Tag Archives: Telstra
The Telstra T1000(tm)
Posted on 22. Aug, 2003
I see Telstra has released a new residential phone, amusingly named the T1000. Is anyone else worried that once you turn your back, head into the kitchen and grab a carton of milk from the fridge, the T1000 will turn into liquid metal, slither into kitchen, stab you through the head and then impersonate your voice on the phone to friends and family when they call. Hmm.. thought so, just me then. Time for bed I think.
http://www.telstra.com.au/...
Telstra.com redesign revisited
Posted on 09. Jan, 2003
Ahh well.. a few months on the from the BIG hyped Telstra.com upgrade, it's still only two levels deep from the home page which makes me wonder if they are hand editing the slightly newer look and feel onto each and every page, certainly a very very scary thought if they are.
I love this Blackberry page, with the new site wide navigation on top, the old MobileNet site wide navigation below it, a sub-navigation bar to the left, and several lines of seemingly random links at the bottom page. There's 95 navigation HREFs on that page alone, however only six of them actually relate to the Blackberry, the other 89 take you elsewhere on the site. Eighty-nine possible navigation choices, decisions decisions.. Ahhh.. "Get over it Anthony" I hear you yell, and yes, I should. (heh, my weblog page has 147 HREFs)
I do like the quote I saw on Kuro5hin a while back, something along the lines of .. "checkout Whirlpool, a place where people with Telstra ADSL go to whinge but are too stupid to change." Hmm.. yep, so true.
PlanetMirror unmetered downloads for BPA users
Posted on 29. Dec, 2002
Planet Mirror, the site who mirror my Media section, are offering unmetered downloads for Telstra BPA users starting at $19.95 for 3GB. It's funny as I was visiting their site this evening to give them feedback on their premium plans, suggesting that they'd only have a chance of succeeding if they negotiated unmetered downloads through the Australian broadband providers! Hah! The pricing is a little too steep for me though.. still.. I guess if I compared that to the amount I spend going over my limit each month, this could be a good investment. Have to have another look through the archive to see if their stuff really is worth paying for.
https://secure.planetmirror.com/...
Milne to help sell Telstra broadband
Posted on 08. Nov, 2002
Interesting to see the appointment of Justin Milne as Broadband Services Chief at Telstra Bigpond. Milne was previously the Ozemail Chief(?). Will there be a noticeable improvement in service or more importantly price? We can only hope. This weeks Telstra gripe. I switched to the 5000MB/1.5MB plan at the beginning of the month and now 8 days in my access speed is still capped at 512K. The dopey phone support person insisted the problem was with my PC. After 15 minutes on the phone performing speed tests she finally agreed to escalate it to the techs for further investigation, but also had the nerve to say that if a technical support person had to come out to my house to look at the problem, I would be charged a call-out fee. All this when I agree to pay and extra $130 per month for my Internet access. That's customer service for ya. Telstra incompetence. I'm moving apartments in a couple of months, so plan to change to Netspace then.
http://www.news.com.au/...
Telstra.com redesign
Posted on 17. Oct, 2002
Ah well, I said a few months ago that I thought it'd be another 2 years before "the site I love to hate" was redesigned, but it looks like it's much closer than that, with a new site expected by the end of October. We'll see how deep the redesign goes when its launched, but its a start. Vast improvement over the pile of crap we've had for the last 2+ years, with a focus on usability clearly evident, probably from an outside consultant (Hiser?). Its good to see the new site isn't trying to be anymore than what it should be, a Telco/Internet provider. Gone are the horoscopes, weather, stock quotes and news, well so it seems from the homepage preview anyway. Alas they couldn't help but work their prime sponsorship asset, Thorpe, into the frontpage. But where is John Farnham?! Now now Anthony...
http://www.telstra.com.au/...
I’m really really going to change broadband providers
Posted on 25. Sep, 2002
As Telstra is going to charge me for 2GB excess usage this month, I'm definitely changing broadband providers. I'm sick of being ripped off! It's laughable really that I've stuck with Telstra for this long. Currently deciding between Internode, Netspace and Datafast. For what I'm paying to get 3GB through Tel$tra, I can get 10GB through Netspace with free upstream and free P2P! Hello! Maybe Datafast's Broadband Extreme for $199 for 23GB of data compared to Telstra's 5GB for $224! Pffft! Let you know what I decide, what do you guys use? Any recommendations?
http://www.broadbandchoice.com.au/...
Telstra.com again.. sorry, but it really gets up my nose.
