An Email From Telstra & the Reply

[echnidna]

I just got this email,
Today, BigPond Broadband is available at speeds up to 20Mbps in some areas. That's pretty quick compared to what we've been used to in Australia and means we can deliver things like music and movie downloads, online games and video streaming of your favourite sports at reasonable speeds and quality.

But soon these speeds won't be enough. We'll all want more video of higher quality delivered to us over the internet. We'll want the best education tools for our kids, the latest productivity applications for our businesses and the fastest and most video rich communications applications to keep us in touch with friends and family.

But unfortunately, with the launch of ADSL2+, we have literally reached the end of the broadband road in Australia.

We need new network technologies to get higher speeds but there are regulations that prevent Telstra taking broadband forward.

We want to spend billions of dollars building an optical fibre-based network - capable of delivering up to five times the fastest current broadband speeds and equal to, or better than, the very best in the world. But under the current regulations we would have to provide access to foreign-owned competitors at below our cost.

Under those sorts of conditions, despite the fact we want to take Australian broadband to the next level, we just can't, as we'll waste our shareholders' money.

Imagine the Government telling BHP where to dig its next mine and then saying, "Now that you've spent the money setting up the mine, you have to let your competitors come and buy the ore from you, for less than it costs you to dig it up, so they can sell it too." That doesn't encourage competition; it just stifles vital investment.

Telstra has a wonderful heritage of building networks for Australia. Just a few months ago we launched our Next G™ wireless network, which is the biggest and fastest mobile 3G network in the world, providing high-speed wireless broadband access to 98% of Australia's population. Because this network is not regulated we've been able to build it in record time and we can sell it at a price determined by the market to recoup our investment over time. This is what we want to do with a high-speed optical fibre broadband network.

I'm proud of the broadband service we're providing you today. It's clearly the best in Australia as our market share continues to increase while that of our competitors declines but we'd like to do a lot better for you and will, if the regulations are changed so that Telstra can build the next generation of optical fibre infrastructure we need.

To learn more about Telstra's Broadband Australia Campaign, or if you'd like to BACK Telstra and become a Telstra Active Supporter, please visit www.nowwearetalking.com.au

In the meantime, thanks again for your business and all the best to you
and your family.

Yours sincerely,

Justin Milne
Group Managing Director
Telstra BigPond

MY REPLY

Thank you for your email,

But I must disagree with your summation

In my personal experience telstra sucks big time.

We don't have broadband.

The telephone lines here are so defective that dialup internet is unreliable as the connection continually drops out.

Telstras response to this problem was to advise us to instal isdn which is an improvement over dialup but we have to pay higher telehone costs as well as pay broadband comparable charges for slow internet.

Despite that thousands of people use the Scout camp each year mobile phone coverage is absolutely crummy.
CDMA was the best of the bunch but still not great.

Your NextG is an absolute joke, mobile phone coverage has returned to being lousy when compared to CDMA

When are we going to get a reasonable service from Telstra?

Regards
Bob Thomas

[Wood Butcher]

Go Bob!!!

[Gumby]

. Just a few months ago we launched our Next G™ wireless network, which is the biggest and fastest mobile 3G network in the world,

and the most outrageously expensive

[echnidna]

surprise surprise.
Just like a lot of spammers Telstra doesn't accept replies to emails sent from their address.
So I just sent it to another telstra address instead

[Poppa]

That's funny Bob, I just spent about 30 minutes replying to my email from Telstra as well. I'll post my reply when I can find it. And I'll find another email address to send it to as well. Mongrels....

[Barry_White]

Well isn't that amazing I just replied to it also along those lines but mine hasn't bounced back as yet and that was an hour and a half ago.

[fred.n]

Onya Bob

Teltra

[Poppa]

Here's mine:

Thank you for the email below. You've touched on a subject that I've given a great deal of thought to, as I was in the Telecommunications business for a number of years and have an in-depth understanding of the business and the technical issues that affect it.

I'd like to make a couple of points in response to your email. You state "Imagine the Government telling BHP where to dig its next mine and then saying, "Now that you've spent the money setting up the mine, you have to let your competitors come and buy the ore from you, for less than it costs you to dig it up, so they can sell it too." That doesn't encourage competition; it just stifles vital investment."

