Oonagh Reidy

iiNet is looking to lure uses away from rivals by offering service transfer in ‘just hours’

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Australia’s second largest DSL provider has changed the transfer process to its ADSL2+ or Naked services, which allows “rapid” switch in just hours, compared to two weeks previously.

Existing iiNet customers can also transfer from their current ASDSL2+ service to a Naked service within hours.
 
Perth based iiNet has been busy in its bid to boost user numbers of late, offering cut price Fetchv services, re- adding 200GB ADSL2+ broadband data plan due to “popular demand” and offering services to regional Darwin and Qld.

And there’s now hardly any downtime during transfer from another ISP, declares iiNet’s CEO, Michael Malone.

“Customers can now do it with little to no time offline.”

“Technically it is a really clever change to processes, but for customers it will make the world of difference. They’ll now be able to join the iiNet family without the inconveniences that extended periods of downtime can bring,” Mr Malone said.

We’ve already begun to see the positive impact it’s having and I’m very confident that more people will now choose the ISP they want – rather than feeling trapped by the interruption that switching providers might bring.”

The telco recently anounced  a 17% rise in profits as well as the acquisition of Adelaide rival Internode for $103 million.

iiNet has over 860,000 customers using 1.7 million services, it said in February. 

Facebook say they have changed their ‘Timeline’ display so older message do not show up in bulk.

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“We’ve made several improvements to the way older content is displayed on timeline to make the audience and other information clearer,” Facebook confirmed.

1 billion global Facebookers will see the ‘improvements’ on their timeline from this week, in a bid to quell the din by users angry at their wall posts being made public.

The improvements to posts involves some minor language and presentation changes on timeline, which started to roll out last Tuesday, to make it clearer who wrote on your wall.

Most users should have it by now, a Facebook spokesperson told SmartHouse.

Read: ‘Hide All Posts’? Facebook ‘Privacy’ Status IMPLODES

These “improvements” come after huge numbers of Facebook users globally, including several SmartHouse spoke to, believed pre-2010 ‘private’ messages were made public on their timelines, visible on their profile pages.

Although the older wall posts will still appear on profile pages, users can manually hide the posts from their timeline.

Facebook deny the charge and say there was no privacy breach; rather, these message were wall posts dating pre 2009, before ‘likes’ or ‘comments’ were introduced, fooling users into thinking these messages were ‘private’ when this was not the case. 

“Our engineers investigated these reports and found that the messages were older wall posts that had always been visible on the users’ profile pages. Facebook is satisfied that there has been no breach of user privacy.” the network said after the scandal first broke two weeks ago.

The ‘leaked’ messages occurred after Facebook globally rolled out Timeline, causing the format changes.

In Australia, there are 11.5 million monthly active users on the social network, it said last week.

LTE Advanced, HetNets: as mobile users chew up Internet data, Telstra is upping the 4G ante

The telco has just announced addition of second wireless frequency to its 4G network –  its old 2G 900MHz which it will add to the 4G 1800 MHz spectrum band.

The use of older spectrum willhelp unlock more capacity on its 4G LTE network and cater for mobile demand in remote areas like Kalgoorlie, WA, and regional Queensland.

Telstra will trial LTE (Long Term Evolution) Advanced – a new technology which uses the 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands together and the telco says it is one of the first globally to trial the two, announced at a media event in Sydney today.

Telco execs today referred to the importance of refarming spectrum to increase coverage in areas “when it makes sense.”

The technology will help deal with heavy data demand over greater distances.

4G users are growing at 20% monthly, says Mike Wright, Executive Director, Networks and Access Technologies, and is outpacing 3G growth which is slowing due to the arrival of the faster network, adding these new technologies announced are vital to deal with the “tsunami “of demand for Internet data.

The average Aussie now spend 12 hours every weekly surfing the net on a smartphone or tablet – not a PC.

4G data usage per device is also on the rise, Telstra confirmed today.

“The core of our competitive advantage is out network” says Telstra Executive Director, Mobiles, Warwick Bray, and the new LTE technology will mean no black spots, faster speeds and quicker updates.

The country’s biggest telco is also testing LTE-B (broadcast) a technology which allows multicast broadcasts so if a lot of people want to watch the same thing at the same time whether its AFL final or another event, the 4G network wont keel over.

And in a bid to end that annoying network crash at big events like AFL finals and concerts, Telstra is also trialing ‘HetNets’ in major cities,  which are small cell networks that essentially expand network capacity.