Posted on 18. Jun, 2002
I just spent an agonising 10 minutes on the Telstra.com web site looking at Online Bill. Everytime I use that site, I'm amazed at how terrible it is. It really shows that the entire team behind that Telstra.com, both management and technical, really have absolutely no idea about the web and usability. It's interesting, as surely now there must be a fair few people in Telstra who'd like the site changed, but due to political and technical problems with such an unnecessarily vast site it must seem like an impossible undertaking to ever change it. I'm sure that shocking site design will live on for a couple of more years yet, demonstrating Telstra's complete lack of ability to handle anything relating to the Internet successfully. At least they've finally given up on requiring the installation of client side certificates in web browsers to access Online Billing, now they might end up getting more than 12 people using the service. Clueless security staff with no regard for usability probably required them to use client-side digital certificates before rubber stamping it to go online. Sorry, spot of web-rage there, I'm over it now.
Vodafone GPRS - cheapest available
Posted on 09. Jun, 2002
[deleted: no more talk of telcos, it is boring]
Telstra whinging will end soon.. I’m giving up on them
Posted on 09. Jun, 2002
I'm going to drop Telstra altogether rather than continually whinging about their pricing. That means terminating ALL Telstra services, not just Bigpond ADSL. They foolishly rang me last week trying to see if I wanted to lock into a 12 month contract on my mobile, but the call backfired as in the discussion of mobile call rates it turned out I was paying about 5 cents more per 30 secs than I'd originally signed up for. There little sales call pushed me over the edge.
I'll probably go with Internode for broadband and Optus for mobile and GPRS service. Don't know about local calls, I'll have to look into the alternatives. Based on a 1.5MB ADSL link and about 5MB on GPRS I can save around $50-100 per month by going with someone other than Telstra. Thank god for MNP. Bye bye forever Telstra.
http://www.broadbandchoice.com.au/...
Telstra considering buying Channel Nine
Posted on 16. Apr, 2002
More analysis on this when I get some time. Just my initial thoughts, why the hell is a public company 50%(?) owned by the Federal Government even considering buying a commercial television network. What's wrong with the ABC? Oh dear.. hmm.. Telstra.. hmm.. grumble grumble.. hmm.. save your money for cheaper broadband.. hmm..
Telstra Changes Failed Content Strategy
Posted on 05. Apr, 2002
Telstra.com is a prime example of Telstra's strong internal politics: The amount of time it has taken the powers that be in Telstra to realise their entire strategy is flawed is just incredible, although not overly surprising given the incompetence that runs rampant in their Internet division.
The division is full of political players who are holding on for grim death to their positions through the ongoing maintenance of Telstra.com. I'm sure every major suggestion to overhaul the site or to completely change the strategy, meets with strong political plays ensuring that their precious positions are protected and the current horrible disaster that is Telstra.com continues..
While I put Telstra.com right up there as one of Telstra's biggest money pits from the dot-com period, let's not forget the Pacific Century CyberWorks deal. Ahh.. if only they'd listened to me back in 2000, they would have saved billions on that deal..
The sad thing is that this positive spin means squat as the outcome will still be a disaster. Once every stakeholder and political player in Telstra contributes their 2 cents to the new strategy, it'll just be another version of the same pile of crap we have now.
http://australia.internet.com/...
TIO and Telstra response to my BigPond complaint
Posted on 02. Mar, 2002
To recap, my complaint was that when I signed up for the 5GB plan, I only received 5000MB allowance, when I was expecting 5,170MB. By my measuring standard and the binary measuring standards used by Telstra to measure bytes, kilobytes and megabytes, I'm only getting 4.88GB allowance. If I were to use a full 5GB (5,170MB), I would be charged an extra $21.00.
I received a response from both Telstra and the TIO yesterday. To summarise the main points, Telstra agreed with my binary definition of a gigabyte (1 Gigabyte = 1024MB), however they state they use the decimal/metric definition (1GB = 1000MB). The thing that was unusual is that for their measurement purposes they actually stated in the response letter they use a mix of binary and metric:
1,024B to 1KB (binary)
1024KB to 1MB (binary)
1000MB to 1GB (decimal/metric)
The TIO picked up on this point and stated it was unsatisfactory to use a mixture of measurement standards, and have upgraded it to a Level 3 complaint, requiring further response from Telstra. The TIO also suggested that if there were different measuring standards available, and confusion was possible, that they should use a measuring standard that favours the consumer, and not Telstra.
Unfortunately, I did some research and found that in 1998 the IEC created new definitions for decimal/metric and binary measurements aimed at eliminating these confusions. Unfortunately they work in Telstra's favour rather than mine. The defintions are:
bit bit 0 or 1
byte B 8 bits
kibibit Kibit 1024 bits
kilobit kbit 1000 bits
kibibyte (binary) KiB 1024 bytes
kilobyte (decimal) kB 1000 bytes
megabit Mbit 1000 kilobits
mebibyte (binary) MiB 1024 kibibytes
megabyte (decimal) MB 1000 kilobytes
gigabit Gbit 1000 megabits
gibibyte (binary) GiB 1024 mebibytes
gigabyte (decimal) GB 1000 megabytes
Oops, I'd never heard of a gibi, mibi or kibi byte. So it will be interesting to see if they realise. Even if they do use the IEC definitions of a gigabyte, they can't support it, as all their measurements and equipment is binary anyway.
