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

[Ivan Trundle]

On 01/10/2008, at 8:29 AM, Scott Howard wrote:

> The warezers are definitely getting unhappy, and clearly trying to  
> influence
> the media by claiming that bandwidth caps are a shortsighted play  
> which will
> hurt the internet in the long term  (remember that the type of  
> bandwidth cap
> most US ISPs are considering is of the order of 250 Gigs per month!)
>
> http://gigaom.com/2008/09/30/gigaom-white-paper-the-facts-fiction-of-bandwidth-caps/is
> a great read, if only for the comedy value.  I especially like the
> presumption that the caps and relevant prices will remain the same  
> for the
> next 4 years...

What intrigues me is that American-centric companies make assumptions  
based on 'unlimited' bandwidth. Apple, for example, offers movies and  
TV shows via iTunes (for sale, and rent): and have recently introduced  
this service in Australia. Yet for many Australian 'net users, the  
sums don't add up - their paltry 2GB or 5GB monthly caps are eroded in  
a few hits (most non-HD movies weigh in at 1.2GB to 1.8GB).

Anecdotal evidence tells me that in a family of YouTubers (i.e.  
healthy mix of teenagers etc), monthly caps of 25GB are often exceeded.

Apart from business plans of up to 500GB (iiNet Naked Business 7 - but  
data counted both ways), does anyone know what most home plans run to?  
(Or do they simply merge with business plans? Most home plans appear  
to peak at 80-100GB...)

Is there an 'all you can eat' plan offered by any non-wholesale ISP in  
Australia these days?


iT