Whirlpool have done it again, finally releasing the results of their annual broadband survey, and the results are well, expected.
What can be seen from the survey is pretty average.
1. Broadband value is pretty much the same, or even worse, over the last 1 year, which suggests that there has been little done to improve value for money, this is all despite the price drops from the wholesale ports, allowing the introduction of 8Mbit in 2006 as well. Pretty poor result for the entire industry.
2. No one likes long contracts (despite what Telstra’s 3 year marketing ploys tell you), and a majority don’t like contracts longer than 6 months. Personally, I would rather a 6 month over a 12 month, but if 12 months is the best option, and I know I will have it for 12 months at least, then, yep, I’ll sign. I don’t like committing to 2 year or more though contracts. I find the urge to tell a company to get stuffed very strong, depending on my customer satisfaction level, and many have taken as low as 1 month to lose my satisfaction.
3. The government is responsible for any newer internet access technologies, claims an overwhelming large result of questioned people. I have to say, it makes sense, get the government to push out the network, own and operate it, and suppliers get the product off the government at wholesale rates for maintaining the cost of the network. Or, they could lease the infrastructure, that way everyone can have a turn at being the monopoly for a year.
4. It was expected that many people would support and agree with similar services in regional areas, as are in metro areas. I do agree, they should be able to get similar services, but, I do disagree with technology choices, it should be matched to the environment, much like a Palm Tree Mobile Tower in a local park.
5. The government got a big “get stuffed” to ISP level content filtering. So they should, there’s no need for such a drastic waste of money. I guarantee that any filter implemented can be defeated, in some way or another, without much work.
6. Fast speeds or more data? Fast speeds? Well, they are good, but there’s no point going super fast speed if that only lasts you three days, so I’m sort of on the side of more data, but, I have found that there’s not a great demand on data on our connection now either, so it’s probably a middle ground. I’m ‘happy’ with what I have, but could use cost reduction if it were made possible.
7. Longest accepted period when signing a contract,. 12 months, which is fair. I’m confused why near 20% of people said they would accept 24 months. Are they crazy? It’s a dynamic market, Bigpond counts on you being a sucker for a 2 year contract, in 2 years time, the market could have changed 4 times over and value 20 times improved.
8. Wireless Broadband isn’t serious for internet access. Amazing, so many would rather have a fixed connection of some sort, rather than a wireless type. Although, it’s near split on this. I’m not fussed either way, I favour a fixed connection, but if a wireless will deliver better speeds or more data, I’m all ears.
9. Broadband is being used for fast downloads, fast web surfing, always on connectivity, and sharing with multiple computers. Well, duhh.
10. People do want to make calls over the internet, and use video conferencing. Poor Telstra shareholders.
11. 2 people generally use broadband connections, I imagine the average is something like 2.4 or so. Which is probably about par, when you consider the users surveyed, the environments being surveyed.
12. And looks like there are more computers connected than users.
13. More and more users have wireless networks. Taking the world by storm, wireless networks. Who wouldn’t want one? I don’t run wireless. No need for it in our environment, all is fixed. Though, we do have wireless hardware, and have used wireless networking before. All depends on the environment setup though.
14. Many are cheap arses, and don’t want to pay much to get hardware to make good quality internet calls. I suppose that’s expected, afterall, if they are chasing cheaper calls, then they are chasing the dollar.
15. Like me, many have only taken a curious look at the contract agreed to.
16. Most customers don’t like a contract condition that states the ISP can change the terms at any time. Maybe a shift in the marketplace is possible? Much like banks, fixed contracts, fixed terms.
17. Whirlpool, ISP’s website, Broadband Choice, and friends are the common way to find an ISP. Save the TV dollars, they are being wasted. Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing you can get. Word of mouth is very close to a committed purchase. So, if you want customers, keep your current customers happy, and they’ll make you happy.
18. Not a lot of people are still with their original provider, so people do like to change when things get a little grey.
19. Telstra is the blame for all problems, followed by phone lines not being activated properly (Telstra’s database update). Telstra is the cause of near all problems, according to the 17,000 odd people surveyed.
20. Nearly all have used Telephone for support, Exetel and aaNet made drastic shifts to disconnect callers and make them help themselves, and the model works well for professional users who don’t need hand holding (one of my key decisions in choosing Exetel).
21. Many people are satisfied with reliable connections, and very rarely do they stop working.
22. Gamers also found little to not like, but many as usual, will find that it is flaky at times. Sorry gamers, fibre to your door isn’t cheap.
23. Faster speeds DO NOT make a connection unstable, generally.
24. Many have used VoIP, but there’s a good portion who haven’t, and some significant portion who aren’t interested.
25. Not many have taken the big dive and used VoIP more than curiously, suggesting that they might not have had the best experience with it, or something else stopped them enjoying the long term savings. A issue worth investigating perhaps.
Nothing too outstanding there, pretty much ‘as expected’. Nothing changed. And where it did, it wasn’t significant enough to get a good amount of attention.
Enjoy!