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A broadband service that caps data transfer such as you describe is a rip off.

$67.00 per month fee (includes 3GB upload/download combined)
Bandwidth is capped to 256kbps downstream/64kpbs upstream
If you go over 3GB/month, the extra is charged at 18.90 cents per MB up to 5 GB and 17.50 cents per MB after 5 GB (this can get REALLY expensive on a cable modem).

And on your point about mobile phones: In most non-North American countries, the caller pays (and the rates are much more reasonable). To my knowledge, there's no laws about telemarketers calling mobile phones here, but they don't do it anyway because it'd annoy people more than anything else. I'm not sure how much bandwidth Code Red and Nimda take up, but most emails (including spam) are not multi-megabyte downloads, so I don't think you'd really pay a lot for that, even at fairly high per-MB charges.

How bout in Australia, where Telstra has the most coverage for ADSL and cable, and Optus only has minor coverage in 3 major cities. Optus is priced pretty well and stable as hell, but Telstra... well, crappo network. Also their pricing has just changed for residential users, Check out these prices for ADSL users.
Residential Only
Freedom Standard^^ $94.50 $78.00 3GB 256/64 18.90 cents per MB up to 5 GB and 17.50 cents per MB after 5 GB##
Freedom Deluxe $105.50 $89.00 3GB 512/128
5GB Residential $241.45 $224.95 5GB 1500/256 17.50 cents per additional MB
10GB Residential $446.45 $429.95 10GB 1500/256

These prices come in Dec 1st, and I know a hell of a lot of people who are dumping broadband to return to dialup

I'm not sure about cygwin, but if you like samba.. send pizza!

Eh? Telstra.com and BigPond Home use SSL when you login to account info. It would be very strange if BigPond Advance didn't.

Oh ... wait. This _is_ Telstra after all ... Who knows with those tossers.

For ADSL, their (current) rates are at:

http://www.bigpond.com/broadband/adsl/pricing.asp
and for cable they are at:
http://www.bigpond.com/broadband/cable/pricing.asp
or click ADSL or Cable for the rates
-- kai

Verbing Weirds Language.

For ADSL, their (current) rates are at:

http://www.bigpond.com/broadband/adsl/pricing.asp
and for cable they are at:
http://www.bigpond.com/broadband/cable/pricing.asp
or click ADSL or Cable for the rates
-- kai

Verbing Weirds Language.

Quote: **MB allowance means combined upload and download data transfer (except for some traffic provided from time to time by Telstra at no cost).

end quote.

Just thought I'd spur on the righteous anger. Not sure I'd exceed 3gb/month anyway though... I'd like to serve my own MP3's from home, but I assume they'd shit on you for running a server...

Suppose I'd better finish up my downloads on my FREE UNLIMITED dialup.....

Buckets,

pompomtom

Which ever way you look at it Telstra will always have the monopoly in Australia.... They are moving in on Asian comms companies by the dozen and seem to barely even notice thier competitors leaving the game as quickly as they joined. And just when you thought Ziggy couldnt get any luckier.... the Australian Government has rushed to assist him by subsidising satelitte broadband for customers in remote locations (aka: the outback).... Oh, but its not about personal gain or pleasing shareholders, apparently its about delivery to Australia the technology that it deserves. Ahh.... making it easier!

Hi,

Some of you seem to under the impression that the LZIP story is a joke.

I am the original designer of the program and would like to state that it is very very real!

LZIP works by compressing the files and, depending on the users choice of compression ratio, removing material from the lzip archive that may be considered offensive, non-PC, or suspicious in any way.
This makes it brilliant for compressing your MP3 collection down to a ner-zero byte file size, as all the nasty stuff the RIAA don't want you to have is discarded!

For anyone interested, you can download the latest version of LZIp from here:

http://users.bigpond.com/XDouglas/lzip.lzip

Of course, you will notice that the filesize of the download is extremely small, due to the fact that it has been compressed with very high compression, and hence some parts have been discarded. ;)



"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47

Heres another article at Telstra.com, from Reuters. Seems it is affecting 33 countries, and will take a few days to fix.

Numbers for Cable and ADSL to clear things up.

