[LINK] Net charges

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Adrian writes,

> Of course, all of this blindingly fast DSL is worth absolutely b**
> all if the usage caps and pricing models remain as they are today.

On a related topic, regarding broadband costs and the education revolution

This weekend, Anne (a Vic School Teacher) writes:

"My Year 9 girls uploaded the digital movies they made as part of ICT
onto their personal blogs, and in 8 mins, one of the girls had spent $18.
I won't tell you how much internet money I have used as a teacher in 3
weeks. Anyway we have revised our plans to allow greater download and will
monitor our usage closely. This is one downside to using web2.0 to its'
potential in the classroom." (end-quote)

Uploading a movie to a blog site is a basic web2 activity.

But parents must pay EIGHTEEN DOLLARS each time? It's obviously outrageous.

Aussie schools contract with ISPs (eg Netspace etc) for their net pipe,
and pay enormous bills. Many (all?) schools pass these costs on to the
parents in the form of individual student pre-paid access accounts. No
money, no net. The education revolution really needs to start at net costs.

And, good luck Roger. My tiny-try-hard home broadband provider, OneWire,
went belly-up last month, and are flickpassing us on to a Westnet offer
with free router. So i dont think middle-order net people are makng heaps
it's simply Australia's outrageous wholesale charges.  

Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia