Sunday, September 28, 2008

Australian ISPs Say U.S. Pricing Plans Are Wrong

There is no need for network neutrality rules, say executives of Australian Internet service providers. U.S. ISPs simply need to stop offering "unlimited" access and switch to metered usage, argues Justin Milne, Telstra Media group managing director. The only problem is the business model," argues Simon Hackett, Internode managing director, reports ZDNet.com.

"The U.S. problem isn't about running out of capacity," says Simon Hackett, the managing director of Adelaide-based ISP Internode. "It's a business model that's about to explode due to stress."

The problem with an "unlimited access" plan is that it devalues what a megabyte is worth, they argue. U.S. ISPs have a couple basic options, they argue: absorb the costs, stop offering unlimited access plans or charge business partners for quality-ensured delivery of video and other high-value traffic.

Malone says that when users are offered truly unlimited access to download as much as they want, three per cent of customers use over 50 per cent of all the downloads. Download quotas can eradicate that problem and have no impact on 95 percent of users.

The Australian model gives ISP's predictability about income and network costs, and is self correcting: users trade up to higher-cost plans when they need to, the Australian ISPs argue.

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