Yes – it’s a message that we here in Australia are all too used to seeing. Most ISPs here offer their broadband in various speed limited / capped plans to rip us off even more. I’m with Telstra Bigpond and my billing cycle starts on 10th of the month. Due to Telstra monopoly over the phone exchanges they are the ONLY ONES that I can use to get DSL2 + here at home. I’ve tried unsuccessfully but we are on a RIM exchange and ONLY TELSTRA can do this due to their internal policies.
I’ve been ill the last few days with a massive chest/throat infection and today the day that Sydney is gripped by the fiercest dust storm in history, I’m now forced to head out to client sites to do work that I could have done from home… all due to Telstras billing practices.
Oh – yes – I do have an option.. I can increase my plan from the 12GB per month – which BTW is both upload AND download, to 25GB. Therefore my monthly cost will now be $109 per month…(I have a static IP which they charge and extra $10 for per month. And once I increase my plan I canNOT decrease it therefore being FORCED to stay on the higher charges.
People wonder if Cloud computing will take off here in Australia, whilst there are predatory billing practices like this from our largest telco and whilst they own the majority of the communications infrastructure then no – it’s a dead duck. No business person in their right mind is going to move everything to the cloud whilst things like this exist.
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