Naked DSL blows ill wind for Telstra as iiNet rakes in customers

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 02 July 2008 13:25

IT Industry - Market

Given that they're avoiding the normal line rental fee (typically between $20 and $30), and that VoIP call costs are generally substantially lower than conventional charges (eg local calls around 12c instead of 20c, untimed national calls, and international rates from a couple of cents per minute) it's hard to see how they can't be saving money.

And the mystery deepens when you realise that iiNet's iiTalk VoIP service provided with naked DSL plans provides free local and national calls (subject to a 'fair use' rule, otherwise the charge is 15c untimed), though you can see why 20 percent of customers said they were saving over $40 per month.

The best explanation I can offer is that some people are applying the savings they make on phone charges directly towards an Internet plan that provides higher speed, a bigger download quota, or both.