Telstra has been informing ISDN Home and 1-way Satellite users that their service will be discontinued by the end of 2008, but many claim they have been given no viable alternative.

Telstra stopped selling ISDN Home and 1-way satellite late last year, and has since been informing existing customers of their pending disconnection. An internal Telstra memo indicates that there are approximately 23,000 users left on ISDN Home in Australia.

The letter to customers (Page 1, Page 2) says that technology changes at Telstra will include "the replacement of old technologies with new", and that "a number of products and services will no longer be available".

Telstra then offers these customers the option of ADSL, 2-way Satellite or Next G wireless, with subsidised connection fees. But many claim that these offers are either not available in their area, or are prohibitively expensive compared to their existing service.

"I cannot get ADSL because I am too far from the exchange", said one Whirlpool user. "The letter indicated I could "upgrade" to wireless broadband, but the download limits and pricing model make that option useless to me", they said. "On ISDN my entire family, 3 kids and mum and dad, can surf the Internet", said another. "On Nextg that is going to be impossible."

One Satellite user tried ringing Telstra to find out his options. "All the guy could offer was 2-way satellite, which would cost me about 3 times as much for an equivalent plan", he said. "Satellite is extremely expensive to setup and has a similar pricing policy to NextG, making it unaffordable and the high latency in a satellite connection makes it a poor choice for most current ISDN users, who are used to a very low-latency connection", said another.

But Telstra isn't retiring ISDN — users will be automatically migrated to more expensive ISDN 2 Enhanced plans, which operate on the same technology but are aimed at business customers. This has made some users suspicious of Telstra's motives. "I believe the decision has been made to get as many people locked into a...contract before competition sets in", said one user.

"The thing that has all of us annoyed is that the service is not being withdrawn for any technical reason", he said. "We live in areas that ADSL, FTTN will never reach and that leaves us with satellite or NextG as our only options, both of which are very expensive compared to what we currently have and have inferior latency."

A Telstra spokesperson confirmed the ISDN Home withdrawal, and said that alternatives would be discussed with affected customers over the next 12 months. "Broadband availability has improved in recent years with the launch of the Next G network and as ADSL is extended to more exchanges", he said.