to build their own large-scale network.

Many people, Doubleclick included, don't see why there should be download limits at all. In the US, and many other countries, limits are unknown.

That's not quite true; various ISPs are now implementing limits (Comcast's residential lines have a soft limit of 250GB/mo and their business lines have a soft limit somewhere south of 1TB/mo) and mobile data plans often have a limit as well (5GB/mo).

[Stark]

ITT we learn it's difficult to understand how there's a difference between a remote continent that uses mostly external traffic with crap infrastructure and a massively covered central country with heaps of internal traffic.

I mean all traffic using a few chokepounts? WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE WHAT IS ECONOMICS?

The government attempt seems dodgey to me; the focus on regional coverage instead of metro density irritates me. 6000km of fibre so farmer joe can stream porn at 20mbps = worthwhile investment right?

[Norade]

I can understand, but that is no reason that in large cities and major areas you can't have decent rates. Besides, in case you haven't noticed Canada has 2 million extra square kilometers of area than Australia does and we still have decent internet even if the fastest 100 Mbps plan isn't yet offered in my city. Now before you talk about centralization people out in the boonies don't have good internet here either.

It sounds like the Aussie government needs to modernize infrastructure and make Teltra play fair or nothing will ever change.

[loomer]

I can understand, but that is no reason that in large cities and major areas you can't have decent rates. Besides, in case you haven't noticed Canada has 2 million extra square kilometers of area than Australia does and we still have decent internet even if the fastest 100 Mbps plan isn't yet offered in my city. Now before you talk about centralization people out in the boonies don't have good internet here either.

It sounds like the Aussie government needs to modernize infrastructure and make Teltra play fair or nothing will ever change.

In case you hadn't noticed, large amounts of that extra two million square kilometres is home to just about no one. Much like the middle of Australia in fact - but wait, what's this? We can't just piggyback on the American capacities via logical network extensions?

Yes, we do need to modernize infrastructure and get a more competitive market, but I wouldn't go bringing up 'Canada bigger, still has better internet' like that. It doesn't really prove anything in context - don't forget you don't have to essentially lay another major undersea cable to get another transnational connection pipeline. We do.

[Gandalf]

I can understand, but that is no reason that in large cities and major areas you can't have decent rates. Besides, in case you haven't noticed Canada has 2 million extra square kilometers of area than Australia does and we still have decent internet even if the fastest 100 Mbps plan isn't yet offered in my city. Now before you talk about centralization people out in the boonies don't have good internet here either.

You're also sharing a long land border with your neighbour, the US. You can just barnacle onto their infrastructure.

Australia just can't do the same thing with Indonesia.

[Norade]

I can understand, but that is no reason that in large cities and major areas you can't have decent rates. Besides, in case you haven't noticed Canada has 2 million extra square kilometers of area than Australia does and we still have decent internet even if the fastest 100 Mbps plan isn't yet offered in my city. Now before you talk about centralization people out in the boonies don't have good internet here either.

It sounds like the Aussie government needs to modernize infrastructure and make Teltra play fair or nothing will ever change.

In case you hadn't noticed, large amounts of that extra two million square kilometres is home to just about no one. Much like the middle of Australia in fact - but wait, what's this? We can't just piggyback on the American capacities via logical network extensions?

Yes, we do need to modernize infrastructure and get a more competitive market, but I wouldn't go bringing up 'Canada bigger, still has better internet' like that. It doesn't really prove anything in context - don't forget you don't have to essentially lay another major undersea cable to get another transnational connection pipeline. We do.

No shit, like I didn't know that already...

I understand that Australia has more issues than other nations, but it doesn't stop the fact that you need another undersea fiber cable or two, more comm sats, and a government that isn't going to hand monopolies to companies and allow them to bend you over. Keep in mind also that it isn't just your connect speed and prices that are retard to the entire rest of the world, even the talk of an internet filter or not allowing M or AO rated games is stupid. In short I can't understand how their isn't more outrage over these obviously handicapped things in Australia as there would be if such changes were to be dumped on us over here.

[Stark]

Almost everything you just said is wrong.

At least two new fibre links are in build at the moment; this still doesn't compare to 'directly next door to the US' and will only reduce the suck.

Australia has not only an 'M' rating for games, but also an 'MA' rating for games. Oops.

