Sorry guys, looks like there's some problem with the IDG server
currently... not entirely sure what but I can't fix it from here so I'll
copy the story in below.

Basically what's happening is Xtra (not Telecom) is reviewing the service
and MAY consider putting a bandwidth cap on. It's only a possibility at
this stage, as it was explained to me, and is in NO WAY CERTAIN.

What does that mean? I think if you bombard Xtra with
emails/letters/calls/carrier pigeons/whatever telling them why you don't
want a bandwidth cap and what your point of view is then you'll stand a
good chance of getting your message across. The Xtra spokesman I spoke to
(Matt Bostwick) told me they would like to hear from high-end users (aka
The Bad Apples Who Spoil It... yadda yadda) to find out if there isn't a
service offering at that end that nobody is providing. I would hazard a
guess that there isn't and that money could be made offering such a
service. Now you've got to convince them of that.

It's certainly more of a pricing model issue than it is a technology issue.
Telecom charges the resellers of DSL (all the other ISPs) a per megabyte
charge (as I understand it) and if you spend 24/7 downloading from the web,
the ISP ends up paying Telecom for the privilege of having you as a
customer... any ISP guys care to correct me if I'm wrong on that?

My questions are:

- How much does Telecom typically charge ISPs for that traffic? How much
does 10GB per month per user cost the ISP for example?

- Who pays the support costs of maintaining those customers?

- Are all the ISPs getting their bonus payouts for adding DSL customers to
the Telecom network the way they're supposed to?

Peter Griffin at the Herald has an interesting story up that basically says
ISPs can't make money off the DSL pricing model in place at the moment.
I've got a call in to Telecom's DSL product manager Kevin Kenrick about it
-- either he or the PR people aren't responding terribly quickly but then
it's only been a month.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=1040186&thesection=technology&thesubsection=general
JetStream barely worth it - ISPs

This is the IDG Net story I wrote:

The country's largest ISP, Xtra, is reviewing its JetStart DSL package and
may consider including a data cap on the service.

JetStart is Telecom's flat rate DSL service that runs at 128Kbit/s. The
flat rate differs between ISPs, but Xtra charges $64.90 per month. A number
of reseller ISPs have initiated download caps because of a handful of users
taking full advantage of the service.

Xtra spokesman Matt Bostwick says it is early days yet and that some kind
of data cap is one option. "But it's only part of the review."

Bostwick is keen to avoid interfering with the vast majority of users who
don't use several gigabytes of traffic each month.

"This is a path a number of industry players have gone down and we have to
look at it."

Bostwick says Xtra has already begun to enforce its current terms and
conditions which include a "no server" clause for JetStart users, some of
whom were serving files via file sharing programs like KaZaA and Morpheus.

"We're also keen to talk to those users who are at that high end to see if
there isn't room for some kind of service targeting their needs," says
Bostwick. He cites the JetStream game servers as a good example of this.

"There we know exactly what sort of traffic to expect so we can set up a
service to meet that need."

Quicksilver is the latest ISP to introduce a cap, restricting the service
to 7GB a month, according to managing director Matthew Hobbs.

"There aren't a lot of them using the service to that level but there are
enough doing it to make it unprofitable for us."

Hobbs says Quicksilver is currently looking at moving the cap to 10GB a
month, although he says the main impact of the plan is from simply having a
cap in the first place.

"It lets them know that they can't do that here, so they tend to go
elsewhere." Hobbs says he wants to avoid impinging on the experience of
"regular" users.

Paradise, one of TelstraClear's ISPs, also has a cap on JetStart usage, set
at 10GB a month. Downloads that exceed that point are charged at 20 cents
per megabyte for international traffic or 2 cents per megabyte for
national. Quicksilver users aren't permitted to exceed the download limit
each month.

Cheers,

Paul

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