[TelstraClear] You ask the CEO: Dr Allan Freeth (face time with TelstraClear)

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › [TelstraClear] You ask the CEO: Dr Allan Freeth (face time with TelstraClear)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

210 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#456816 8-Apr-2011 18:23

What are Telstraclear planning to do with paradise.net over the next 12 months?

eXDee

4033 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1070

Trusted

#457291 10-Apr-2011 20:11

I never thought i'd move from telstra to telecom, but i did and am happy with it. Even when a telstra rep personally offered me a better deal than what is advertised, it still didnt match telecoms standard pricing.

Onto an actual question, I understand that Telstraclear obviously watches its competitors and the market carefully, this is a given.
However do you feel that Telstraclear's decision making in regards to this is quick enough? I'm one such example where a customer could've been maintained, if Telstraclear was as responsive as other players in the market have been. I have noticed this on more than just this occasion.

Russcolli

59 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 8

#459617 17-Apr-2011 10:29

Hi Mauricio, what i'd be interesting in hearing about from Dr Freeth is any word on TCLs homemedia strategy. The TCL T-Box was not only way overdue but has been beset my a myriad of technical problems and basic issues with both the software and the hardware.

Rather than being a key cornerstone of future developments (IPTV etc) they appear to have become bogged down with just getting a working service. So can you ask him about that, what they are doing?, where they are going?, whether they are developing alternate providers to free themselves of the yolk of Sky's control? or perhaps they are happy to be a second tier reseller of the sky channels?

I doubt you'd get detailed answers but thee general nature of the answers would not doubt be informative.

Cheers

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
80647 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41030

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#459618 17-Apr-2011 10:30

Good points...

I'm Meeting Dr Freeth this Wednesday 21st April, and I will post answers here folks.

Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

Russcolli

59 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 8

#459622 17-Apr-2011 10:44

Final thought on the homemedia side of things - don't TCL now have 3 platforms for TV delivery via Cable? (analogue, digital and T-Box). Not sustainable I'd of thought. It may naturally fall out of other questions but would be good to probe where their consolidation point will be.

Screeb

698 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 52

#459815 17-Apr-2011 18:14

1) TelstraClear is notorious for promising things and delivering them very late, not at all, or not as good as promised (or both late and not as good). What have you done to address this failing, and how can you assure your customers that they can trust what TelstraClear tells them about future services? For reference, I posted a thread here on Geekzone in 2009 about this that summarises some of these issues: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=44&TopicId=33778. There hasn't been any improvement since - for instance T-Box was delayed numerous times since then, and is the subject of many complaints about its bugginess, and the Clearnet Deluxe website still has no game demo/patch downloads since launching 3 years ago (http://clearnetdeluxe.co.nz/downloads.cfm - "Watch this space!").

2) Why are TelstraClear's cable data caps so low and slow to change? Even TelstraClear’s Richard Bateman agrees ;) - In this recent article, he says "The amount of usage is doubling every two to three years at the moment". OK, so then it follows that data caps would be expected to follow along to accommodate this, right? Well, let's see what happens if we backtrack on TelstraClear's cable plans. In 2006, LightSpeed 40 was released - 10/2 Mbit/s, 40GB, $99.95. It was competitive back then, a pretty good plan at the time (for NZ), but quickly became outdated. If data usage doubles every two years, then we should expect now, in 2011, to see a comparable plan with a cap of around 226.27GB (40*2^((2011-2006)/2)). Instead the closest comparable one has only 60GB. If we instead take the lowest rate of doubling every three years, that drops to 126.99GB - which is still more than double what's currently offered at that comparable level. TelstraClear may bill itself as a "premium" provider, but data caps still need to expand to facilitate increasing usage, otherwise cost for the consumer will increase exponentially as their data cap becomes more and more useless.

3) Similarly, why has the cost of data overage (eg 2GB for $2.95 on the top plans) on TelstraClear's cable plans not decreased for many years?

4) Will TelstraClear's promised 100Mbit DOCSIS 3 service be aimed at consumers at all, or can we expect the same situation as the current WarpSpeed plan which is well out of the price range of most consumers? If not, will TelstraClear offer consumer-oriented plans of a lower speed, but still faster than today's 15Mbit? Otherwise, how does TelstraClear plan to compete against VDSL2 or good quality ADSL2+?

5) Why does TelstraClear plan on offering only 10Mbit upstream on its DOCSIS 3 service? That's a worse down/up ratio than ever before, at a time when consumers are using their broadband more in the opposite way - becoming more upload-focused than before.

6) When will we see this service? (Keeping in mind TelstraClear's long list of broken promises of course)

----

OK that's a lot I know, but I wanted to be verbose and provide examples, and I'd appreciate it if he can answer at least some of these. I'm particularly interested in questions 1, 2, and 4.

