Naked DSL: Australian service provider roundup

By Suzanne Tindal on 06 August 2008

Since last November, when iiNet very loudly launched its naked DSL product, "naked" has been on everybody's lips, and it seemed like everybody was in on it. Some ISPs, however, have held out. This roundup of thirteen of Australia's largest internet service providers looks into who's got naked already, who doesn't, and who wants to.

Naked DSL refers to ADSL broadband that is sold without an attached analogue telephone line. Some providers sell Naked DSL with attached internet telephony phone lines, which provide phone calls over the internet.

NOTE: Users already on ADSL2+ often have to disconnect their service before they can be connected to naked, because it has to be changed from a shared service line to unbundled local loop. This involves a period of downtime, which can be up to twenty days.

ISP Offers naked DSL? If not, when? If yes, how popular is it? What they say....
AAPT No Undecided N/A "We think with the price point that naked's gone out at, it's going to be difficult for [providers] to make money," says David Yuile, general manager networks and technology. "We think naked's got a place, but it's got to settle," he added.
Adam Internet Yes N/A One third of all sign-ups "It's a really cool new product, but lots of people don't understand it," says MD Scott Hicks, referring to the necessary loss of internet and communications for around 20 days. There was also confusion about the savings. "The real cost savings come from making calls," he said.
Amcom Yes N/A Five to ten per cent of monthly sales Takeup has not as dramatic as for competitors such as iiNet, who have been "thrashing it in any way possible", according to an Amcom spokesperson.
Eftel No Will be offering it soon N/A "You'll find more and more people just want the bare line going into their house," a spokesperson says, although they admitted the loss of internet for 20 days had caused consumer backlash for companies like iiNet. "I think the people who are choosing to move are willing to put up with the downtime," they continued.
Exetel Yes N/A Naked DSL accounts for almost 50 per cent of total ADSL2+ orders "Naked DSL has a formidable threat from 3G. With 3G prices continually falling, why wouldn't someone use their mobile as a modem at home, and away from home?... [But] users who download more than four gigabytes per month will need to use DSL," says an Extel spokesperson.
iiNet Yes N/A 25,000 and counting. "The train's started and has just kept on going," says Greg Bader, iiNet CTO. "We made iiNet synonymous with naked".
Internode Yes The next few months will see Internode offer naked on its own DSLAMs Third of all signups "It's sold better than we were expecting it to," says Jim Kellett, product manager. Operating from their own equipment over unbundled local loop, Internode will now be targeting those people who live over four kilometres from an exchange. "We've been quite staggered by the potential number of customers," he says.
iPrimus Yes N/A In the thousands. Single digit per cent of total sales. CEO Ravi Bhatia says it doesn't save people money. "It's a marketing phurphy...I feel very queasy about marketing it, because what am I offering? It's very smart marketing, because it's a smart name."
Netspace No Later in the year N/A "Obviously it's got its limitations," MD Stuart Marburg says. He has a monitored alarm system which precludes him from using it.
Optus No Unknown N/A "We've always had a stand-alone broadband product on the cable broadband offering," a spokesperson says.
Soul No Currently planning a product, release date unknown N/A N/A
Spin Internet Yes for business. Had consumer product, but stopped it before the craze started. One or two months to new consumer product. Business take up small, under 5 per cent of all customers. Expected takeup for consumer is 20 to 30 per cent. "We think the line rental shouldn't be written off as much as it is," a spokesperson says. The success of naked after Spin gave up on it rubbed. "It bugs me being a marketing manager, us having done it before and not thinking of naked."
Telstra No No plans N/A "We believe most Australians want the security and reliability of a home phone," said a spokesperson.

Topics: broadband, dsl, iinet, internet, isp, naked, roundup, telstra, adsl, say

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Comments (11)

  • hcstargate commented on 28/12/2008 03:04 Report abuse

    I would love naked dsl or even broadband adsl 2 or anything more than adsl that i have now and my exchange has no plans now or in the future to upgrade to anything else except the telstra adsl 2 thats there now. so not fair. who wants a company that wont move with the times. if telstra is my only choice, forget it. to dave in one of the comments above, poor you, i have had approx 500 to 600 dropouts per month with my internet westnet for the last 6 months. i have more downtime than up time. now i have had no downtime for the last 4 days, hopefully it is finally fixed. well folks just wanted to put my 2 cents worth in. cheers hc thats 500 to 600 dropouts per month

  • hcstargate commented on 28/12/2008 02:54 Report abuse

    I would love naked dsl or even broadband adsl 2 or anything more than adsl that i have now and my exchange has no plans now or in the future to upgrade to anything else except the telstra adsl 2 thats there now. so not fair. who wants a company that wont move with the times. if telstra is my only choice, forget it. to dave in one of the comments above, poor you, i have had approx 500 to 600 dropouts with my internet westnet for the last 6 months. i have more downtime than up time. now i have had no downtime for the last 4 days, hopefully it is finally fixed. well folks just wanted to put my 2 cents worth in. cheers hc

  • Naked commented on 27/09/2008 17:54 Report abuse

    Yes, Exetel's naked DSL offering is the cheapest and is also the best in my opinion. Am using it with Pennytel Voip and am saving lots of money

  • torbay commented on 08/09/2008 17:39 Report abuse

    I have been using iinet's Naked DSL from its inception last year. Works great from day one. Previously used VoIP on Optus Cable. iinet's VoIP quality (voice quality, availability etc) is much higher than other stand-alone VoIP services i used before.

  • naked rocks commented on 07/09/2008 07:47 Report abuse

    Exetel is the cheapest out there.

  • dave commented on 13/08/2008 22:01 Report abuse

    I am going to eat my words, I am now having modem problems with the naked DSL. I think I spoke too soon, I had a feeling something was not right last Saturday when the modem was flashing too much for no reason at all and mind you the computer was not on. Then the drop outs occured and here I am thinking it is great. This has been happening for over 5 days. I tried everything with the modem, but nothing improved until I got fed up and reported it. I have not had any disconnections for about 6 hours now, so the problem coul dhave been at the exchange.

  • Roger Knight commented on 11/08/2008 20:15 Report abuse

    Your report is wrong. Telstra does have a naked plan in the form of it's Cable Broadband product. Telstra just doesn't want it comonly known in the marketplace because Home phone rentals are "money for jam", for them. Cable Broadband can be taken with a phone and save $10 per month on the broadband price or pay $10.00 more and get no phone. The big bogie with the Telstra Cable + phone plan is that one must take the high priced phone plans and not the basic plans which makes it expensive if one does not really need a home phone.

  • davo commented on 08/08/2008 15:25 Report abuse

    I habe been using iinet naked adsl for a few months now and I enjoy it. It is just what I wanted, and I do not need a telephone line anymore as there is a spare one in the lounge room.

  • TC commented on 07/08/2008 13:56 Report abuse

    iPrimus is listed above as offering Naked. According to their reps it's been "coming soon" for many months now... but AFAIK it's still not available. Can someone point out where these plans are listed?

  • Tom commented on 07/08/2008 08:22 Report abuse

    I just switched to an Exetel Naked plan (from an Exetel 512 plan). All up, (phoneline, internet, voip) I'm paying $25 _less_ a month. No worries at all.

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