Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Jeremy Portzer <jeremyp AT pobox.com>]

Mark Turner wrote:
> Greg, here's your article. Congrats!
> http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1471137.html

Something else to watch out for is whether uploads count towards the 
cap.  I'm in Australia, where Internet usage has been capped for years 
by all ISPs (ever since the introduction of broadband) - partially 
justified by the much higher cost of connecting to the global network 
due to Australia's location.   I pay $79/month AUD - about US$60 - for 
ADSL2+ with a 25G cap (but it also includes 25G extra "off-peak" - 1am 
to 7am - so they advertise it as 50G).  Fortunately I'm grandfathered 
into an old plan where uploads are free, but recently many ISPs have 
quietly started including uploads in the cap - and this can be very 
noticeable if you run a server, use BitTorrent (*cough*), etc.

Also, most ISPs here will reduce you to dialup speeds when you reach 
your cap, so you can still get your email etc, instead of charging 
excess usage fees.  This is better on the pocketbook for most and avoids 
the problem of a teenager running up several hundred dollar bills. 
There are usually business plans available that don't have this speed 
reduction and instead charge excess fees.

Interestingly in Australia, ADSL is much more common than cable - you 
can only get cable Internet in certain areas (cable TV is typically 
available, but for some reason they haven't installed the equipment for 
cable Internet everywhere).  Cable TV is run by the same telco 
conglomerates as the phone system - so there's no advantage in them 
rolling out cable Internet everywhere.  ADSL2+ is just as fast as cable 
here - my download speeds are about 350 Kbyte/sec which would be about 
2.8Mbit - this is considered "screaming" for Australia.  Many people are 
stuck on ADSL 1 which is about 1.5 Mbit/384 upload.


--Jeremy