[Solar-general] Introduction of metered ADSL in Argentina causes nerd rage

[gerardobdiaz en arnet.com.ar]

Introduction of metered ADSL in Argentina causes nerd rage 

Telecom Argentina orders: Pay per gigabyte


By Fernando Cassia in Argentina: Miércoles 03 Noviembre 2004, 09:40

Their communication with people from all over the world and access to most information resources are not going to show up itemized on a long-distance bill, because the leased lines or network links are already paid for\". \"The Internet Companion\" Tracy LaQuey, fw Al Gore, 1992
THE TWO BIGGEST telcos in Argentina that still control most of the basic telecommunications infrastructure are preparing to start metering broadband access and impose transfer quotas on their broadband ADSL customers. 

The company serving largely the northern half of the country has taken the first step. Financially troubled Telecom Argentina, originally owned by Telecom Italia and France Telecom, and now with the French stake replaced largely by the local \"Werthein Group\", said last weekend it will double broadband speeds for all subscribers, and keeping the same prices. That means that customers who were paying for 256K will be migrated to 512K, those that pay for 512K will get one megabit, and those rich enough to afford a megabit link will get their speeds increased to two megabits. Upstream speeds will also be increased for those with speeds above a megabit to 256k from the previous paltry 128k. 

The company is giving out under the plan four gigabytes per month of transfer quota for the lower speeds, and eight gigabytes for the more expensive plans. The extra bandwidth usage charges will start to be billed in mid-2005, and the company expects to have an online \"bandwidth log\" site so customers can login and check their own bandwidth usage working around Q1 2005.

Under the scheme, users who exceed the quota must pay at a rate of around $20 pesos per gigabyte, including taxes (approximately $6.7). Telefonica de Argentina, while still silent on this, is expected to follow suit with a similar plan. 

Broadband ISPs in Canada, the USA and the UK are - to my knowledge - respecting the \"all you can eat\" tradition of not measuring data transfer volumes by their residential customers. Imagine if the FTTH (Fiber to the Home) being deployed in the US came with bandwidth quotas and charges per GB. 

Telecom\'s site has a FAQ file -in Flash format like the rest of the site - explaining the new scheme. It tells users that this measure is taken to provide \"egalitarian access to all out customers\" (sic) and that metered payment is \"the only worldwide used option to provide performance and quality of service to broadband customers\". 

Of course, a side effect of this move is to punish peer-to-peer users. But law abiding customers will be hurt as well. Have these brains looked at the size of a linux distro these days?. In the case of SuSE or Sun\'s latest JDS distro, it\'s six CDs to get the basic set, and up to 10 CDs if you want to get the whole shebang. That would mean local users who download a Linux distro would be left with around 400MB of bandwidth to use during the whole month for other assorted downloads, downloading e-mail, pictures, or visiting \"heavy\" flash infested sites like the telcos\' own. 

The death of unmetred broadband puts a question mark over the future of broadband internet access in Argentina. While deregulated in theory, this is a highly concentrated market dominated by the two incumbents. The local telcos own the copper loops, and they lease their respective \"IP backbones\" and infrastructure to competing broadband ISPs. 

Despite the fierce but geographically limited competition from cable TV providers and their \"cable modem\" service, it\'s the incumbents Telecom and Telefonica who still hold the keys to the \"last mile\" to the customers when it comes to DSL service. 

Another administration back in 2000 had ambitious plans for deregulation and total competition, even hinting about plans to set the rules for phone number portability and \"local loop unbundling\" - meaning the copper line going from every phone to the phone switch would belong to the customer rather than the company, letting customers easily choose to which company to connect the other end. That administration ended up escaping on a helicopter in late 2001. µ

See Also
Broadband in Argentina 100x slower than Japan and Sweden
Broadband in Argentina now only 50x slower than Japan
Expocomm Argentina 2004 coverage
European Union hearing on local loop unbundling



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