Despite the rush by other providers to start selling so-called naked DSL, where broadband is sold without a phone line, the nation's third largest telco AAPT today said it would continue to hold back on the grounds that the product has been priced too low.
AAPT GM networks and technology, David Yuile
Western Australian telco Amcom was the first provider to launch the service in November. It was quickly followed by iiNet and a raft of other providers such as Internode and Exetel.
AAPT's general manager of networks and technology, David Yuile, said the telco was watching with interest, but didn't think it was prudent to jump into the fray.
"We think with the price point that naked's gone out at, it's going to be difficult for [providers] to make money," he said, adding that the support costs for naked are higher than for normal broadband, because the carrier was running a dedicated unbundled local loop service over the copper telephone lines. Traditonal DSL broadband has been based on the line sharing service standard, a different offering from wholesale provider Telstra.
"The cost of fault-finding to that piece of equipment at the end of the [line] is a lot higher," said Yuile.
In addition to this cost burden, Yuile said that fixing quality issues becomes a murky area with naked DSL. If a normal phone line didn't work, he said, it was Telstra's duty to fix it as the wholesale provider, but it's less certain when internet telephony quality takes a hit. Internet telephony or VoIP runs on top of the broadband connection rather than as a separate service.
"Consumers are quite demanding. They want to pick up the phone and have it work," he said.
This stance represents an about turn from AAPT's aggressive statements in August last year, when the group's CEO Paul Broad promised naked DSL by Christmas.
However, the telco is not totally ruling naked DSL out, Yuile said. It just wants to wait until the offering matures. "We think naked's got a place, but it's got to settle," he said.
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Ben
18/07/2008 04:46 PM
AAPT is an awful service anyway... I wouldn't want naked DSL from them. I'm with them and the speeds that I get quite often are absolutely appauling. 15kb/s, 0.5kb/s
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mickeyde
19/07/2008 01:37 AM
TELSTRA are also awful and deliberately make it difficult for competitors to sue their lines ( which we paid for as taxpayers) and delay repairs if your services aren't with them.
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deltatango
19/07/2008 04:12 PM
"Consumers are quite demanding. They want to pick up the phone and have it work," Ummmm.... If AAPT thinks that that simple expectatation makes consumers "demanding" then they need to take a good look at themselves. Of course that's what you friggen want when you pay for a service. Duuhhh!!
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Jai
20/07/2008 12:33 PM
I am (was) with AAPT, but get this, they don't even have a 3G mobile service (and no plans to get one). I switched to Optus to get an iPhone. Come on AAPT, this is 2008.
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ozgal
21/07/2008 05:44 AM
I also take umbrage at David Yuille's remark that, "...consumers are quite demanding". How about we rephrase that, Dave, to "...Customers (you know, the one's who allow you to make the money....!) do actually expect a working product for their hard earned cash. But wait there's more... "However, the telco is not totally ruling naked DSL out, Yuile said. It just wants to wait until the offering matures. "We think naked's got a place, but it's got to settle," he said. How about we call a spade a spade, Dave. Perhaps what you really meant to say but managed to hold back from expressing, was: "We prefer to sit back and watch others work out the bugs. If it looks good then we'll jump in and make a grab for the dollars from "those demanding consumers". I'm a happy Internode customer. Why? A reliable service for a reasoanble cost. Plus, mostly good feedback from a mostly happy customer base. (Check out whirlpool.net.au). Add to that Internode's inclusion of usenet (via Giganews, saving me a further $ per month). I have not used naked DSL as yet, but use VOIP regularly. So far so good. Am hoping Naked DSL proves to be a reliable alternative to Telstra and other profit-at-all-costs (bugger the customer) corporation. You hear that, Dave?
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MBK
22/07/2008 10:03 AM
So in short its cheaper to buy the service from wholesale, instead of actually doing the work yourself, ie maintenance etc.. And to reply to this load of wallop "Telstra deliberately make it difficult for competitors to sue their lines ( which we paid for as taxpayers) and delay repairs if your services aren't with them" Telstra paid for the lines as a debt repayment. Also the government sold the asset. Secondly Telstra has a legal obligation to wholesale customers and is not allowed to discriminate, and still have to abide by service guarantees. However some delays can be attributed to some wholesale customers being told by their providers to contact Telstra to have faults etc repaired. Won't happen as Telstra retail faults isn't able to access a wholesale customers service ( operational seperation )
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