News from 2006
January 2006
| January 5th 2006 | 1,000th Queensland ADSL Customer Connects To Exetel |
The 1,000th concurrent Queensland based user connected to the Exetel ADSL service today. The first Queensland based customer connected to the Exetel ADSL service in late April 2005. Exetel currently has over 29,000 ADSL customers around Australia.
| January 17th 2006 | 2,000th Victoria ADSL Customer Connects To Exetel |
The 2,000th concurrent Victorian based user connected to the Exetel ADSL service today. The first Victorian based customer connected to the Exetel ADSL service in late April 2005.
February 2006| February 8th 2006 | 40,000 Customers Now Use Exetel |
Exetel connected its 40,000th simultaneous customer to its services today. There are now more than 32,000 broadband users, over 6,000 wire line customers and more than 2,000 mobile, VoIP and SHDSL users of Exetel services.
Exetel connected the first user to its services in February 2004.
| February 13th 2006 | Federal Department of Health Approves Exetel as Panel ADSL Provider |
Exetel was advised today that it had been accepted on the ISP panel to provide free ADSL services for one year to registered health practices around Australia under the “Broadband for Health” Federal funding initiative.
Broadband for Health is a $35 million government initiative to provide broadband services to general practices and ACCHS in Australia. Broadband is faster and more secure that dialup internet services, and will simplify many clinical and administrative procedures in health organisations.
The Australian government is offering an incentive payment to help cover the costs of set-up and one year's usage of Broadband services to eligible general practices and ACCHS. The current level of incentive payment will includes connection, setup and 12 months access to broadband internet.
GST is not covered by the subsidy and is payable by the health organisation. An input tax credit for the amount of GST paid for the service may then be claimed.
To be eligible for the subsidy, the applicant must have a Unique Identification Number (UIN) as issued by the Health Insurance Commission.
March 2006| March 7th 2006 | Over 6,000 Customers Moved From Another ADSL ISP To Use Exetel |
Over 6,000 of the 34,000 plus current Exetel ADSL users remain transferred to Exetel from another ISP as at March 7th 2006 (some 1,150 additional customers who previously had churned to Exetel have stopped using ADSL completely; they go home to another State or country, they move out of their accommodation, they move and can't get ADSL etc).
1 ALL OTHER ADSL ISPs 1466
2 BIGPOND 1254
3 PEOPLETELECOM 1060
4 TPG 1046
5 IINET 404
6 OPTUS 246
7 NETSPACE 230
8 INTERNODE 160
9 WESTNET 87
10 IPRIMUS 74
Total: 6027
| March 8th 2006 | 2,000th Wireless Broadband User Connects To Exetel Pty Ltd |
More than 2,000 users are now connected to the Exetel internet service in Sydney using the Unwired wireless network. Exetel connected its first Unwired wireless customer on August 8th 2004 and reached 1,000 wireless connections a year later on August 10th 2005. Since that time a net 150 new wireless customers have selected the Exetel/Unwired service each month.
| March 28th 2006 | Monthly Revenue Exceeds $2,000,000 For The First Time |
Exetel has billed and collected more than $2,000,000 in one month for the first time due to the continuing strong growth in customer numbers for all of the communications service types provided by Exetel (ADSL, SHDSL, Wireless Broadband, Wire Line, Mobile and VoIP Telephony and various hosting services).
Exetel now has over 44,000 customers for its various services.
Revenue for the financial year ending on 30th June 2006 is expected to reach the planned target of slightly under $22,000,000; an increase of over 100% from the $10,000,000 achieved in the financial year ending 30th June 2005.
April 2006| April 19th 2006 | Exetel Implements Distribution Agreement For VoIP ‘PABX’ Products |
Exetel has signed an Agreement with Mitel Australia to allow it to provide advanced VoIP ‘PABX’ services to business customers. Exetel selected the Mitel platform after a 12 month investigation of VoIP hardware and software products both for its own internal use and to provide another value added service to its current and prospective customers.
Exetel has installed a mid range Mitel ‘PABX’ at its premises in North Sydney and details of the applications it runs and the savings it has made can be found here: http://www.exetel.com.au/voip_save.php
Exetel has over 5,000 small and medium business customers to whom it already provides ADSL, SHDSL, XDSL, Web Hosting and Wire line, VoIP and Mobile telephone services and the Mitel ‘PABX’ range of products is a natural addition to those products and services.
| April 27th 2006 | Exetel Releases Enhanced ADSL Speeds Up To 6144/640kbps |
Exetel has released new Enhanced ADSL plans that will provide customers with speeds of up to 6144 kbps down and 640 kbps up. These speeds compare to the previous highest ADSL speeds available from Exetel of 1500 kbps down and 256 kbps up. As well as being faster than the previous speeds the new plans are at a lower monthly cost.
