Is it time to get Naked?
Sick of paying for a home phone he rarely use, Adam Turner is wondering if it's time to strip away dial tone and get Naked DSL
I don't need Caller ID, because only two people ever ring my home phone - my mother and my mother-in-law. When the phone rings I can usually guess which one is calling and what they want before I even pick up the handset.
It's not that I don't have any friends, it's just that they don't bother to ring my home phone. They know that email is the best way to reach me, followed by instant messaging or Skype. Others resort to SMS. For a handful who are always on the road, Facebook is the best way to stay in contact.
For the same reasons, I tend not to ring many of my family and friends - once again with the exception of my mother and mother-in-law. I'm on Internode's ADSL2+ service with a VoIP line, so when I do pick up the phone I ring out over VoIP. Untimed national calls are great because most of my work-related calls tend to be interstate.
If my mobile was with a provider like 3, with a generous call cap, I'd use it to make more calls. Instead I'm on Telstra's NextG, for various reasons which we don't need to go into right now. The network is great, but the pricing and customer service are crap. I get a small discount for having two mobiles and one landline on the same bill, or at least I would if they could get their billing system in order.
Meanwhile I'm paying Telstra something like $29 a month for a line I barely use. With the supposed single bill discount, offering a few free calls between the mobile and home phones, it's really only costing me around $14 for the phone line.
Unfortunately talk of ditching Naked DSL is merely hypothetical at my house unless I want to change ISPs. I'm connected to Internode via a Telstra DSLAM and Telstra won't let anyone offer Naked DSL using its own gear. Telstra makes more than $1 billion from home phones every year, something it's not keen to surrender. The consumer watchdog recently knocked back Telstra's application to double the price other providers pay for access to the phone network - which would have put another $1 billion per year in Telstra's pocket. If Telstra had won the right to build the National Broadband Network, it wanted to make home phones mandatory for everyone.
Anyway, if I wanted Naked DSL I'd need to switch to TPG, PowerTel/iiNet or one of its Naked DSL resellers such as Exetel. I know I could get more bang for my buck with these other providers, but there's more to good service than high download caps and I'm very happy with Internode's broadband and VoIP service.
Now Fibre to the Home is on the cards, I couldn't see Internode installing a DSLAM in my exchange unless it thought it could make a quick return on investment (in which case, I'm sure it would have already installed one). One consolation is that Internode has struck an agreement with Telstra so that, as of later this year, I can buy my PSTN home phone service from Internode rather than Telstra. I'll have to weigh up the billing implications to see if it's worth switching.
If I lived alone and was a heavy mobile phone user, I'd certainly be more tempted by the thought of getting Naked. As it is, I think switching to Naked DSL would put a serious dint in my WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor). I'm certainly not married to a Luddite, but the Lady of the House does like to have a few devices around the house which are guaranteed to work. You can't say that about VoIP - especially as I'm a long way from the exchange so we get the odd dropout on DSL. She'll happily use the VoIP line to make calls, knowing it saves us a few dollars, but she knows if it all goes pear-shaped she's got a "real" phone line to fall back on if the internet is down, or if her nerdy husband is tinkering with the home network. I consider $14 a small price to pay to maintain a high WAF.
Getting Naked is a very personal decision. When the fibre reaches my doorstep I'll reconsider, but right now I think it's best to keep my gear on.
Other Blog Entries written by Adam Turner:
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Comments: 2
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Jason Cornelius
May 14, 2009 12:12 AM
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Your bias and misinformation about Telstra in most of your articles astounds me. There was never ANY talk of making home phones mandatory if Telstra won the bid. And as for Telstra wanting to increase fee's to wholesalers, that was to try and level the playing field which - whether you want to admit it or not, is very much against Telstra. The rate these companies have to pay for Telstra lines, while forcing Telstra to maintain them, is absolute robbery.
If people want to blame someone for the charges that Telstra has, then place the blame in the right place. It's solely the blame of the companies out there that get to leech Telstras infrastructure at ridiculously low prices. |
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Pugsley
May 14, 2009 10:49 AM
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Lol. Enjoying your Telstra shares Jason?
Internodes naked adsl2+ is my only option where i live. Due to the distance i am from the closest exchange i needed naked to get the extra distance boost it offers get a usable speed. I for one am looking forward to my fibre. |