Rant on the Internet cap in Oz

I must say I was absolutely flabbergasted by how ridiculous is the capping on Internet in Oz (and how shocking unclear and deceiving is marketing downunder in this sector). I recently moved to Australia after living in Eastern Europe for few years. Living in Prague, I had an unlimited broadband connection provided by the country’s biggest telco. No caps, nothing, and at a ridiculous price comparing with what we have here (even after taking into account the PPI). I lived in many Western countries, and basically had used Internet since mid 90′s so I still remember pay by time on dialups. I remember how constrained my Internet usage was back then, and getting on an unlimited dsl connection by the beginning of the century was like catching a deep breath after swimming underwater.

I think that people miss a subtle point while discussing the cap in Australia. You are shooting yourself in the leg, by constraining the use of this medium to the users. The argument, that on average people are not actually using that much is not valid, because Australians actually never had a situation without a cap. So you DON’T know how larger the usage, and the active participation in the creation of this medium would be if there weren’t any caps. So you don’t know how much MORE value can be extracted through smarter means than just paying for the tickets to the movies

For short term this is a very viable strategy, which I understand: Australia is a relatively small country with rich people, so you want to extract as much value per customer as possible. But what’s the long-term strategy?. How long will we be able to maintain this, while the rest of the world is moving forward?

If Bigpond thinks that it will survive under the umbrella of “unmetered”, it’s mad. You need competition to learn… Funny that post-communist countries have figured it out already…

Tell me why I am wrong.