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

[Scott Howard]

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