Telstra has undergone a series of transformations in recent times and appears to be listening to consumers. The shock announcement today that Telstra would trial Naked DSL services for the first time is the latest in a string of trials by the company.
Earlier this year Telstra was reporting for the first time in its history that it was losing more customers to competitors than it was signing up. This was unheard of for the number 1 telco and brought smiles to the faces of it's competitors who had shown strong take up of Naked DSL services and better bundling deals.
The first announcement was a trialling of a new ADSL2+ bundle. The 25GB plan at ADSL2+ speeds for $49.95 is a limited time offer. This generated a lot of buzz on the Whirlpool Broadband Forums where it was commented by various ISP representatives that this offer was actually being sold for less than Telstra Wholesales the ADSL2+ products to other ISP's.
Competitors were quick to point out that the plan on face value looked good but had a lot of negatives. For starters, it locked you into a 24 month contract and if you changed plans during the 24 months you wouldn't be able to go back to it. It also metered quota in both directions, making it poor value for those who may upload a considerable amount of data.
Around the same time Telstra also announced that it was in talks with several ISP's to open up a trial of its Fibre Optic network in the Melbourne suburb of Point Cook. Telstra's "Smart Communities" have been a source of contention for residents living in estates where Telstra has laid Fibre Optic cables. It meant that residents were only able to source Internet and Phone services from Telstra's "Velocity" plan range. The trial was welcomed by the competition and ISP's Internode, Exetel and Dodo jumped at the chance to offer services during the trial with the hope that it may mean these services will be wholesaled in the future in all Telstra Smart Communities.
The next announcement last month was the release of new mobile plans including generous new included data for smart phones like Apple's iPhone and Google's range of Android handsets. The new plans also offered considerably better cap values for calls than the existing line up which hadn't been updated in several years.
Shortly following the release of the new mobile plans, Telstra also released details of it's iPad exclusive data plans. Again offering very generous recharge values and playing on their coverage advantage, many iPad owners bundled their iPad with a Telstra iPad data pack.
Yesterday, Telstra again shocked the market by releasing some very enticing high end ADSL2+ plans with large download caps, bundled phone and bundling of their new T-Box, a high definition set top box that streams TV and movies direct to your lounge room.
With all of these changes it goes to show that Telstra appears to be distancing itself from the era of Sol Trujillo, synonymous with high prices, terrible customer service and the fall of the company's stock price.
Whether or not Telstra is becoming more genuine is yet to be seen or whether these changes are a smoke screen to prevent the company from selling into the National Broadband Network. The Rudd Labor government appears to still be in talks with Telstra about how its points of interconnect would be used in the NBN.
These changes are certainly a welcome relief to many who are stuck in areas only serviced by Telstra and I'm sure we'll see more to come.
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