Aussie Network Engineers Form Members-Only ISP 66
schliz writes "A group of Australian network engineers is planning to launch a not-for-profit internet service provider that will provide access to the nation's high-speed NBN fibre network for like-minded people. The cooperative, dubbed 'No ISP,' has no staff or add-on services to keep costs down. Members will be able to 'trade' excess download quota for a market-based price, depending on supply and demand."
Re:I'd sign up in a second if I lived in .au (Score:3, Insightful)
Just wondering though, what would one really do with 100Mbps, analyze all LHC data ?
p0rn. Terabytes and Terabytes of pr0n.
How about removing the faux caps? (Score:4, Insightful)
I suspect what essentially amounts to price fixing is going on with the ISP's in Oz.
The cost to carry data is no where near the profit earned by instituting the caps and the charges for going over. Surely in a natural market the price would be lower, reflecting the cost and allowing for a profit, but not an obscene profit.
For a 1st world country having the caps they do is pretty pathetic. There is little excuse for it, and "people in the know" should do something about it.
Re:It's just not economically feasible (Score:3, Insightful)
You must be kidding. Providing internet service is insanely high margin once the lines are in place. I seriously doubt they are planning to drop new fibre or any other high capital infrastructure investments. I'm sure they will be riding on mostly existing infrastructure, especially the last mile.
I think this is where a lot of European localities get it right: Layer 1 is owned by the government (municipal, province/state, etc.) or a neutral/non-profit third-party. The competition occurs at Layer 3 of the stack.