how are we different in the way we access the net?

Another question that I've wondered about is the cost of your ISPs in OZ and NZ. Do ISPs charge like they do in many countries outside North America - monthly rate plus long distance charges?

What would the average ISP charge per month for unlimited internet access?

Regards,

Eliz.

Hi Eliz,

In Australia, local calls generally cost anything between 17 and 22 cents depending on your phone company. If you access the Net using a modem then you only pay the cost of the local call so long as you can dial in to a local ISP number in your city.

If you live in an area that has cable, then you have a permanent connection and don't pay for any local call costs, just a flat monthly fee.

ADSL which is being provided by Australia's largest telecommunications carrier "Telstra" provides high speed access at up to 1.5 Mbps, many times fater than analogue modems, but using the standard phone line. You still pay for the cost of the call though each time you connect.
However, at present not many areas of the country are covered yet with this new technology. I was told by Telstra that in the next 3 years, 90% of homes will have access though. This seems the way most people will access the net in the near future.

Although cable and satellite are also popular.

As for ISP costs, you can get free access through companies like "freeonline", but are limited to certain web sites. They give you a limited 3 hours a day to access the Net for any site you want. Howver you can elect to pay AUD$20 per month and get unlimited access.

Access charges in Oz vary from zero dollars to $37 per month for say 150 - 200 hours in bulk.
Some charge a flat hourly rate, anywhere between $1 and $7 per hour online.

However.... You get what you pay for. With the smaller ISPs, they are cheaper, but perforamnce may be lacking and often you are sitting in front of your monitor waiting for things to happen (slow access), due to their limited bandwidth to the Internet backbone.

I've tried many ISPs, and have found the largest carrier "Telstra" to offer the best access and bandwidth using standard modem access.

Warmest Regards

Ricky Higgs




Sell Your Brain On The Net

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.

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.