gehenna:Screeb: There's a potential problem with this... net neutrality. If TelstraClear (or any other ISP) makes a commercial deal with Apple to remove the data usage, then it breaks net neutrality, because it disadvantages iTunes' competitors. I don't think the ComCom would be too happy about that.
I think you're on the wrong track. Lots of ISPs offer free local/national traffic. Our business plan has free national traffic 24/7 and free international off-peak. ISP's are in competition with each other and its this type of competitive service that ensures their success in the market. I see what you're saying about net neutrality but I'm not sure it applies here. As far as I'm concerned, servers based within NZ SHOULD provide better service than those overseas. After all, we can pretty much guarantee speeds within the country. Once we leave our shores we're at the mercy of the international pipes. ISPs should be supporting those services within NZ. If we were being offered a guaranteed Mbps rate to a server in Australia or Europe or America, THEN i'd be a bit wary of the net neutrality argument.
You misunderstand. If it was just free national traffic (ALL national traffic), then that's perfectly fine by anyone's standards. My comment was referring to free traffic for iTunes explicitly.
morat:
I disagree. While I can see where you're coming from, I think this would be more akin to a web based company ensuring that visitors to its site get a better experience by buying a bigger pipe to the net.
There is an exchange of data occuring between iTunes and the customer. Only one end of the link is being charged for this exchange, and no changes are being made to any other site's service.
Net neutrality is only broken if you're paying to improve your service _at the expense of others_. If you pay extra to get better service with no impact on anyone else, this is perfectly normal.
I guess you're right. I still have a feeling it goes against net neutrality just a little bit though. It essentially creates a tiered internet, where the big players are able to afford to pay ISPs to deliver a superior service, meanwhile for the smaller ones it's uneconomical because their customers will have to pay for the data. I dunno, maybe that's not against net neutrality. I just wish that ALL traffic (or at least all national traffic) was unlimited.
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