The number two-ranked player, SingTel Optus, believes a charging regime incorporating usage-based payments for support could reduce users' costs, while regional provider Pacific Internet claiming the local industry is too immature to support the move.
Asked for comment following revelations on broadband community Web site Whirlpool that Telstra has engaged market researchers to assess users' reactions to several service innovations, including charging for help-desk support, a SingTel Optus spokesperson said "the user-pays model could result in lower-priced services".
However, the spokesperson stressed that "as with all of our products, we do reserve the right to change plans and pricing at any time, but we have no immediate intention to introduce helpdesk charging".
The Australian general manager for Pacific Internet, Dennis Muscat, said Australia's broadband industry had yet to reach the critical mass required to "stream" customers into differing support categories in the fashion mooted by Telstra's head of broadband, Justin Milne.
Milne is quoted in an e-mail published on Whirlpool as saying he "personally worried" about "charging for premium support and therefore creating 'second class support' at the same time.
"But a trade-off could be cheaper, unsupported plans.
"This might suit a lot of more experienced users".
