Telstra Revs Up ADSL2+

November 13th, 2006: Going beyond fashionably late, Telstra has finally announced new ADSL2+ offerings, upgrading its meagre 1.5Mbps capabilities and catching up with services its competitors have been offering since 2005.

The new services promise speeds of up to 8Mbps ad 20Mbps, however, they will not be available in areas that aren’t serviced by its competitors.

David Kennedy, Research Director at Ovum says that this is obviously a defensive move as the telco is not only staying inside its competitors boundaries, but also because it will not be matching them for price.

“Telstra badly needs an ADSL2+ offering to complement its new Bigpond content services (e.g. movie downloads),” said Kennedy. “It had the technical capability since last year. But the launch has been delayed while it sought clarification from the ACCC that it would not be required to provide competitors with access to its ADSL2+ infrastructure. That clarification arrived only a couple of weeks ago.

“This all suggests that Telstra wants to avoid a price war as more ADSL2+ providers come into the market. It will be hoping for an orderly growth of the ADSL2+ market where its marketing and content service strengths will allow it to retain and grow market share. But whether its competitors will play along remains to be seen.”

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