The idea of 'outrage' over service that while poor and expensive is PERFECTLY GOOD FOR PRETTY MUCH ALL NORMAL PEOPLE is stupid. I personally get about 22meg syncs; almost no sites dish data this fast so it's academic. The expense is arugably a direct result of buying limited throughout out of THE GIANT CONTINENT SURROUNDED BY OCEANS. The government attempt to cover regional areas is annoying because most of the population lives on the south and east coasts.

However, Telstra being so obviously evil (while also providing terrible customer support) is why there are other networks gradually covering the country with faster, cheaper services. If Telstra didn't suck, there would be arguably LESS infrastructure improvement.

[loomer]

Well, for one thing, they aren't changes here. Since we've never had decent internet or a proper games classification (and what the hell? We have plenty of M rated games released here just fine, its only a few examples that don't get through), large amounts of our population just don't know any better. They have no idea our internet is shit for the price on a world scale, and frankly, a lot of the older individuals are scared of it and support the filter accordingly.

As for Telstra's monopoly, the reason they have that is because they used to be publicly owned. All the infrastructure they have used to be government property, until they were privatized under Howard and were allowed to keep the infrastructure as well. Before it was privatized, it wasn't such an issue that they had a monopoly.

[Stark]

The horrific mismanagement of the Telstra privatisation (or the amazing success depending on who you are) is really a great story for the grandkids. Remember all the 'Telstra protected by ACCC by government' stuff in 2003?

[Norade]

Okay, I guess I was wrong and don't know the whole story. I guess Canada and the US do have major advantages that we take for granted everyday.

[phongn]

ITT we learn it's difficult to understand how there's a difference between a remote continent that uses mostly external traffic with crap infrastructure and a massively covered central country with heaps of internal traffic.

I mean all traffic using a few chokepounts? WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE WHAT IS ECONOMICS?

Telstra's natural monopoly and generally anticompetitive practices mean that the situation is worse than it could be. Underinvestment in overseas links and high internal bandwidth costs only exacerbates the problem. Then there's the issue with lack of peering and high costs of transit. I get lots of traffic from Europe and Asia without worrying about out-of-North-America fees, why should Australians?

Interstitial edit: I know you guys have more undersea fibre lines being built but its still surprisingly low compared to various transcontinental links.

The government attempt seems dodgey to me; the focus on regional coverage instead of metro density irritates me. 6000km of fibre so farmer joe can stream porn at 20mbps = worthwhile investment right?

Aren't your rural areas going to be served by WWAN and satellite?

[Stark]

Telstra's natural monopoly and generally anticompetitive practices mean that the situation is worse than it could be. Underinvestment in overseas links and high internal bandwidth costs only exacerbates the problem. Then there's the issue with lack of peering and high costs of transit. I get lots of traffic from Europe and Asia without worrying about out-of-North-America fees, why should Australians?

Interstitial edit: I know you guys have more undersea fibre lines being built but its still surprisingly low compared to various transcontinental links.

It's certainly mismanaged. As the other providers expand, though, we're seeing more investment. There's clearly simply no drive within Telstra to do more than keep pace (it took them years to drop ADSL prices and their cable is complete balls). Their main focus seems to be in the mobile area, at least from the outside, and they have a technical lead in that area.

Aren't your rural areas going to be served by WWAN and satellite?

The article I saw on the weekend suggested they were rolling out fibre to the middle of nowhere, but it was just a regular newspaper. 6000kms of fibre would pretty much give use three runs down the east coast, which would help more people. In the mobile space, there's a big push for coverage on 3/4G (to the extent that Optus is massively oversold in cities due to density, but invests in regional expansion anyway).

[tim31]

I agree that a couple of thousand kays of fibre optic would better serve the coastal areas, but in that case what are the solutions to regional telco infrastructure problems? Sure, farmer joe doesn't really need hi-speed porn access. But his kids shouldn't be cut off from the educational opportunities.

[Stark]

Educational opportunities that need 8mbps+ exist?

The whole program is just vote-buying, but it's actual useful vote-buying. The regional stuff is arguably beneficial to a tiny number of people who probably won't vote Labor anyway. There are other solutions to regional access, as Telstra and Phongn are already talking about.