Internode claims first 'true terabyte' plan

Stephen Withers
Monday, 06 September 2010 09:41

Your IT - Home IT

There's been a recent rash of ISP plans offering a monthly data quota of a terabyte or more. Now Internode claims it has the first "true" terabyte plan.

Spin, iiNet, TPG and Primus are among the ISPs that have recently announced plans offering at least one terabyte of data per month. Others, such as Optus, have for some time offered 'unlimited' plans that are subject to speed limiting after the quota is reached.

But something all these have in common is that they differentiate between peak and off-peak use, with a portion - perhaps the majority - of the quota  being restricted to the small hours. Optus has a relatively generous definition of off-peak (midnight to midday), whereas others are more stingy. TPG, for example, restricts off-peak use to 2am to 8am. That company does also offer an unlimited ADSL2+ plan with no quota and no peak hours, but with only "limited coverage availability at selected TPG exchanges".

Another wrinkle that makes it tricky to compare plans is that some quotas only apply to downloads (ie, all data flowing to the customer), while others count data flowing in either direction. This means two customers with different patterns of use may come to very different conclusions about the value for money offered by a particular plan.

For those who don't want to worry about the time when using their Internet connection, Internode has revised its Easy plans to increase data quotas without imposing off-peak periods.

The company's five Easy plans - marketed with T-shirt sizing - start with the 100GB Easy S ($A59.95) and rise to the 1TB XXXL ($A159.95). A $A10 discount is applied when an Easy plan is bundled with an Internode phone service. Naked DSL versions of the plans are also available.

The Easy plans aren't available everywhere - see page 2.