The new services will run over the Powertel Wholesale network rather than the Telstra Wholesale network used by Exetel up to this time. Exetel has had a relationship with Powertel since it commenced in business and has provided SHDSL business services via the Powertel network to business users around Australia. Powertel also provides Exetel with other communications services including IP bandwidth and Data Centre location facilities.
May 2006| May 17th 2006 | Exetel Extends Wholesale Agreement With Optus |
Exetel and Optus have agreed to work together to develop and enhance Exetel’s capabilities in delivering residential telephony and ADSL2+ broadband services to its customers.
If this development is successful, Exetel will be able to provide a one-stop-shop for all eligible customer’s telecommunications needs.
Exetel began using services from Optus Wholesale in early 2004 and was the first Optus Wholesale client to use Optus ADSL1. Exetel is very pleased to continue to partner with Optus to deliver ADSL2 and enhanced telephone services. As a sign of Exetel’s commitment to this project, Exetel has commenced migrating some of their existing customers from Telstra Wholesales ADSL platform to the current Optus ADSL platform to ensure any subsequent move from ADSL1 to ADSL2+ is as painless as possible for the end user.
| May 31st 2006 | 150,000 Separate People Visit Exetel’s Web Site In One Month |
Exetel first “published” its web site in the first half of January 2004. Since that time Exetel has used a web visit analysis program to determine what interests/doesn’t interest visitors to its site and has constantly added to, deleted and modified its web site based, largely, on those statistics.
Over the past almost two and a half years the Exetel web site has grown from around 50 pages to over 400 pages today and the number of different people who visit the Exetel web site have increased each month from 10,433 in around 20 days in January 2004 to 48,504 in May of that year and now, more than 150,000 different people have visited the Exetel web site in May 2006.
June 2006| June 22nd 2006 | Exetel’s Annual Revenue Tops $20,000,000 |
Exetel’s revenue for the period July 1st 2005 to June 30th 2006 has exceeded $20,000,000; a 100% increase over the previous financial year when revenue was $10,000,000 in the twelve month period ending June 30th 2005.
Exetel now has a little over 47,000 customers of its data communications, telecommunications and hosting services compared to a little over 25,000 customers as at June 30th 2005.
July 2006| July 1st 2006 | SMH Recommends Exetel For The 3rd Successive Year |
Exetel has again been recommended in the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘ICON’ section as providing best value for money ADSL services. No other company has been recognized in each of the three years this feature has appeared.
| July 20th 2006 | Exetel Connects First Customer Using ADSL2 |
The first Exetel customer to use ADSL2 connected to Exetel today. The customer connected to an exchange in Newcastle (NSW) and achieved download speeds in excess of 16 mbps despite being over 2 kilometers from the exchange.
Exetel expects over 10,000 of its current ADSL customers to move from ADSL1 to ADSL2 connections over the next 4 months as more exchanges become available for ADSL2 connections from Exetel.
August 2006| August 17th 2006 | Exetel Receives 1,000th ADSL2 Application |
Exetel has now received the 1,000th ADSL2 application some 6 weeks after it made the on line application for ADSL2 services available.
This initial very strong demand for ADSL2 services is higher than Exetel expected as the ADSL2 services are only, currently, available from around 100 exchanges around Australia out of more than 1,800 from which ADSL1 is available.
Exetel ADSL1 users wishing to upgrade to the faster service comprise around 60% of applications received with the majority of the remaining 40% coming from ADSL1 users of other ISPs.
| August 24th 2006 | $750,000 Now Given Back To Exetel’s Customers Via Loyalty Programs |
Exetel operated ‘customer loyalty programs in various forms since June 2004. Originally these programs were based on rewarding customers who recommended other customers to sign up for Exetel’s ADSL1 service. Subsequently additional programs of discounts were added for using more than one Exetel service as these services were progressively introduced. Recently Exetel added ‘longevity of usage’ rewards for customers who stayed using Exetel’s ADSL1 services based on discounts to their monthly ADSL1 bill based on how long they had been an Exetel customer.
