[plug] isp

[Harry McNally]

At 05:38  20/12/01 +0800, Leon wrote:
>On Wednesday 19 December 2001 22:25, Nathan Alberti wrote:
> > WAIX traffic is not free, although it is very cheap. The upkeep of this
> > equipment is also minimal (or at least it should be) so you would think
> > that it should not be included in monthly totals...this is assuming they
> > are able to differentiate between this and other traffic at the point of
> > billing.
>
>EfTel nee Q-Net charge 2c/MB for WAIX traffic.

Has anyone noticed the Western Power broadband trial in South Perth ?

See: http://www.brightonline.com.au

Western Power are pitching broadband as a digital television, video on 
demand, and Internet _delivery_ pipe (and phone services) in that order as 
far as I can tell.

I tried to offer comment on Monday and the online form timed out (trying to 
reach an M+M mail server I think .. not sure) then their email contact 
bounced (Host unknown). I sent an email to the WesternPower bloke which 
basically asked:

"
Given that at least five houses in my street have IT people running a home 
office, will there be any evaluation of the broadband service for serving 
web content, hosting mail lists etc, rather than simply a receive only 
network ?

Why is the perception that Internet technologies must be marketed as a 
glitzy extension to existing broadcast media ? Telstra have tried this with 
Foxtel cable and decided not to provide cable modem access because of 
limited take-up in Perth.

I'd willingly volunteer as a trial participant but I'm unfortunately not in 
the trial zone. What I would prefer is fixed IP and unlimited traffic to 
WAIX participants.

I'd welcome some comment about the expected outcomes of the trial both 
technically and commercially.

Good luck
Harry McNally
"

Unless wireless becomes ubiquitous [0] Western Power looks to me like our 
last chance to get some broadband competition. Is it just me that thinks 
they are simply repeating the efforts of the last cable rollout ?

Any PLUGers got the time to make their own comments to Western Power ?

Also, please heckle if you think I'm wrong :)

cu
Harry

[0]  <- Pete's trick
"Mesh radio" can deliver super-fast internet for all
A new type of high-capacity wireless network called mesh radio will get its 
first users early in 2002.  It will let them watch movies on demand, hold 
broadcast-quality video chats with their neighbours, and download from the 
internet at a blistering four megabits per second - many times the speed of 
wired broadband delivery systems like ADSL and cable modems.
See 
<http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991593>http://www.newscien 
tist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991593