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Oonagh Reidy

Hurry Up, Telstra: $0.5M Fine For Phone Delays

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Hefty $500,000 fine for landline delaysThe nations biggest telco forced to cough up a hefty $510,000 penalty to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) last week, for failing to connect new landline customers on time, during 2012-13 financial year.

The telco failed to meet two of seven of ACMA’s Customer Service Guarantee(CSG) benchmarks for new landline connections in both urban and remote areas, the Authority said. 
On urban landline connections, the telco fell short of the benchmark by 4000, or 1.4% of all new connections. In remote areas, this shortfall was just 8 connections, or 1%. 
CSG benchmarks provide safeguards for fixed-line customers for service connection, repairs and attending appointments with customers. 
The watchdog noted Telstra’s early responses and its open engagement, once official warnings were issued, and also 2012-13 was marked by extreme weather events which affected its fixed line network.
ACMA also issued a formal warning to Telstra for breaches of regulatory requirements related to consultations on eight payphone removals. 
‘I welcome Telstra’s improvements already implemented and its commitments to the ACMA to further improve its internal governance in these areas of operations, as well as its operational processes and systems,’ said ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman.
‘Telstra has also committed to more regularly engage with the ACMA about its service improvements and performance.’

Blaupunkt On Sale Nov, LCD’s $399+

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German giant makes its formal entry into OZ

Blaupunkt’s LED TV line up includes a 24″ HD TV with DVD, 29″ HD and larger 39″ Full HD TV.

Pricing was confirmed today by Blaupunkt spokesperson who told SmartHouse the 24″ Full HD TV will have a pricetag of $399, as will the 29″ HD TV model, while the 39″ will cost $599.

The formal launch into the Aussie market was announced via Twitter today, but the products won’t actually be on sale mid November, despite being previously been flagged for October.

The new LED sets and are aiming to be the TV of choice for the second or third room, and compete against mid-tier brands as opposed to big names like LG and Samsung.

The TVs are to be sold exclusively through Harvey Norman.

The German make is also unleashing audio products including DAB+ Radio starting at $169, Oslo iDOCK (RRP $199) and OSLOAIR Airplay sound system suitable for listening to tunes from multiple units around the house, selling for $299, available at JB Hi-Fi and Bing Lee.

Read all about it here

 

The snazzy products from the German giant were designed in London specifically for the Aussie market.

Bush Australia, distribute of the make Down Under also played an instrumental role in product development of the audio devices.

‘iPhone 5S’ To Hit ‘Mid-Year’

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Or is it called iPhone 6?In fact, the ‘refreshed” Apple phone dubbed ‘IPhone 5S” is soon to go into production in Asia according to Wall Street Journal, as is a budget-end iPhone, previously reported.

The new iPhones are said to be released mid year, with the cheaper model tipped after the Northern summer, so possibly around September. 

The release the new iPhone 5S this year, if reports are accurate, comes 12 months after the release of the iPhone 5 last September which had a bigger 4 inch screen as Cupertino looked to catch up with recent phone trends veering towards larger screen sizes a la Android rivals Samsung, now the worlds biggest smartphone brand, and HTC.

Apple have refused to comment on the reports.

US based Jefferies analyst Peter Misek previously tipped iPhone 5S would come in 6-8 colours, have a ‘Super HD camera’ and Near Field Communications (NFC)  for touch n tap payments, a feature which Samsung recently announced for the new S4.

The smartphone market’s “two horses race” consists of Apple and Samsung, who between them account for 52% of the market although Samsung is powering ahead and sold over 192 million smartphones last year, globally, compared to 130 million iPhones.

The reports come as Cupertino’s biggest rival is poised to launch its next Samsung Galaxy model, the S4, with 5 inch screen and innovative software including eye scrolling, S Health and hover feature, where you can control the phone without touching it.

Image: Cult of Mac

But hungry rivals are fast emerging in the form of Huawei (now No. 3 smartphone brand according to Gartner) HTC, LG and Sony all running popular OS Android, and Google owned Motorola is about to release a killer phone called X Phone, while comeback kid Nokia is looking to grow Windows 8 phone market.

Apple could be on to a winner with its budget phone, however, which is said to sport different casing to the traditional iPhone and are also said to be toying around with various colours with could appeal to the youth market.

Analysts Garner recently noted “while the demand for iPhones in the fourth quarter [2012] remained strong, consumers demand favoured the less expensive iPhone 4 and 4S models.”

And it seems Apple are well ahead of the production cycle having designed the iPhone 5 with its enlarged 4 inch screen before Steve Jobs’ death in October 2011, reports The Guardian, which suggests it possibly isn’t as swayed by what its competitors are doing, as previously believed.

Oops! Starbucks ‘Irish Are British’ Twitter Gaffe

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Hell hath no fury like a Paddy being called British.


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But thats exactly what Starbucks Ireland did on its Twitter site this week, asking its Irish followers “show us what makes you proud to be British” a ‘happy hour’ promo as part of the Queens’ Jubilee celebrations.

Needless to say, Starbucks’ 2000 Irish followers were less than overjoyed, leaving a sour taste in their mouths (much like their coffee brew).

“The ie stands for Ireland, awaiting the apology before I visit your stores again!! one annoyed Irish tweeter wrote.

“It took 2 hours for Starbucks to discover Ireland isn’t part of the British Empire.Their History/Geography expert was on a Coffee break :),” Jim Sheridan, a well known Irish TV Director tweeted.

Starbucks later apologised for the gaffe, saying the tweet was meant for its British followers only.

“We erroneously posted to our Irish Twitter page meaning to post to the UK only. Customers in Ireland: We’re sorry.”

The lesson? Think before you tweet.

OFFICIAL: T-Box Is Now Media Hub

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T-Box has arrived. Telstra’s PVR will now let you listen to music, view photos thanks to My Media, announced today.
The latest update to the T-Box means users will be able to share photos, videos and music directly on to their TV using My Media tool.

My Media allows users stream media from a PC to T-Box, and create photo slideshows and music playlists through their T-Box onto their TV.


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Sharing of multimedia files to T-Box can be done via connecting a thumb drive or external HDD to the PVR’s USB port or else via Windows 7 PC with Windows Media Player 12.

Here’s a complete list of what can be done via T-Box’s My Media:

· Share media from a USB hard drive, memory stick or computer

· View videos, photos and music on your TV

· Create a playlist of your favourite music or photos

· Create a slideshow with photos and background music

 

This latest update comes after the launch of the T-Box remote control app last year, as Telstra fights off new competition from Optus Fetchtv and similar IPTV services from Internode and iiNet.

Optus also added 51 new foreign language channels and several world packages for fetchtv IPTV service, announced today.

Retailers Good Guys…But “Online Cheaper”

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Schrewd consumers try it on with retailers: heading in-store for advice but buy online.


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1 in 4 consumers head to electronic retailers like The Good Guys, JB Hi-Fi and Betta electrical to get freebie advice and to get up close and personal with the latest tech – but refrain from making a purchase instore.

Consumers head online to purchase gear like smartphones, iPads and notebooks “for a cheaper price”, new research by Canstar Blue has confirmed.

GEN Y were the biggest culprits (44%), as were price conscious consumers from NSW (34%)

However, retailers are well aware of the situation where consumers are trying it-on and is “a significant challenge” in the price-sensitive market, says Canstar’s Rebecca Logan.

“Many bricks and mortar outlets have raised this as a concern and certainly from the results of our survey, you’d have to say it’s a very real one.”

This behaviour sparked the concept of try-on fees which were raised last year as a way of halting the trend that is bad news for bricks and mortar retailers.

The trend is also likely to “shape how we shop in the future,” Logan warned.

However, it may not be all bad, as there is no evidence the consumer didn’t purchase from the same retailer’s online website in some cases, a Canstar spokesperson told SmartHouse.

The survey also does not indicate whether consumers went to domestic sites on internatonal discounters like eBay and Amazon to get the best deals.

 

Canstar Blue surveyed 2500 consumers on their satisfaction rating on leading electronics retailers and The Good Guys came out tops for value, range, layout and catalogues for the second year in a row.

Retravision wasn’t far behind, followed by JB Hi-Fi, Dick Smith and Harvey Norman.

Over 1500 of those quizzed made a purchase from a CE Retailer in the last six months

OZ Data Hungry But Will Networks Choke?

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421,147 terabytes: Half of us own a phone with Internet..and boy are we using it
Aussies downloaded an astonishing 421,147 terabytes of data from the web in the last year – a 52% jump on 2011.

And there are almost 30 million mobile phone services in use and 22m on mobile Internet services – wireless 3G and 4G –  soaring 22% in 12 months.

That’s a hell of a lot of traffic on networks and possible congestion as the usage numbers increase at an alarming rate.

 To 30 June, nearly half of all adults owned a mobile with Internet, double last year’s figure, according to ACMA’s latest Communications report. 

And worryingly, there was 296,000 complaints about mobile phone service during 2011-12 (+3%), which suggests there could be more mobile issues to come.

Lets face it, we’ve all tried to send a text and make calls only for the network to crash.

“It won’t get better but it won’t get any worse,” says Chris Coughlan, Telsyte analyst.

The main issues with mobile services are usually with Internet data services, driven by massive smartphone usage.

“Telstra is proactive in managing demand ….its move last year to 4G LTE network was more about capacity than anything else, as it allowed them use 1800 MHz spectrum which is currently underused on GSM networks,” says Coughlan.

“Vodafone is getting on top of it after its network ‘issues’ and are spending a lot of money to keep ahead.” 

Optus is also “well placed” as it investing in 3G+ network is starting to kick off TD-LTE 4G network which has a high capacity,
but its problem may be in regional areas where it relies on GSM spectrum.

The news comes as Optus revealed plans this week to test cloud technology which would allow its network to handle larger capacity in big events like the AFL Grand Final, Melbourne Cup or concerts.

Most of the 260K complaints to the Telco Ombudsman last year were pertaining to ‘bill shock’ but this will ease off as all the telcos are putting alerts notifying users when they reach their cap allowance, says Coughlan.

There are almost 29m subscribed to an Internet service in Oz, in total, whether its fixed, wireless or mobile in Oz. 

“Australia has moved from baby steps to giant steps in the online world with its digital footprint expanding rapidly during 2011-12,” said ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman.

10.8 million go online at least once a day, and most of us spend 82 hours a month surfing the net.

 

Mobile and internet services are driving growth, says Chapman, and Australia has one of the highest penetration of smartphones in the world.

“Australians are increasingly connected, adopting whichever devices best meet their needs.”

Almsot 50% of us communicate mainly using mobiles, with just over 20% of our communications are via fixed-line phones and email (22%).

There are 3.1 million mobile users without a fixed-line phone. 

“But all the telcos have to invest in their mobile networks to meet future demand,” says Telstye’s analyst, the challenge is increasing revenues to fund the investment, as average revenue per user declines.

However, if capacity starts to cost too much, prices of mobile services will rise, he believes.

What A Shock-er! 7M Suffer Bill Shock 2011

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Think twice before signing mobile contracts as two-thirds of us pay for inclusions we don’t use.


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And it seems almost half of all users (or around 7 million) suffered a bill shockers last year -$557 million worth of a shock, in fact.

The State of the Mobile Nation Report, from Macquarie University’s Faculty of Business and Economics- supported by  amaysim –  revealed another big shocker – 68% of mobile users don’t utilise all of their ‘included value’ in their plan, with “consistent” under-utilisation of ‘included services’ such as minutes and megabytes.

Consumers experience bill shock on average twice a year with $40 the average over spend. 

And it seems consumers on a 2 year plan were the worst users of their inclusions – with only a quarter stating they use all of their plan’s included value.

And women are better than men when understanding their call inclusions, although only a third (36%) of women claim to use their included value compared to just 28% of men.

But while we dont know our inclusions, we  exceed our plans by around $80 a year, The State of the Mobile Nation Report showed.

“Only a third of consumers felt that they use all of the inclusions in their phone plan and even then, they estimated that they don’t use their inclusions for two thirds of the year,” Dr David Gray, senior lecturer in Marketing from Macquarie University’s said.

However, its not huge data consumption that’s eating up our credit – its phone calls that are the biggest driver of over-spend, followed by data usage and texts.

Consumers on contracts are more likely to experience bill shock – especially those on a 12 month cap- while those on SIM-only deals reported the lowest incidence of bill shock.

“The research shows that bill shock is consistently experienced by consumers signing up to traditional plans. They are being offered lots of choice but it’s not translating into value,” Dr Gray warned.

Amaysim CEO Rolf Hansen reckons “It’s an epidemic.

 “Consumers need to be more assertive about their bills. It would seem that people have resigned themselves to not having billing hassles solved, with only one in three bothering to query an unexpectedly high bill. My advice is to speak up – eventually you’ll be heard!”

Hansen was also quick to make a plug for his low cost service:

 

“At amaysim, we have no lock in contracts and make it easy to understand exactly what you get for your money.” 

Telco consumers have been conditioned to accept the status quo, however, Dr Gray believes that the telco market “is starting to move in the right direction” – due to regulatory pressure and increasingly savvy consumers.

“Our first wave of research in this study indicated an appetite for change with 46% of people planning to switch [telco] this year.”

Telstra and Vodafone have introduced anti shock therapy in the past year, alerting users when they exceed their plan limits.

Samsung: Galaxy II ‘On Track’ For May, Despite US Delay

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It was tipped to be here in May but reports coming out of the US today, suggest the wait may be a little longer.


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The much hyped Android Gingerbread handset with a high speed1.2GHz

dual-core processor was tipped to land here next month but now has been

held up in the US, reports indicate.

According to Samsung VP

Paul Brennan, in the US, negotiations between all US carriers including

Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T are still ongoing, and Galaxy II now won’t

be be released in North America in early Q3.

This would imply the

Galaxy may now not see the light of day until perhaps July or August, in

the US, meaning that this could put back the Oz release

date until even later in the year.

However, Samsung Australia today confirmed to Smarthouse that the newest Galaxy installation is still on track for release here next month.

 

Similar to its US strategy,

Samsung are looking to distribute its device, which features Super

AMOLED Plus screen technology, which the Korean brand say delivers its

brightest ever screen, “across all major networks and retailers” in

Australia.