I am becoming more and more concerned with Net Neutrality in the world, as well as in my home country Australia.

 

As you may be aware net neutrality refers to the openness of the internet and the fact that no-one gets priority over anyone else. However many ISP’s and telcos now think they can make a little extra money by charging companies to prioritise their traffic, making it much faster than other sites. Imagine if for example a online bookshop with bags of money decided to pay for quick access, clients would naturally go to this service and neglect say a company like Amazon. Great business for the telcos, as they basically force anyone who can afford it to spend more on their connections.

 

One way to get involved in this process is to make sure that you don’t endorse a telco/ISP that is promoting this practise, by giving them your business. So I decided to do a quick survey of Australian ISP’s to see which were the best, and which the worst. I did this by sending them the following message via their website: -

 

 

The answers I got from the Australian ISP’s are depressing in their lack of knowledge, and ignorance of the issue. These are as follows: -

 

“I have read your email and understand your concerns. As yet BigPond does not have a policy on net neutrality. Generally the policies and procedures BigPond and Telstra follow are established by the communications regulatory body's within Australia and government directives that may be imposed upon the communication industry in general.

 

Optusnet - No idea how you even contact them

 

tpg - No policy, but my personal favourite

“As of this stage we do not offer Net Neutrality plans, but the ADSL/ADSL2+ plans that we currently offer on the website are very suitable for all customers depending on their usages. “

 

iiNet (iHug) - Uncertain

“To assist you further we would need you to call” xxxxxx “to clarify exactly what questions you would like answered.”

 

iPrimus - No Response

This one worried me as they are my ISP!

 

dodo - No Response

 

All in all this is depressing. Pull up your socks Australian ISP’s and take the right stance.

 

As for me, I might be taking up the offer from tpg and getting one of their Net Neutrality plans when it comes out!