UPDATE: Telstra introduces uncapped broadband plans - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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UPDATE: Telstra introduces uncapped broadband plans

By Staff writers, ZDNet Australia
December 08, 2003
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/UPDATE-Telstra-introduces-uncapped-broadband-plans/0,130061791,120281720,00.htm

Australia's largest Internet service provider, Telstra BigPond, has bowed to customer pressure and released unlimited usage plans for high-speed Internet.

The Internet provider -- which has a customer base of around 1.5 million -- has introduced unlimited usage options among a series of plans designed to secure greater favour among customers who "don't want to worry about usage limits and additional charges".

The unlimited usage plans are available with either 256/64 or 512/128 kbps download for ADSL and uncapped speeds for cable.

BigPond has come under almost constant pressure from broadband activists to remove caps on its high-speed Internet plans, while it must also win back favour among a customer base burnt by the e-mail brown-out over October and November.

The move came after BigPond managing director, Justin Milne, recently issued a note to customers in which he outlined measures to improve e-mail services from this month and beyond.

Milne said the carrier was establishing a spam-monitoring team which it expected "will be able to identify about 60 percent of spam as it enters the network".

It is also installing a new mail platform which it expects all customers to be transitioned to by mid-2004, while a range of upgrades has boosted the mail system's capacity by 70 percent.

On the new BigPond plans, Milne, said existing customers could transfer from their old contracts to the new ones -- which start from AU$69.95 per month -- free of charge and stay on their existing contract term.

However, Milne cautioned that "in order to provide the best broadband experience to all of our customers," BigPond may slow an unlimited usage plan customers' speed to 64 kbps after they reach 10 GB of usage in a month.

He said BigPond was also introducing a pay-as-you-go plan -- starting from AU$39.95 per month, available on a 24-month contract, with all usage charged at 19.9 cents per MB on top of the monthly price.

The carrier has eliminated its three and 18-month contract terms under the arrangements in favour of 24-month deals.