Telstra might find itself reducing prices for a change.
The reasoning behind that is Telstra is forseeing a threat from LSS based competition, which allows others to provide ADSL2+ and VoIP services to consumers, effectively removing a good fair chunk of Telstra’s retail revenue for each customer they move over, and Telstra’s gain after such a significant loss is a $2.50 wholesale LSS charge from the gaining ISP, plus any line rental the customer commits to pay. Assuming the customer was on Home Line Budget before the so called ‘charity change’, Telstra would receive $19.95 + $2.50 for a customer service, and the rest of the revenue would find its way to the ISP and any suppliers it would use.
That’s a fantastic move, as it will now encourage Telstra to be competitive, but, if Telstra isn’t careful in it’s pricing, they could be forced to reduce existing wholesale prices on other services, such as ADSL1, to ensure they don’t breach the Trade Practices Act – something they have breached so, so many times before.
The retail price adjustment is of course a market share gaining move, they provide ADSL2+ at prices inline with competitors to make moving ISP less attractive to those that don’t have a significant interest in changing ISP on the grounds of downtime.
Telstra, in it’s typical fashion still likes to keep any decision made tied into an appeal, so that they can find someway to argue against it.
To date, of all the appeals, only 1 has been successful. They have a pretty poor record, and it gets poorer with each and every vexatious case they choose to bring before the courts.
It’s only common sense! Others want to use a part of a network as part of providing PART of a service.
Telstra get paid for providing PART of a service. It’s really that simple. I don’t get what Telstra can’t see there. It’s a $2.50 charge on LSS to cover any reasonable billing costs, since Telstra don’t exactly providing anything additional on an LSS service, and they still collect all maintenance and line costs from the customers line rental anyway.
Enjoy!