Internode moves into analogue phone territory with NodeLine

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 16 July 2009 09:54

Your IT - Home IT

ISP Internode has begun reselling Telstra's analogue phone service under the NodeLine banner.

While the planned NBN might make POTS (plain old telephone service) redundant, there's still an opportunity for companies to resell Telstra's services - especially as not everybody is ready to rely on  VoIP over naked ADSL.

Internode claims its NodeLine service can reduce residential customers' monthly charges by more than $40, "based on typical calling patterns".

The $29.95 monthly line rental is the same as Telstra's HomeLine Plus, and the savings come from call charges.

"Long distance calls are billed as 15 cents per minute while calls to mobile phones are billed at 29 cents per minute, both with no flagfall," said Internode product manager Jim Kellett.

So how typical are you?

Internode's $40 saving is based on making two local calls and two three-minute mobile calls per day, two five-minute long-distance calls per week, and two 10-minute overseas calls (based on the rate to the UK) per month.

The comparison is a bit dodgy, as the Telstra price for a 10 minute call is based on the standard per-minute rate rather than the "$1 for up to 10 minutes" offered to HomeLine Plus subscribers.

And beware if you make plenty of local calls - see page 2.