Naked DSL is making an impact on the broadband market in Australia. No doubt about it – otherwise why would Telstra be raising the price of disconnecting a landline within the first 3 months of connection?
There is now a $100 fee associated with having a “temporary” line. In other words a PSTN line that is disconnected within 3 months of connecting it. Here is the news on their website. In typical Telstra fashion they are increasing fees, rather than trying to compete on services and value.
Some may argue that they are simply recouping the cost of what it takes to connect a line. But for anyone who has done it recently, to connect a line without a technician visit it is $59. It takes a maximum of 10 minutes on the phone and then you’re done. Maybe there is some work required in the phone exchange, but if there is, it’s only minor. $100 as an early disconnection fee seems pretty rich.
One of the most common reasons for disconnecting a landline so quickly is for someone to move to Naked DSL. This move by Telstra will definitely advantage Naked DSL ISPs like iinet, Internode and Netspace. They are all ISPs which can connect Naked DSL without you needing a landline to get the process started.
The ISPs that will suffer from this are TPG and Exetel, which currently require their customers to have a Telstra line connected before they start the Naked DSL process. It was a popular option for people to connect a line just to get Naked DSL started with TPG or Exetel. That is something that we will be recommending less to people now there is an additional $100 fee.
iinet already has a significant portion of the Naked DSL market, and this is only likely to help them. Internode and Netspace have also become increasing popular for people wanting to connect broadband without a landline. Both providers have free uploads (unlike iinet) and Netspace has introduced some very high data limits on its plans. $49.99 gives 10GB of downloads and $59.99 gives 20GB of downloads. And like iinet, Internode and Netspace don’t require you to have a landline to get started with Naked DSL.
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