Optus@Home
D/L: 3Mbit/s U/L :128kbit/s
Price: $74.95/mth or $63.95/mth (No Contract)

Telstra BigPond Advance
D/L: 256kbit/s U/L: 64kbit/s
Price : $67.00
D/L: 512kbit/s U/L: 128kbit/s
Price: $72.00

Telstra ADSL
D/L: 256kbit/s U/L: 64kbit/s
Price : $78.00
D/L: 512kbit/s U/L: 128kbit/s
Price: $89.00
(Forces u to use their line for voice/analog line as well .. or else u pay an extra $14/mth)

All these prices are in $AU.

I'm a user of Optus@Home, and from those stats, seems like in terms of bandwidth Optus@Home wins by miles. And trust me, with the BigPond Advance login procedures being a hassle under linux, I'd rather stick with Optus@Home which uses plain old DHCP :)

Plus in the AUP Statement for Optus@Home, it doesn't support the use of a home network, but it's not forbidden. That is a big big plus, what is the point of cable if u can share :) hehe.

Moreover, the more disturbing fact with the ADSL rollout is that the fact that Telstra is charging their competitors $61/mth for access to one line, making it impossible to competition to have any affect on the pricing.

Numbers for Cable and ADSL to clear things up.

Optus@Home
D/L: 3Mbit/s U/L :128kbit/s
Price: $74.95/mth or $63.95/mth (No Contract)

Telstra BigPond Advance
D/L: 256kbit/s U/L: 64kbit/s
Price : $67.00
D/L: 512kbit/s U/L: 128kbit/s
Price: $72.00

Telstra ADSL
D/L: 256kbit/s U/L: 64kbit/s
Price : $78.00
D/L: 512kbit/s U/L: 128kbit/s
Price: $89.00
(Forces u to use their line for voice/analog line as well .. or else u pay an extra $14/mth)

All these prices are in $AU.

I'm a user of Optus@Home, and from those stats, seems like in terms of bandwidth Optus@Home wins by miles. And trust me, with the BigPond Advance login procedures being a hassle under linux, I'd rather stick with Optus@Home which uses plain old DHCP :)

Plus in the AUP Statement for Optus@Home, it doesn't support the use of a home network, but it's not forbidden. That is a big big plus, what is the point of cable if u can share :) hehe.

Moreover, the more disturbing fact with the ADSL rollout is that the fact that Telstra is charging their competitors $61/mth for access to one line, making it impossible to competition to have any affect on the pricing.

I forgot to mention the only cable people in melbourne:

Bigpond Advance (Telstra) and

Optus

Optusis only new and therefore only in some areas, but there's a price war on. Getting Bigpond advance insalled costs about $100, and it's $65 per month - unlimited download BUT the spead has been software capped to 400kbps as for Optus.. I don't know the prices etc, but I have hard reports of higher speeds than those of Telstra BPA so far..

You're forgetting that Optus@Home and BigPond Advance now have cable services serving the cities on the east coast of Australia.

Follow this link for more.

-cwk.

I live in Canberra, and even in a pissy little city like this I can get cable (in the newer developed areas). Those who can't, get satellite (see http://www.bigpond.com/cable)

I can understand your point perfectly, however, to allow you to understand the situation here in OZ, you should understand the current pricing structure.

There are several plans for cable access via Telstra, but the standard one is a A$65 per month (12 month contract) which gives you 250Mb per month and a rate of A$0.28 per meg over and above that. So, if in the course of one month, you go a mere Gig over your 250Mb (not too hard when you play games n stuff) your looking at a staggering A$280 extra for that month.

This is why there are screams of outrage. There are a lot of internal services people use *because* of the old "no charge for internal" system.

I don't think that Optus have got their Internet cable system up and running yet, but I certainly hope they get it running soon, and set a decent price structure. It's either that, or Australia stays with the PSTN modems.

Yours,

CJ

PS If you wanna find out more about the Telstra cable service, the place to look is here.

Telstra has some play in the ISP Market, they own/run the "BigPond" ISP over there. The other major ISP I know of over there was OZEmail, not sure who runs/owns that. . .
Telstra's BigPond home page

Just thought I would share that with everyone who forgot. ;)

Here are some URL's:

The not very informative one:
http://cnet.bigpond.com /Briefs/Guidebook/WhereNow/ss02.html

The informative one:
http://www.usawebsite.com/~aau g/1997/03/ss9703a.html