I'm very impressed with the TIO's response; they clearly have an investigations officer assigned the case who understands the issue. If Telstra were forced to take corrective action, there are really only two things they could do. Stop calling their plans 3GB, 5GB and 10GB plans, or change the allowance of those plans to 3,072MB, 5,120MB and 10,240MB. I guess they could also just stick with the decimal gigabyte definition and change some text on their site to state that fact. We'll see how it goes.
http://www.romulus2.com/...
Telstra’s power stymies broadband
Posted on 25. Feb, 2002
Usage meter works in our favour for once
Posted on 05. Feb, 2002
Did anyone notice the Telstra BigPond ADSL Usage Meter didn't track any activity on the first two days of the month. Neat! I had a massive download fest on the first day of the month, downloading almost 2GB worth of VCD's. Of course, it'll probably update in the last few hours of the month and I'll end up going over my limit by 2GB which would not be good.
Analysis of Telstra’s New Broadband Price Plans
Posted on 03. Feb, 2002
Paul Budde has an interesting anaylsis and perspective on the recent Telstra Broadband pricing changes. He highlights both the positive and negative aspects, while still acknowledging that ultimately Telstra is very much tipping the pricing in their favour.
http://australia.internet.com/...
Telstra Exposed
Posted on 30. Jan, 2002
Need I say more. [via ADH]
http://www.telstraexposed.com/...
BPA Usage meter
Posted on 22. Jan, 2002
I guess it was only a matter of time before someone programmed a third-party meter through frustration with the sheer incompetence demonstrated by Telstra BigPond as it tries to deliver an accurate useful usage and billing meter for it's broadband customers. The third-party meter looks quite simple yet effective, and demonstrates once again that a team of programmers at Telstra can be easily out done by one bloke coding on his home PC. Telstra are a bunch of chumps. (wow, I'm really having an anti-Telstra day today huh. calm .. 1 .. 2 .. 3 .. 4)
http://users.bigpond.net.au/...
Telstra.. grrr.
Posted on 06. Dec, 2001
Now that Telstra are actually charging for exceeding usage allowances on a per mega-byte basis, it really pisses me off that the usage allowance reads 5000MB on the 5GB plan rather than 5120MB as it should (you know 1024MB to 1GB).
An allowance of 5000MB is equivalent to 4.88GB. This is misleading advertising for Telstra to call the plan a 5GB plan when it is only actually 4.88GB. If I fully utilise the 5000MB of allowance I will be charged an extra $21.00 at 17.5 cents if I use the full 5GB (5120MB) of my allowance as the plan suggests, as I will exceed the 5000MB limit by 120MB. I signed up to the 5GB plan, expecting 5GB of allowance, not 4.88GB.
I also believe this is exploiting consumers who have limited knowledge of computers and networks who assume incorrectly that there are 1000MB in 1GB.
I'm sure this issue has been raised many times by other subscribers. I have also checked other broadband providers in Australia, and they correctly
calculate 1GB as 1024MB.
Anyway, sent off complaints to Telstra, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and the ACCC. See what happens. Probably nothing. Just expecting the braindead response from Telstra that they say there are 1000MB in a 1GB. They better supply a patch for my operating system that changes that on my machine as well :)
Telstra = incompetence
Posted on 30. Nov, 2001
Telstra demonstrates the highest level of sheer incompetence ever with regards to the ADSL acceptable usage meter. After clearly over promising on the delivery of a new usage meter for customers, and then realising they'd have to get it finished by 1st December 2001, they release a 1MB installer that simply installs an icon and then redirects to the old bcoba-server. What a joke. As usual people are ripping into them over at the broadband community site, whirlpool:
This quote and screenshot is amusing: "For those who wish to see how telstra have invested the last few months impoving our service check this."
http://users.bigpond.net.au/acraick/makingiteasy.jpg
http://whirlpool.net.au/...
Four Corners on Telstra
Posted on 16. Oct, 2001
Excellent Four Courners last night on Telstra, and specifically the Telstra2 float. Good to see my prediction from July 2000 regarding the PCCW deal was vindicated. If only I was on the Telstra board, I could have saved them billions. Ah well. I love Ziggy's analogy though: "don't you hate it when you buy something at the shops and you return later to see it has been marked down 30%. Well that's how I felt about PCCW." Now they don't refer to it as PCCW, but instead as CSL (?) a Hong Kong based (?) mobile phone operator which PCCW borrowed heavily to buy prior to Telstra investing in PCCW. Like I said, it was a dud deal.
http://anthonyjhicks.com/...