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

quickymart

14940 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 13953

ID Verified

#459828 17-Apr-2011 18:49

I would like to know if the cable network will ever be expanded anywhere else or expanded to at least cover all of Christchurch (the expansion has officially been "paused" since late 2001), but I'm guessing it won't be.

baby

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#459988 18-Apr-2011 10:24

Are there any plans on Telstraclear providing Naked DSL to customers?
Not many of us want a phone line.

To be honest Telstraclear cable network hasn't expanded outside Christchurch and Wellington. It's been like 10 years now and I haven't seen much investments made from Telstraclear.

ISPs are already looking at VDSL (Orcon?), Fibre to the Home (Xnet). I'm just wondering if Telstra has any plans on expanding their cable network.

pctek

807 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 157
Inactive user

#460748 20-Apr-2011 07:15

What is telstra doing about the appalling lack of training for the faults resolution team and the icredibly bad way it's run at present?
If there is any kind of problem with moves or new connections or anything it takes months of going round and round in circles to get it sorted.

BarTender

3629 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2572

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#460791 20-Apr-2011 09:05

freitasm: Good points...

I'm Meeting Dr Freeth this Wednesday 21st April, and I will post answers here folks.

So are you meeting him today, or Thursday the 21st ;)

I would be interested to know if they plan to make improvements in their self service.

I am just about to cut off my TCL services (triple play phone/data/tv) since I really didn't like the TBoxes and wanted to get a better TV expereience, and Telecom offered a better deal for my Phone/Data.

Lias

5655 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3978

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#460876 20-Apr-2011 11:25

+1 about call centre
+1 about prices/data
Also why hasnt TC singed up for isky!

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

chiefie

I iz your trusted friend
5877 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 151

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#460882 20-Apr-2011 11:46

* Bring iSky to TCL T-Box and offer similar services like Sky for remote recording etc.
* Better, more attractive triple-play bundle package.
* Introduce a more attractive mobile plan (flexible enough) for mix-match of TXT, Voice and Data.
* Include mobile to home resident bundle as Quad-play bundle - which allow more than one mobile number attached. e.g. We have two smartphones and two 3G ipads and will have 3G data card. Make us your valuable customer!
* Cross usage of data allowance between broadband and mobile data, and even as far as sharing TXT allowance and Voice minutes across mobile numbers of same household.
* IPTV.
* Single network and modem gateway for all IP devices in the house, so no separate modem for each T-box and internet.

Internet is my backyard...

«Geekzone blog: Tech 'n Chips Takeaway» «Personal blog: And then...»

Please read the Geekzone's FUG

UncleArthur

197 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 65

#461467 21-Apr-2011 21:37

I emailed the following to Dr Allan Freeth yesterday, I'd be interested in what is reply will be....

Email I have just sent to Telstraclear CEO:

Good evening Allan,

I joined TelstraClear in November 2010, signing up to the Total home plan deal with phone line, 25Gb broadband, and 1x cell phone.
It took 6 weeks to get connected. During this time, I spent hours and hours on the phone to your call centres to try and get the issue resolved. During my time of not being connected I still received a bill for services I had yet to get connected.
As an IT Systems engineer, I knew the problem was not at my end, in the end after 6 weeks of frustration, I asked to have my new connection cancelled, all of a sudden I received the attention I was after from the beginning, and the connection issue was resolved from Telstraclears end, reluctantly I proceeded with the connection.

In March 2011 we sold our house, and planned to move to our new address on March 24th. Early March I completed the online form to move address, and 24 hours later I received a call from a CSR to confirm the details, this was fine. On March 16th I called the support line to query what my new phone number was going to be, the CSR informed me that I had not contacted TelstraClear to advise you I was moving. When I informed them that I had, and had even been contacted to confirm details, they told me I was mistaken.
Completely frustrated, and facing horrors of moving to my new house, and having no phone line for 6 weeks or something, I gave up in disgust, and moved my accounts to telecom.
Telecom had me connected in 3 days, and the move to my new address was seamless.

Now, I see I have received a bill for early termination of contract (see attached), not only that, but tragically (and almost laughably) the bill has errors on it with the termination of the same cell phone being billed twice (if only I was surprised).

Every single dealing I have had with TelstraClear from beginning to now, has had nothing but total incompetence. I contend that I should have no early termination bill, as I contend that in order to receive the services that I expect, I have been forced to change provider.

Please resolve the issue with this invoice, I have given up dealing with your call centre, so I am contacting you directly.
You have some good product offerings, however unfortunately in light of my experience to date, I’m going to find it difficult to recommend TelstraClear to my customers.

Kind Regards,

Homer: "Son, you tried and you failed....the lesson is...never try"