telstra trial

I spent an hour today on the phone talking to Campbell Smith and have come away more confident than ever about the future of Pie.

A couple of quick points, Pie entered onto an exclusive agreement with Telstra for a four month trial of 50 web phones late last year then on 23 November announced deployment of the first 2 phones at Darwin Airport with a further 48 to roll out across the country, while not specifically stated it is a fair assumption that if the test is for 50 phones the test period will commence once all 50 have been deployed, Campbell confirmed that to me today so with the last phone installed end Jan 2011 the trial can run to end May 2011 with a further 30 days before the expiry of the exclusivity period.

Telstra are a large conservative telco where wheels turn slowly so I was amazed when one month into the roll out and with the trial period yet to officially commence, on 23 December 2010 Telstra released a statement glowing in praise for the product and stated "I would say it's exceeded our expectations" That release will have been signed off by senior management before release IMO that will only serve to strengthen Pie's negotiating position.

When Telstra NZ told Pie to go away Pie said OK we'll do it ourselves in competition to you to which Telstra NZ said pffftt as if, Pie now have phones in some extremely profile high traffic areas which should be dominated by Telstra NZ so they are losing face and heading back to the negotiating table.

The NZ experience will not be lost on Telstra Aus if they were to say bie bie Pie how long do you recon it would take for Optus or Voda to jump on board for the wi-fi capability and hi profile branding, it's not just about coins in slots.

Campbell is highly approachable and will happily answer your questions.