John Linton ........finally seem to be filtering through to end users other than Exetel's.
At least that seems to be the case according to this announcement from AAPT:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27581/53/
12 hours unlimited use from 8 pm to 8 am is certainly a really useful innovation in the boring "meeee toooo" Australian ISP marketplace - something that Exetel has been trying to put in place over the past 5 plus years - but has failed to do. I also thought the 8 am to 8 pm period was a real first and it appears to me that AAPT are trying really hard to do something really different - and that may be the case - but as I couldn't find this new offer on their web site I'm not sure about some of the details and the 'base price' of $A89.95 (plus a $A30.00 telephone line rental? plus some bundled call costs?) does seem to be very, very high for a 'family' user. Also 5 gb of 'peak' usage allowance seems out of 'kilter' with a user paying so much for internet usage.
Irrespective of how all of those details pan out it is very definitely an innovation in a marketplace not known for anything but slavish copying. Doubtless their parent company's ownership of 50% of Southern Cross has heavily influenced this 'brave' decision but, from what I read, it seems Telecom NZ is using heavy traffic management and a lot of proxying to make their unlimited offers in NZ (including 24 hour unlimited). It's unfortunate that I'm on holidays because Exetel have been looking at new plans that both restore the 12 hour free download period and move it to a different time frame - coincidentally the same as AAPT is now offering - 8 to 8. Our proposed version was 12 hours unlimited BUT no P2P/Rapidshare/Etc from 8 pm to 2 am with heavy P2P constraints in that period but no constraints on P2P in the 2 am to 8 am period.....or something like that.
These sorts of considerations have become possible as the price of IP bandwidth continues to fall and the innovations in splitting bandwidth pricing continue to permeate the more conservative of carriers who offer IP services. AAPT seem to be stressing that this is a 'family' oriented plan structure and that makes a lot of sense, except for the price, as if it were to be used by the sort of users who seem to have taken up the earlier version of this type of AAPT plan then it might be some sort of problem, if not for AAPT with their 50% of SX bandwidth, then certainly for companies like Exetel. I would think that a 'family' plan would need to be around $A60.00 a month (plus some cost for a telephone line) with 'unlimited' downloads 24 x 7 - with P2P etc "banned" except for the period 2 am to 8 am each day.
I am enthusiastic about providing such plans to 'real' users and see that it is one of the sensible approaches to getting rid of the false premises that have been in place since 2002 due to Telstra's methods of first offering 'broadband'. Since those early days every subsequent ISP who entered the market for providing ADSL services (even now many ISPs use their own back hauls and their own DSLAMs) still slavishly adhere to a charge for the basic service and a separate charge for data downloaded, and in the really sad ISP cases, data uploaded. The only barrier we have seen, and we have seen it consistently for getting on for 6 years, is the growing number of "15 year olds" who use their parent's ADSL to download ludicrous amounts of data. Doubtless these dummies represent less than 5% (probably far less than 5%) of all broad band users in Australia but they are the bane of the industry generally (not just Exetel) and play a large part in offers such as the new AAPT plan in fact having may usage constraints.
So while my heart is much closer to thinking in terms of 'unlimited' internet my head remains focussed of the d***head factor that makes such offers very dangerous. I was heartened by AAPT's bravery though as they undoubtedly, via their parent and their previous iteration of 'unlimited plans' have become comfortable that they can control, perhaps even eliminate, the d***head factor in trying to provide a good internet product, simply and at a really good price (well, they haven't done the really good price bit yet but it's only a matter of time).
I will be interested in finding ut all of the other details as they become available and also what companies such as TPG do in response over the rest of September and hope that by the time Exetel get around to releasing our version(s) of "unlimited" plans there is some space left for us to 'innovate'.