I got home yesterday to an interesting press of Telecom/Xtra advertising suggesting I might like to get Xtra Broadband, and that I could get it at $10 less*.
First strange point: I already have their broadband service, so why would they send directed mail promoting other services.
The Save $10 every month that is looks so attractive, is just a rewording of their normal stance. They used to say Starting from $29.95 * (* You will pay $10 extra if you do not have you toll service with Telecom), and now that are saying Save $10* prices starting $29.95 (*$10 saving is based on the standard price for customers who don’t have toll calls).
Hmmm, they are trying to making there tolls punishment seem like a savings.
My other problem is what you get for the $29.95, ~2Mbps/128Kbps 256MB, and dynamic IP address.
To get another 768MB (1GB plan) costs $10 extra.
To get a static IP costs $20 extra.
Telstra on the other hand for $29.95 you get, 2Mbps/2Mbps, 1GB, static IP address.
I miss my Telstra connection. I like their data over use policy, where you pay in $3 chunks, compared to Orcon’s $10 chunks. $10 makes me feel like I’d have to monitor my usage really closely. I understand the Orcon style is just a progressive package selection, but it feels like large dollar increments. I just like the small chunk idea from Telstra. I must sound petty complaining over $10, but all those just $10 type things add up.
The second part of Telstra’s pricing policy that I like is when you upgrade plans inside one month, you get all data capacity of the next block, but only pay for the number of days (left in the period) of that service month. The flip side is you have to keep the same plan for a billing period.
My bigger mental problem is really because every Telstra broadband user pays per byte, it feel like Telstra has more incentive to to keep the network capacity expanding as users are added. Because the larger the pipe, the more data I could get, thus the more they can charge. Whereas with the Telecom ASDL and the all you can eat plans or data rate capping plans, there will always be some level of “free” data traffic, that is reducing capacity, without directly paying for it. Even if it’s traffic shaped, or low rate < 64Kbps, it reduces the incentive to expand to maintain free capacity. Or expensive traffic shaping equipment needs to be purchased, to manage users.
All in all I don’t understand how Telecom are getting away with charging more, when the installation cost is lower. Telstra have to send a technician to wire up your house, and give you a “free rented” cable modem, verse just posting you a modem. Which they say costs $100, when you can get it for $70 from computer shops.
Just noticed that $50 on Telecom gets you “Unlimited data” or 2GB whereas on Telstra you get 10GB.