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

[Ivan Trundle]

On 01/10/2008, at 9:10 AM, Stilgherrian wrote:

> On 01/10/2008, at 8:58 AM, Ivan Trundle wrote:
>> 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.
>
> And let's add in the idiocy of iPhone plans with appallingly small
> data allowances...

Again, anecdotal evidence from Australian telcos suggests that  
'average' users only consume 100MB/month. It possibly depends on  
ubiquity of free wireless networks, and I've no idea where they draw  
their numbers from (USA?)...

> Mark Pesce has suggested that Internet radio could be the killer app
> for the iPhone. http://futureexploration.net/fom/2008/07/the_end_of_radio.html
>  If so, this works in the US-style unlimited-bandwidth plans Apple
> and AT&T offer. But 300Mb/month?

I find it surprising that radio could be a killer app on a phone in  
this century. But that aside, I wonder what the data usage would be if  
a Skype (or other VoIP client) were possible on the device? I know  
that this was debated by Linkers before, but I've never understood how  
much data is consumed by leaving Skype open on a network, or how much  
a standard voice call might use.

iT