Comments on: Why Telstra castrated a great phone http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/03/02/why-telstra-castrated-a-great-phone/ now with extra source Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:13:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Kim-Son Nguyen http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/03/02/why-telstra-castrated-a-great-phone/#comment-61444 Kim-Son Nguyen Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:09:35 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/?p=120081#comment-61444 Telstra have been less than keen about carrying and marketing the iPhone (Most likely because they cannot put their own "branding" on it) even though their NextG network is one of the best in the world to use the iPhone on. However, don't expect the other carriers to behave any better - just look at what Optus has done with blocking customers from accessing paid Android apps. Telstra have been less than keen about carrying and marketing the iPhone (Most likely because they cannot put their own “branding” on it) even though their NextG network is one of the best in the world to use the iPhone on.
However, don’t expect the other carriers to behave any better - just look at what Optus has done with blocking customers from accessing paid Android apps.

]]> By: Papa Fox http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/03/02/why-telstra-castrated-a-great-phone/#comment-61395 Papa Fox Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:30:13 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/?p=120081#comment-61395 <blockquote> The rivers of cash from Telstra’s fixed line operations won’t last. The mindset that has developed around them almost certainly will. </blockquote> Telstra really shot itself in the foot over fixed line vs mobile pricing. When mobile phones first appeared on the market, Telstra was at the forefront of charging a swinging premium for mobile calls compared to fixed line calls. At least part of the justification was because of the "substantial extra costs" involved in running a mobile network. In actual fact, both the cost per subscriber and the cost per call is lower for mobile compared with fixed line. Now that mobile business margins are falling because competition is finally happening, Telstra is finding that its fixed line business is having trouble covering the substantial costs of maintaining the aging copper network. Telstra is now running a campaign against the NBN. It may well be that the NBN, in obsoleting large parts of the copper network, will lift the the albatross of fixed-line maintenance costs, and save Telstra.

The rivers of cash from Telstra’s fixed line operations won’t last. The mindset that has developed around them almost certainly will.

Telstra really shot itself in the foot over fixed line vs mobile pricing. When mobile phones first appeared on the market, Telstra was at the forefront of charging a swinging premium for mobile calls compared to fixed line calls. At least part of the justification was because of the “substantial extra costs” involved in running a mobile network. In actual fact, both the cost per subscriber and the cost per call is lower for mobile compared with fixed line.

Now that mobile business margins are falling because competition is finally happening, Telstra is finding that its fixed line business is having trouble covering the substantial costs of maintaining the aging copper network.

Telstra is now running a campaign against the NBN. It may well be that the NBN, in obsoleting large parts of the copper network, will lift the the albatross of fixed-line maintenance costs, and save Telstra.

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