Telstra has dipped a toe into the naked DSL broadband market, flagging a 'limited-time-only' service on its website on Monday, which makes its existing high-speed broadband plans seem pricey by comparison.
Naked DSL refers to digital subscriber line broadband services stripped of the analogue telephone service and related charges.
With its massive phone revenues Telstra has understandably been loath to support such a service, but the success of offerings from iiNet and Internode have forced it to take notice and accept the trend away from home phones towards heavier mobile usage and VoIP services.
Telstra Naked DSL Broadband trial - the details
Telstra's Naked DSL Broadband service - first noticed by users of the Whirlpool forum and also reported by iTnews- offers 25GB of downloads on a Naked ADSL2+ service for $59.95 per month on a 24-month contract. Naked ADSL2+services offer speeds of up to 20Mbps. Users will also receive a HomeLine Budget telephony service - with call barring switched on - which will allow users to receive incoming calls and make Emergency 000 calls.
Compared to Telstra's existing high-speed broadband services that's a pretty compelling offer, albeit one that would appear to be available only to the first few thousand callers.
Although Telstra has described the new service as a ‘trial', it appears to be more about gathering market intelligence on the broadband market, soon to be utterly transformed by the federal government's National Broadband Network, going ahead with or without Telstra's participation.
Here is more information on Telstra's Naked DSL trial including how to sign up.
T-Box finally arrives
In other Telstra news this week, the carrier finally announced that it would launch its new T-Box set-top device later this month.
A personal video recorder ( PVR ) with 320GB hard drive and a pair of high definition TV tuners, Telstra is hoping that the T-Box will help attract people to its fast growing stable of digital content services spanning news, sport and entertainment. The T-Box will cost $299.
