The cost of internet access has come down substantially recently for fast cable access. When cable access was first introduced a couple of years ago, Telstra (the main telecommunications company here) was the sole provider, and its prices reflected this.

Although my memory is a bit lacking, I think I used to pay around $65 for unlimited time but some ridiculously small download limit like 200 megabytes, and for each additional megabyte you downloaded it was something like 15-30c.

What this meant is that actually using cable's high speed for downloading was very, very expensive.

Then Optus came in with cable access, and offered flat rate pricing.

Unfortunately they did not install in my area so I couldn't switch over at the time.

Telstra stuck with their prices, but after a while, after saying they wouldn't switch to a flat rate, they eventually did, presumably because they saw themselves losing customers to Optus.

So now Australia essentially has a duopoly with cable access, with prices lower than they were earlier but still higher than comparable prices in the US.

The companies tend to be slow on the uptake of "new" technology like ADSL.

A number of small ISPs that offer regular modem access are around, but these are disappearing and I suspect they will soon be a thing of the past, as it is near impossible to compete with the larger players due to cost differences.

I used to run a small ISP, and know others that run larger operations, so have some knowledge of the costs involved.

Hope this helps! :)

- Thomas.

> Hi Ricky, thanks for the feedback. Actually,
> the difference in costs between OZ and
> Canada is not much different. I thought it
> would have been a lot higher in OZ, plus you
> do have several options to choose from.

> Regards,

> Eliz.