Sydney-siders are being offered unlimited broadband downloads via a flyer handed out on city streets. The company advertised on the flyer is barekoala, previously a dial-up supplier.
The company is offering a AU$99 per month flat rate 256/64 Kbps ADSL access with "no volume cap, no download charges". There is a AU$199 set-up charge and 12 month contract if the company loans you a modem, and AU$150 set-up charge and six month contract if you bring your own. A 512K/128K line is advertised at AU$149 per month and 1.5M/256K line goes for AU$299 per month.
The flyer also offers a free beer at a local café.
Despite strident demand for uncapped downloads ever since Telstra capped downloads in 2001, many industry pundits claimed it was unfeasible to offer uncapped broadband access.
However, companies are beginning to come back to the market with offerings of uncapped, unthrottled (where the speed is reduced to restrict downloads) broadband Internet. The barekoala site claims it is backed by aussie.net and IP Exchange, although none of these companies had contact details on their sites when ZDNet Australia checked.
Barekoala is joined by Ion Internet, another ISP offering unlimited downloads over 256K/64K DSL for AU$99 per month. OzForces, which targets the computer gaming industry, has indicated it plans to offer uncapped plans with monthly fees starting at AU$79 per month by the end of the month.
Geoff Johnson, research director of networking and telecom for Gartner Asia Pacific, told ZDNet Australia that whether an "all you can eat" broadband offering was commercially viable depended on how the business was structured.
"You need significant volumes to make it pay its way," said Johnson. "The trade-off you make with an all you can eat plan is you need a minimum income." Johnson pointed out the cost for the unlimited download plans were significantly higher than for a capped plan, and suggested users check how much data they download before opting for it.
Aardvark Internet are offering 35Gb of download per month for AU$79.95 per month. Whether uncapped plans are here to stay or not, it seems the cost of bandwidth is finally coming down.
It’s about bloody time. Hopefully more broadband ISP's follow suite.