Ann Moffatt, a former member of an International Standards Organisation (ISO) committee testing the service in the Wide Bay region of Queensland, believes it is priced unrealistically for those living in rural and regional Australia.
Customers located in regional areas where cable and ADSL is unavailable but outside extended zones -- where the Federal Government has been working with Telstra to introduce untimed local calls -- may pay up to four times as much other Australians for broadband.
Telstra provides three price plans to customers inside extended zones: 31kbps with 150MB download for AU$17 per month; 64kbps and 250MB download at AU$44 per month; or a 400kbps link and 1GB download for AU$60.50 per month. Additional traffic costs 26.4 cents per megabyte.
Telstra classes other parts of regional Australia, such as Wide Bay, as standard zones. Wide Bay customers can expect to pay AU$120 per month for a 64kbps satellite link and 300MB of download; a 512kbps link will cost them AU$240 per month with a 1GB download allowance.
A BigPond residential cable connection with a 1GB monthly download allowance costs around AU$64.95 per month.
"AU$60 per month is very expensive for someone living in rural Australia, especially if you're a farmer living on the breadline," Moffat said.
Garry Goldsworthy, product manger at Telstra Country Wide, wouldn't comment directly on the equity of the pricing scheme but said that it was necessary to ensure the continuation of Satellite services in extended zones.
It is widely agreed, timed locals calls have placed citizens in extended zones at a serious cost-disadvantage compared to their metropolitan peers.
The Federal Government has been working closely with Telstra to introduce untimed calls in extended zones, providing AU$150 million in funding.
Goldsworthy said the pricing scheme has been beneficial for Telstra lifting data traffic off its customer access network in extended zones. It has helped the Telco honour commitments it gave to the Federal Government that it would provide untimed call tarrfis in the regions.
Australian Commnication Authority board member Allan Horsley said residents of the extended zones effectively receive a subsidy for the satellite service but that the Government is going to have look beyond those regions soon.
"[Extended zones] have been the hole in the doughnut and they've been looked after, it's the ring of the doughnut that now needs attention," said Horsely.
Moffatt believes that while salaries in the bush are lower the need for broadband Internet service is higher. She said that broadband Internet could help fill regional service gaps left as more banks close branches and medical services become more scarce.
It's a situation that has touched Moffatt personally. Her daughter, a new mother, recently drove drove her new-born 140 kilometres to gain access to a doctor for what turned out to be minor medical concern. Moffatt believes the situation could have been avoided through the use of simple Internet video conferencing technology.
Horsely agreed that the bush has a special need for broadband technology.
"[Telecommunication] assumes a greater personal importance in the bush because they're miles from anywhere," he said.
Horsely added that broadband could open e-commerce to the agricultural sector and promote efficiencies in rural-based industries.
b is for bit, B is for byte. Telstra plans have download limits set in Bytes. Get it right.