Just days after Telstra's chief technology officer, Dr Hugh Bradlow, told a media conference that a lot of cheap broadband offerings are 'snake-oil', MediaWeb has partnered with Datafast to offer the high-data plans.
-I think [the comments were] a bit reckless because he's basically saying anyone who's small is a risk," MediaWeb's CEO Luke Connell told ZDNet Australia. -I disagree with that. I think it's a minority of the entire industry...customers should always, when looking for broadband, check that there is nothing in the contract that says they can't complain to the TIO."
-I'm not offering a ten dollar product and promising the world; I'm offering the same price structure as everyone else but with more data," said Connell. The plans are a one year pre-paid service for 256K/64K ADSL access.
For AU$599.40 (AU$49.95/month) users get 500MB of peak usage and 4.5GB of off-peak usage, and AU$719.40 (59.95/month) adds an extra 500MB of peak usage. Peak times are defined as between 7am and 11.59pm. Extra usage is bought in blocks at AU$33/500MB peak and AU$22/MB off-peak.
For peak usage MediaWeb's offer is similar to other offers from major ISPs. The distinguishing factor is the large amount of off-peak data available.
Connell believes his offer will benefit heavy users, especially university students who often download movies or play games late at night, as they can arrange heavy downloads to occur in the off-peak period. -People are always arguing over whether it's high prices or lack of content that's holding back broadband uptake," said Connell. "The facts are the prices aren't so bad, it's the data that's included that's the problem."
Connell describes himself as a broker, and said the customers contract is with Datafast, so if MediaWeb goes out of business the contract will be honoured.
The guy in the story is correct. The cost of broadband and the way in which Australian providor want to squeeze every cent they can out of subscriber is the reason more ppl aren't connecting.....
Telstra being my point in case.. I was just about to sign a contract with them last year when they did the dirty on subscribers... needless to say I backed out, not only from their broadband service, I also dropped them as my dial up ISP.. I know someone out there has some ethics.... hopefully!!