[LINK] Australian ISPs offer US advice, smugness, on net neutrality

[Tom Koltai]

The disparity in Australian and US Plans can be attributed to the
hand-off settlement costs between the carriers for incoming as well as
outgoing cell phone calls.
The Australian model is outgoing only - which is obviously cheaper on
infrastructure and record keeping.

-----Original Message-----
From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au
[mailto:link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Scott Howard
Sent: Wednesday, 1 October 2008 9:31 AM
To: Stilgherrian
Cc: The Link Institute
Subject: Re: [LINK] Australian ISPs offer US advice, smugness,on net
neutrality


On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 4:10 PM, Stilgherrian <stil at stilgherrian.com>
wrote:

> And let's add in the idiocy of iPhone plans with appallingly small 
> data allowances...


Hmm.. that chestnut again...

As luck would have it I went into an AT&T store yesterday with a friend
while he bought an iPhone.  The plan he ended up selecting was the
unlimited "minutes" (ie, calls), unlimited text, "unlimited" data.  It
cost US$149.95 per month, which today equals about A$183 per month.
That doesn't include the ability to sync with his corporate Exchange
mail system (US$15/month extra), and despite being unlimited data, does
NOT allow using the phone as a modem connected to a computer.

The equivalent Optus plan?  A$129 per month, including 3 GB of data.
And as far as I'm aware that includes Exchange sync, and no specific
restrictions around using it as a modem.

ie, the Australian plan was around 30% cheaper than the US equivalent,
with the only difference being unlimited v's 3GB data.

OK, so 3GB isn't "unlimited", but isn't that exactly what we're talking
about here - the fact that "unlimited" isn't always the best option?

For what it's worth, 3GB/month is around 30 hours/week of 128kb/sec
Internet radio...

  Scott
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