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  • From: Jeremy Portzer <jeremyp AT pobox.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] Time Warner to meter users' Internet traffic
  • Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:34:40 +1000

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




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