🚀 go-pugleaf

The WA Internet Association just released this press-release. They're
having a meeting in Perth's QV1 building conference facility this
afternoon to discuss action within the industry at 3pm if anyone in
Perth is interested. They're also trying to organise a webcast of it
(due to requests).



MEDIA RELEASE - WA INTERNET ASSOCIATION - 18 February 2004
----------------------------------------------------------

The WA Internet Association today condemned Telstra's new ADSL account
as bad for consumers and bad for competition.

The new account, a broadband Internet account for a monthly fee of
$29.95, is a devastating blow to competition in the Internet industry
because it is cheaper than the wholesale ADSL service Telstra sells to
its competitors. Other ISPs cannot match the price without suffering a
loss on every account. Due to the control Telstra exerts over the
"copper pair" to every home, almost all ADSL services sold in Australia
are supplied by Telstra. Other ISPs have to pay Telstra a fee in excess
of $40 per month to supply ADSL services to customers.

WAIA spokesperson Charlie Stephens said today "The Australian ISP
industry is reeling in shock after Telstra Bigpond's announcement. There
are two key issues to be considered here - fair competition by the
incumbent telecommunucations provider and also fairness to the
consumer."

The cheap ADSL account offered by Telstra has a sting in the tail - free
downloads cease at 200 megabytes per month, and all traffic thereafter
is billed at 15 cents per megabyte. Mr Stephens said: "Inexperienced
users could find it difficult to monitor and control their Internet
traffic usage, and be surprised by large download bills each month. For
example, watching a single 700 megabyte movie would cost $105. Viruses
and spam can also lead to unexpected traffic bills, and it is unfair to
consumers to promote an account which charges a massive premium on
downloads.

Mr Stephens said that many WAIA ISP members provided unlimited free
traffic through the WA Internet Exchange and also provided much more
generous monthly download limits. While no WA ISP can offer a broadband
account at the Telstra price, due to Telstra's charges to its
competitors, the accounts offered by WAIA members were better value for
money and did not have such high penalty rates for excess downloads. Mr
Stephens urged consumers to carefully examine the terms and conditions
of any ADSL account as these varied markedly from one ISP to another.

"WAIA will be making a formal complaint to the ACCC and the
Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman on behalf of its members, and in
the meantime calls on Telstra to immediately and significantly reduce
the wholesale price of ADSL services to its competitors."

END

Background:

The WA Internet Association Incorporated is a non-profit association for
the benefit of Internet users, businesses and service providers. It was
incorporated in 1995 and its website is www.waia.asn.au. WAIA operates
the WA Internet Exchange ("WAIX") which allows WA ISPs to exchange huge
volumes of data at nominal cost and provides cheap wholesale bandwidth
to smaller WA ISPs.

Telstra's new product is featured at http://bigpond.com/announcement/
and is due to commence on the 27th February, 2004.

Media Spokesperson : Mr Charlie Stephens	phone 0417 989 686
		     email cstephens@platinumcalling.com.au
		     
WAIX manager : Mr Gavin Tweedie 		phone 9322 3022
	       email Gavin.Tweedie@waia.asn.au
	       
WAIA President : Mr Kimberley Heitman		phone 0439 938 233
                 email kheitman@kheitman.com


-- 
Paul Day      Web: www.bur.st/~bonfire      GPG Key ID: 2EF4ED23