I'd like to respond to that statement by making two points:
1. Telstra has been complaining long and loud recently about the unfair regulatory environment under which it is 'forced' to do business. Telstra makes more profit (some might say an obscene amount of profit) than it has market share. Thus the regulatory environment, while not perhaps ideal for Telstra, is clearly one that allows it to participate and dominate an extraordinarily profitable sphere of operations. So on this point, I'm sorry, but you really don't expect me to swallow that do you?
2. BHP wasn't built using taxpayer funds. Telstra was. It is encumbent upon Telstra to remember that the people that live in remote areas and receive the very poorest service that Telstra provides, paid their taxes and participated in the building of the company that is now Telstra long before we saw fit to import CEO's from overseas. I'm not fortunate enough to live in an area that offers even the 20Mbps service that you describe. I'm thankful that I am able to get 512Kbps service, because if I lived even a little more remotely than I currently do even that wouldn't be available. You really have nothing to be proud of regarding the broadband service that you are providing to me - you should be ashamed.

I'd also like to make some general points:
1. Telstra is entering an era where the telecommunications industry is going to change dramatically. VOIP services are getting better all the time, and they are vastly cheaper than Telstra's call rates for national and international calls. In fact I can make a VOIP local call (even on my slow broadband speed) cheaper than I can make a local call on Telstra, provided I limit the call to 10 seconds or so. The wireless technology that is now becoming available make setting up a physical network (for whatever transmission services you can think of and some that you can't think of) far cheaper and easier than it has ever been before. This will bring new players to the game and enhance the competitiveness of some of Telstra's successful competitors. And there is also a technology that is released to consumers (business and personal) in the US that allows for broadband and voice transmission over power lines (and through the internal power network within buildings for that matter). Thus in the US some of the power companies are becoming competitors with the large Telcos. Telstra is demonstrably not prepared for all of this increased competition - you can't even handle the competition you've already got without whinging to the government every 5 minutes.

2. The service that Telstra provides is appalling. You have some very talented and professional people working for your organisation. Unfortunately they are outnumbered by the rude, ignorant, morons that work for you by about 5-1. You have a culture that encourages poor job performance, high staff turnover, and allows bureaucracy to flourish. I very rarely encounter a service person from your company that I would be proud to hire. And unfortunately because of your appallingly bad billing systems and internal IT problems, I have to deal with these people a lot. A lot more than I'd like to anyway. This is something that management can do something about, yet with Telstra this hasn't improved in years. I've been a customer and a shareholder of Telstra for a long time, and I do believe that your service is getting worse not better. Instead of bleating on about the regulatory environment (that restricts you to a couple of billion dollars profit per year), fix this one issue and you will be the Telco of choice for Australia anyway.

(I then made some remarks about their CEO which on reflection I've decided not to post here)...

The email below seemed to be written in a conversational tone. You've certainly inspired me to continue that conversation. I'll be most interested in your further response.

[meerkat]

I don't get it, why do people want broadband anyway ??? Whilst we have it others in the street (if they haven't got it yet) won't be able to get it because Telstra have chosen not to make more ADSL ports available etc. That requires some $$.

Our business is IT and I find it amazing that they can prevent people from trading effectively because a "blow in" doesn't like the new sand pit hes in especially when the last one he was in he was king pin.

Spoke to the local members office the "Ms Gillard" and they just referred it to the minister for communications office with a sarcastic good luck.

The senators office called back, did some investigation on our behalf and gave us some info that hopefully will help. Far more help than our local elected representative.

[echnidna]

Try downloading a forum video on plain old dialup

[AlexS]

Received the same spam today. Think I'll respond in the same vein as Echnidna and Poppa.

[old_picker]

yer just wastin yer time lads
get over it
change to optus and see how yer go
or ozemail
or froggie
or luckyduck
or whatever
they are just billing departments
all got the same internet just different versions of really crap service

[Sturdee]

change to optus and see how yer go
.........................
all got the same internet just different versions of really crap service

I'm with Optus and on their own cable not on Telstra's cable that also runs outside our doors.

Much better and never any interruptions of service.


Peter.

[squashedfrog1]

Ahhh,

You've all reminded me to ring Telstra and start drilling someone a new a-hole. I'm in a remote area. No broadband is available nor will be made available.

However.......There is an Telstra OPTIC FIBRE CABLE buried ON MY PROPERTY! But oh no, I cant use that........errrm? Why?


SF

[Big Shed]

Ahhh,

You've all reminded me to ring Telstra and start drilling someone a new a-hole. I'm in a remote area. No broadband is available nor will be made available.

However.......There is an Telstra OPTIC FIBRE CABLE buried ON MY PROPERTY! But oh no, I cant use that........errrm? Why?


SF

Are you aware that under the Federal Govt Broadband Connect scheme you can have a satellite broadband connection installed free of charge? Look at ISPs like Bordernet, or look at the Whirlpool site for other ISPs in your area.