Just when you thought Telstra couldn't sink any lower than the scum it already is they've introduced an early termination fee for landlines if you cancel your service within 3 months. See: Telstra Connection Fees for the fine print.
The $100 fee has been imposed at the ire of the monopoly telco's competitors and Australian consumers. The move by Telstra is allegedly aimed at stopping customers from signing up for a landline and then quickly transferring it away to a competitor or signing up for a Naked DSL service.
Naked DSL connections have seen a massive uptake in recent times with many of the competitor telco's and ISP's now offering the services to their customers who want to ditch their traditional home phone service and never pay Telstra's line rental again. Accompanied with a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone service, Australian consumers are seeing some very good deals on offer and slashing their communication bills.
Up until now, the quickest way to get a Naked DSL service was to initially sign up for a Telstra landline and then have that converted. The process would normally take only a few days to complete. Now to avoid the $100 disconnection charge, consumers wanting a Naked DSL service will have to wait weeks for their connection to become active.
A typical situation is described by Whirlpool member GarthD from Adelaide. “When we sorted out Internode ADSL here, the expected time for a Telstra tech to look at the line was about four weeks if we signed up direct with Internode, or three days if we signed up for a Telstra home line and transferred.”
“It’s bad enough paying $69 to Telstra (rather than your provider) to get your connection up earlier. (It) looks like they've decided they want $169 instead if you want to keep off the slow list.”
I for one can't wait for the National Broadband Network to begin its build. Telstra's days are numbered and Australian's deserve much better from something we originally paid for and built and still 17% partly own!
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