HetNets could possibly be used on 3G and 4G networks, although the telco would not confirm this.

And as it invests $1.2 bn in its mobile network this year ($4bn in total on 4G) , Telstra is making sure the investment is paying off and is busy pushing users over to 4G services, and weaning them off 3G.

80% of its postpaid smartphones launched this year will be 4G- ready it confirmed- the telco already sells eleven 4G smarties including iPhone 5 and Motorola RAZR M 4G, along with 4G data packs for tablets and dongles.

Currently, Telstra has 1.5 million customers on its 4G network, and says it is on track with its network expansion to 66% coverage, countrywide by June. 

However, when questioned the telco refused to predict how many customers it expects to add to its 4G network in 2013, although Optus now has its, albeit limited, 4G LTE network running, and Vodafone just announced 4G trials.

 In 2013, we will consume more data than we have done in the last 2 years, says Mike Wright, Executive Director, Networks and Access Technologies as our “love affair” with mobile and the “explosion” of 4G services continues.

4G LTE devices are known for consuming more data due to the faster download/upload speeds and consumers often complain of greater “bill shock” on 4G, but Telstra say it plans to up the ante on its usage alerts for its customers

Telstra confirmed it is “in discussions” with phone manufacturers about LTE Advanced technology and compatibility with devices.

Nokia’s new Lumia 920 is 9000Mhz ready and so will a BlackBerry and Sony device, and “there will also be upgrade for mobile broadband devices later this year,” Bray confirmed.

But Wright says the telco is confident about its LTE technology and infrastructure but admits it has to innovate to keep up with massive demands placed on its network.

It will also erect 1000 new 4G base stations throughout Australia this year.

2G to 3G was a “big jump” but 3G to 4G was another “wow moment”, says Wright.

Telstra will be hoping the ‘wows’ are on its network and not rivals.

Vodafone have gone virtual. The troubled telco has come out all guns blazing against the recent backlash, introducing virtual services for customers, meaning it will call back 24/7 rather than put you on hold.

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The troubled telco has come out all guns blazing against the recent backlash it received about its poor service in recent months adding 300 staff and getting its offering back on track.

“We had a number of network and service challenges at the end of 2010 and early 2011 and we are now making significant investment and improvements in the Vodafone network,” admits Vodafone. director of Customer Service, Cormac Hodgkinson.

“Some of the network issues at the start of the year, and the ensuing rise in the number of complaints we received impacted customer service. This was difficult for our customers to endure, so we changed the way we operate to make things easier for our customers.”

A recent report from Telecoms Ombudsman saw a Vodafone customer complaints sky rocket 222% to over 35,000. VHA, which now includes the 3 network, were subject to a further 19,046 – a 40.5% increase.

In total there was an 180% rise in new complaints about mobile service, mainly about poor coverage and service drop-outs, which it attributed, in part, to the Vodafone debacle.

However, the telco says it has better equipped in store and contact centre staff to resolve complaints, adding 300 staff in contact centres, which are now open round the clock for both prepaid and postpaid users.

It also says it has “placed a “high priority on addressing the processes that cause customer frustration to reduce wait times.

It has also introduced ‘virtual hold’ so customers get a call back, rather than waiting on hold for service during peak times. Users can book a return call for service at a time that is most convenient to them.

Extra support on Twitter and Facebook is also part of the line up. Its state of the art customer contact system, ‘One Connect,’ will monitor all service channels (including Vodafone’s contact centre, Twitter and Facebook accounts and Vodafone’s eForum) at all times and then route the enquiry to the customer service representative with the best skill to respond – chopping service times.

So, the next time you have a service issue a response shoud be immediate.

Earlier this year Vodafone announced it had fast-tracked its $1 billion network investment after it was dubbed Vodafail, following a vast call failure and drop out rate on its network.

Overnight teams are now replacing equipment across 60 sites a night, with the new 850MHz network rolling out simultaneously. 4G is also being introduced as part of the network upgrade.

And things are looking up for the red telco.

In metropolitan areas the average 3G dropped call rate is down to 0.5%.

Whether the class action by disgruntled customers against Vodafone Hutchinson Australia is still going ahead is unclear, although funding was said to be an issue, according to recent reports.

However, lawyers Piper Alderman, who took the case are still inviting disgruntled customers to join the action on their website and say 20,000 people have already express their interest in joining the action.

“We are in the process of preparing materials for submission to a litigation funder to fund the legal costs of the Vodafone class action.”