Following the August billing runs for all services Exetel has now given back over $750,000 in loyalty cash credits to a total of more than 5,000 customers who have qualified for loyalty rewards under the different programs. The current reward programs generate customer discounts that can add up to getting a free ADSL service and details of the current reward schemes can be found here: http://www.exetel.com.au/a_reduce_adsl_charges.php
September 2006
| September 1st 2006 | Exetel Web Sites Receives Over 1,000,000 “Hits” In A Month |
Since Exetel commenced in business it has almost totally relied on its web site to provide information to prospective customers and then to provide administrative and technical support to those prospective customers who sign up with Exetel for a data or telephone service. Exetel does no advertising nor does it involve itself in any kind of promotional activity.
In August 2006 the Exetel web site recorded more than 1,100,000 “page hits” exceeding the previous best month (July 2006) by over 500,000 “page hits” and exceeding 1,000,000 page hits in a month for the first time.
| September 29th 2006 | Exetel Revenues Exceed $2,500,000 In A Month For The First Time |
Exetel’s revenue for September 2006 has exceeded $2,500,000 for the first time. While revenue is not a particularly important target within Exetel (or any other commercial enterprise) it’s one indication of the company’s performance in terms of marketplace acceptance and growth versus stagnation versus decline.
With approaching 50,000 customers of its various products and services the average revenue per customer, a slightly more important target, has increased to slightly over $50.00 per user compared with just under $40.00 per user 9 months ago.
October 2006| October 4th 2006 | Exetel Connects More than 100 ADSL2 Users In A Day |
Exetel connected more than 100 new ADSL2 users in a day for the first time on Tuesday October 3rd 2006. Exetel has gradually been ramping up its abilities to provide ADSL2 services since late July 2006 and currently uses two different ADSL2 delivery networks; Optus and Powertel.
Approximately 20,000 of Exetel’s current ADSL1 users will have access to an Exetel ADSL2 service by the end of December 2006 and Exetel expects the majority of those users to migrate to the higher speed service once it becomes available to them.
| October 28th 2006 | Exetel Introduces New ADSL “Value Added” Services |
Exetel has focused on providing high reliability, optimally fast ADSL connectivity services since it entered the ADSL market in February 2004. These connectivity services have always included some significant “value added facilities” such as: 15 free email accounts, 60 megabytes of free web space and, of course, a free download period.
From November 1st 2006 Exetel will add one new chargeable service, one free service and one service that will reduce download costs to Exetel ADSL customers. These services are:
- SPAM filtering, using the world’s best SPAM/Virus filtering processes for IronPort at $2.00 per month per email account.
- Personal ‘BLOG’ facilities for each Exetel user at no charge
- A File Mirror that will progressively be built up to provide most popular downloads at no charge to Exetel customers.
November 2006
| November 17th 2006 | Exetel Significantly Reduces 1500/256 ADSL1 Prices |
As part of a review of ADSL1 plans Exetel has reduced the prices of all 1500/256 plans and will introduce higher speed ADSL1 plans in early December 2006.
Exetel’s lowest cost ADSL1 1500/256 plan is now $40.00 per month with 1 gb of included downloads. Previously Exetel’s lowest cost 1500/256 plan was $70.00 per month.
Exetel has also announced the availability of new speed (8192/384) plans from December 2006 starting from $75.00 per month.
| November 27th 2006 | Exetel Activates First 8142/384 ADSL1 users |
Following the announcement by Exetel of the availability of new speed (8192/384) ADSL1 plans, the first Exetel customers (in NSW) had these new plans activated today – before any other (except for Telstra BigPond of course) ISP in Australia has made plans at this speed available to order. The popularity of this new speed is not possible to judge at this early stage but the early ordering patterns indicate that it will significantly exceed the popularity of the previous highest speed ADSL1 services from Telstra (1500/256) by a very significant margin.
December 2006| December 19th 2006 | Exetel Completes Third Year Of Operation |
In a few days time Exetel will have completed three years of providing communications services to residential and business users.
One of the most pleasing aspects of Exetel’s commercial “life” to date is the fact that so many of the first 100 ADSL users who took the risk of signing up with a, then, completely unknown company are still Exetel customers today. Another really pleasing aspect is that all of the people who were involved in starting up the company or joined Exetel in its first year of operation are still with Exetel today.
Some of the main achievements of the past three years are:
- Over 50,000 residential and business users now use Exetel services
- Monthly revenue exceeded $2,500,000 in November 2006 (compared to $80,000 in March 2004)
- Exetel’s main suppliers are the same today as when it commenced business
- Exetel employs 26 people – making it the most efficient ISP in Australia
- No, full time, Exetel personnel have left Exetel over the three years of its existence
Exetel’s plans for 2007, and beyond, will be finalized over the next few days. The key objectives of the plans for 2007 are to improve the speed of resolution of any problem that a customer may experience with any aspect of their Exetel service(s).
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