I have to say that over the last couple of years I have only had good dealings with Telstra. Ironically though, the most recent example is about the only service I have with them, and they want to take it away. You see ISDN is outdated technology that is holding Telstra back from delivering new services, and they want me to replace my ISDN line with shiny new analogue phone lines. So says a letter I received late last year…

I have a service that Telstra calls “ISDN Home Highway”. Its original purpose was to give “broadband” Internet connectivity to places that were unable to get ADSL, but it was still a normal ISDN basic-rate phone service with a special NTU that included a modem (serial and USB attached) for data connectivity. Data calls to Bigpond (Telstra’s ISP division) were subsidised, and local phone calls were cheaper as well (AU$0.175 instead of the “normal” AU$0.25). The best bit though was actually the price: by the time you option up a normal PSTN line from Telstra with caller-id and other stuff you’re looking at something like AU$40 per month — Home Highway was AU$45 per month which includes both B-channels and two DIDs (so basically the equivalent of two phone lines, ISDN standard, for only a fraction more than one analogue line).

Like I said though, Telstra sent a letter last year advising that they were removing the ISDN Home Highway service. There’s this thing called “BigPond Broadband ADSL” that I could use instead of my ISDN service, apparently. It seems that they believe that the only reason people got ISDN Home was for Internet access, and now that ADSL is available in more places that ISDN shouldn’t be necessary any more.

There are a number of flaws in their reasoning, however, not the least of which is the fact that I had ISDN Home because it’s an ISDN voice service! If they had done a bit more homework, they’d know that we already have ADSL — there’s another service coming into the house, an analogue line that is there for the sole purpose of ADSL provision.

My alternatives were looking like replacing the ISDN Home service with an ISDN Business service. From Telstra’s point of view, it’s non-productive, as it defeats the purpose of them trying to get people off this “legacy” ISDN equipment — I just switch to a different type of service, forcing them to keep the ISDN gear. It just doesn’t make sense. Of course I could also switch to VoIP, but without number portability (yet) it’s a pain that I wasn’t looking forward to (not only that but my employer currently has a prohibition on work calls going over VoIP).

So why is this a positive dealing with Telstra? Because I got a phone call from a lass from Telstra this morning to ask me about whether I got the letter and how I felt about it. As I described my displeasure, she made attentive noises at me and took notes (well, she said she was taking notes). She said that they’ve only just started ringing people about it, and that there was a possibility that enough people making comments like mine might force a change.

It’s a positive thing right now because it’s the first time I’ve been given the impression that Telstra gives a stuff about a customer. It can’t be cheap to have people sitting, calling people, and potentially wearing abuse from people who they intend to displace. I never thought I’d say this, especially after the abhorrent BACk campaign (in which they tried to gain public support to fight against Optus in their bid to change a broadband access environment thet Telstra themselves created), but kudos to Telstra for at least asking the little guy what he thinks.

Let’s see if it ends positively though.

Tags: telstra