Annoying usage caps, allowances, and consumption billing irritate broadband users in those places where Internet Overcharging is established.  But the demand by consumers for unlimited broadband is so strong, some ISPs are giving way, looking for competitive edges that can win them new customers and keep the ones they already have happy.

Orcon, a DSL provider serving New Zealand, has announced it is exempting visits to YouTube from its data allowance until the end of January 2010.

“YouTube is one of the hottest properties on the web – with an almost endless supply of content. It makes up a big chunk of our customer-base’s usage every month. With the school holidays looming and the festive season in full swing we’re expecting a big uptake from our customers,” said Orcon chief executive Scott Bartlett.  “Streaming and downloading can rapidly chew through gigabytes of data so these holidays mums and dads can rest assured their data cap won’t take a beating. It is also a great opportunity for families to make and share their own holiday home movies with friends and family around the world.”

Orcon presently exempts several domestic websites, including TV New Zealand, from its usage allowance.  YouTube is one of the first international sites Orcon has exempted.

Orcon services its customers over the telephone network using ADSL and, in selected areas, ADSL2+ which provides service theoretically up to 24Mbps.

For Orcon customers, any streaming video exemption is good news, considering the ISP’s tiny usage allowances.

Orcon charges prices that would shock Americans:

Orcon’s Purple Plan provides a variable download speed (often 8Mbps or less downstream) and 128kbps upstream service with a 1GB monthly usage allowance for $29US a month.  Each additional gigabyte costs $1.50.  Their Platinum Plan doesn’t provide additional speed, just a bigger usage allowance.  For 20GB of usage per month, prepare to spend $95 per month.  Domestic long distance and local calling is also included in the Platinum Plan.  Orcon’s new ADSL2+ network is even more pricey, but can deliver faster speeds (12-15Mbps seem to be real world ranges for downstream).  The usage allowance is slightly higher on the ADSL2+ network, but not by much.  The highest allowance available tops out at 25GB.

[flv width=”640″ height=”405″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Orcon Broadband Iggy Pop Ad 11-16-09.flv[/flv]

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p style=”text-align: center;”>Orcon Broadband ran an advertising campaign to find eight New Zealanders to help Iggy Pop re-record ‘The Passenger’ live via Orcon Broadband.  This is the result. (November 16, 2009 – 2 minutes)

"PPC-1" - Pipe Network's new fiber link opens this week

Ongoing connectivity issues and lack of competition continue to leave Australians with expensive, slow, and usage-limited broadband service.

This week, Pipe Networks will make a small dent in improving international connectivity when it activates its new PPC-1 fiber link between Sydney and the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific. The project, first envisioned in December 2006, took nearly three years to complete at a cost of more than $175 million U.S. dollars, and has a design capacity of 1.92Tb/s run over two fiber pairs.

Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said Pipe Networks, along with others “would help to reduce this problem and will therefore provide ISPs with better prices,” which was supposed to result in a lifting of Internet Overcharging schemes like usage caps.

Not so fast.

Broadband providers in Australia have taken notice of Pipe Networks’ new pipeline, but many have not lowered prices or removed usage caps.  The lack of competition has kept a price war from taking place.  Ovum senior telecommunications analyst David Kennedy told Australian IT that without a price incentive, a lot of customers, particularly those served by Optus and Telstra, are unlikely to switch providers.

ADSL2+ Speeds drop dramatically the further away you live from the phone company's switching office

One DSL provider in Australia, Internode, has made some changes to its service offerings in response to the new fiber link.  The Adelaide-based company has simplified some of its service plans, cut the price of small office/home office pricing by about $9 per month, and increased the paltry usage cap on its Easy Broadband plan from 30GB per month to 50GB per month.  Internode’s Easy Broadband charges $44 a month for DSL service at 1.5Mbps/256kbps,  or in areas upgraded to ADSL2+ service, up to 24Mbps/1Mbps.  Actual speed on the latter service is highly dependent on how far away you live from the telephone company local switching office.

Internode chief executive Pat Tapper doesn’t think PPC-1 will make a huge difference for his company.

Internode sells "data blocks" for consumers intending to exceed their allowance.

“In the whole scheme of things the PPC-1 circuit doesn’t represent a huge spend in terms of what it costs to run the network. It will change a little bit in terms of our overall cost but only a very small amount,” he said.

“What it does give us is the ability to deliver more capacity to customers in downloads.”

That means a larger usage cap, but not cheaper pricing.

Internode customers that exceed the cap can purchase additional usage blocks, at pricing starting at $2.20 per gigabyte.

The west was won with higher upload speed.

Qwest, one of the nation’s largest telephone companies serving the western half of the United States, has proven that telephone company broadband need not be stuck in the past with slow and unreliable DSL speeds. Today, the company announced it was unveiling new super fast upload speed tiers for its entire lineup of broadband plans.  During the promotional period, current subscribers with a 7, 12, or 20Mbps download tier can upgrade to 5Mbps upload speed for $5 more a month.  That upload speed is far faster than what cable companies are providing customers across Qwest’s service area.

Neil E. Cox, executive vice president of Qwest Product and IT emphasized the growing importance of upload speeds for consumers.

“Faster download speeds are important, but upload speeds are getting more attention. By increasing connection speeds in both directions, Qwest is poised to support user-generated content and simultaneous high-bandwidth applications, like multiple online video streams and downloads or multiple players of online video games,” Cox said.

The company also announced a new super fast 40Mbps download and 20Mbps upload tier in selected cities.

Amy Lind, IDC Research Manager, Consumer Broadband and Mobile Services said that consumers are clamoring for faster speed and their research shows customers aren’t simply passively accessing web content any longer.

“Broadband providers have primarily focused on download speeds because, until recently, the Internet has been mostly a source for content, especially online video. Now, as more people create and share their own content, upload speeds have become increasingly important,” she said.

“Qwest has recognized this rapidly growing user-generated content trend and is encouraging the evolving Internet habits of its customers by adding new broadband tiers that emphasize upstream speeds,” Lind added.

The upgrades are possible because Qwest is deploying VDSL2 technology, a modern version of DSL, across its service area.  The technology works over a combination fiber optic/copper wire telephone network.  As long as a neighborhood is reached with a fiber optic line, VDSL2 can work over existing telephone wiring in the home.  Consumers subscribing to the service are provided with an Actiontec® Wireless VDSL2/ADSL2+/2 Universal DSL Wireless Gateway (modem).  The company warns that although the service is very fast, download and upload speeds will be up to 15% lower “due to network requirements and may vary for reasons such as customer location, Web sites accessed, Internet congestion and customer equipment.”

Pricing of Qwest’s New Speed Offerings

40 Mbps download with 5 Mbps upload, $99.99 a month for the first 12 months when combined with a qualifying home phone package.
40 Mbps download with 20 Mbps upload, $109.99 a month for the first 12 months when combined with a qualifying home phone package.
An introductory rate of $5 more a month for qualified customers with 7 Mbps, 12 Mbps or 20 Mbps speed tiers who upgrade to 5 Mbps upstream speeds.

A fact sheet is available with more information about the upgrade.

Read more and see a company video below the break.

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