Telstra confirms two of the big four banks on T-Hub

By Charis Palmer on Apr 14, 2010 3:47 PM
Filed under Hardware

Concerns raised over Telstra's "walled garden" approach.

Telstra has confirmed customers of the Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank will be able to bank online using the T-Hub, a wireless, touch screen device designed to sit in the kitchen, when it launches on April 20.

As revealed on iTnews last month, three of Australia's four big banks were either developing apps for the new Telstra device or simply looking at whether existing iPhone apps would suffice.

But the T-Hub's closed development - with Telstra controlling the configuration and inclusion of applications - means two of the big four banks ANZ and Westpac will not offer online banking via the device at launch.

Telstra says its research indicates Internet banking is a key priority for customers using the T-Hub, ranking third behind click-to-call and email.

But Warren Hill, national sales manager with application infrastructure firm Keane questioned why customers would want to access online banking through the T-Hub, rather than going directly to their bank's website.

Hill said the "walled garden" approach taken by telecommunications companies in the past is what killed the first iterations of mobile banking using WAP.

"The approach of the telcos that you 'have to connect to us in order to connect with somebody else' never flew... people don't want to go through their telco in order to connect to their bank and vice versa."

Hill said vendors that wish to own the applications offered via their devices and decide what can and can't be offered on them face a challenge in getting customer uptake.

"It actually flies in the face of the openness of the Internet," he said.

Telstra confirms two of the big four banks on T-Hub

8 comments in this discussion

"Still waiting for Craig@Telstra to tell us exactly what "optimised" means. It wasnt this hard for the banks to get their same login pages to work for the iPhone and other smartphones, why is it so ..."

By Mordd

Tags

thub, online, banking, telstra, financeit, cba, commonwealth bank, nab, national australia bank, westpac

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Comments: 8

Craig@Telstra Apr 14, 2010 5:29 PM	Just to correct a wrong impression given by the story - there is no 'walled garden' - we have optimised the way the Bank websites display on the T-Hub's screen. It's same website as you currently access by PC or Mobile.
BrissyBoy Apr 15, 2010 11:37 AM	'Hill said vendors that wish to own the applications offered via their devices and decide what can and can't be offered on them face a challenge in getting customer uptake. "It actually flies in the face of the openness of the Internet," he said.' Perhaps Mr Hill should pay attention to the Apple AppStore and realise that consumers are willing to pay for something that has value to them on their handheld device or other smart device. I have paaid for applications for my handheld from $0.00 through to $70 for the right application. Just because something is on the internet doesn't mean it is should be free, people expend a lot of time and effort to deveolp things and should be rewarded for it, I am sure Mr Hill's company would gladly provide their talent to the world for minimal (read $0) cost.
BrettWinterford Apr 15, 2010 12:23 PM	@ Craig - while we get back to you on this, can you let us know more about the process involved with getting an app on the T-Hub?
Mordd Apr 15, 2010 1:38 PM	Im a Westpac customer, so I called and asked a customer phone rep if Westpac was going to offer banking through it, and I got quoted a very similar line to whats in the article, that its a "closed" system and therefore Westpac is still "evauluating its possible participation" with the device. Care to elaborate more for us Craig@Telstra?
BrettWinterford Apr 15, 2010 2:35 PM	We just spoke to Westpac too, to ask why they aren't at launch as planned. We've been told the bank ran into some technical glitches when porting the app to the new device. They expect to have an app available as soon as it is 100 percent confident the app is ready to roll-out. I'm still keen to hear more about the process of getting your app on the T-Hub though.
warrenmjhill Apr 15, 2010 3:35 PM	Hi all, well who would have thought that such a simple fact (you access through a controlled environment like the AppStore and Telstra controls whether you can use their form factor etc) would cause so much controversy. BrissyBoy, take a look at www.open2test.org, Keane's open source technology for automated testing which is provided free as part of our contribution back to the industry. Craig, any organisation which controls what is or is not accessible through a form factor or other wise is creating a walled garden. A browser is not a wall, it is an access point, from my understanding of how T-Hub was presented at the Finsia event last month clearly Telstra is "allowing" organisations to put their apps onto the T-Hub, therefore it is controlling the content.
Mabelode Apr 15, 2010 4:46 PM	When will it start serving up adds?
Mordd Apr 17, 2010 12:20 PM	Still waiting for Craig@Telstra to tell us exactly what "optimised" means. It wasnt this hard for the banks to get their same login pages to work for the iPhone and other smartphones, why is it so hard to "optimise" their sites for the T-Hub then if its the same web page being displayed? Somehow me thinks Craig@Telstra isn't getting back to us on this.....