myONE blocks peer-to-peer on "unlimited" broadband

By Ry Crozier on Oct 28, 2009 2:08 PM
Filed under Telco/ISP

Definitions called into question.

myONE has become the latest ISP to offer "unlimited" broadband services in Australia but it will block peer-to-peer, IRC and newsgroup access across all plans.

The ISP was launched yesterday by sub-wholesaler ispONE as a separate retail entity.

It already has about 38,000 customers from acquisitions of the ISP arm of Country Energy, CE Internet and specialist ISP TADAust that services seniors, veterans and the disabled.

ispONE managing director Zac Swindells said its strategy would centre on "unlimited web plans".

"[But] we won't allow IRC protocols or P2P and the same goes for newsgroups. We're completely blocking [them and] make no apologies for that," Swindells said.

"The luxury of owning a network is you can see what types of traffic go through it. I've got a lot of ISP customers that advocate and defend the right to use P2P. The sooner people understand [P2P] is not a market you want, the better for everyone."

The main reason for blocking the protocols was to prevent customers from being burdened by what Swindells said was a small minority of heavy users that frequented unlimited plans.

"What bothers me is the times and places people do it," Swindells said.

"Between 4pm and 11pm is the peak period and people jumping onto the internet want a good experience. If you have people sucking down enormous amounts of data in that period it's detrimental to everyone."

Swindells said the sub-wholesale arm of his business, ispONE, did not block access to the protocols for the 150 ISPs it serviced.

myONE would also offer telephony services in addition to unlimited broadband internet products.

AAPT launched unlimited off-peak broadband plans earlier this year. The popularity of the products saw the telco increase the unlimited off-peak period from six to 12 hours.

AAPT also this week launched a $99.95 per month bundle of broadband internet and home phone. It offered 20GB peak downloads, unlimited off-peak downloads, free local and national calls, and capped mobile and international calls.

AAPT spokeswoman Tahn Shannon said the telco was "really trying to claim the unlimited space".

myONE blocks peer-to-peer on "unlimited" broadband

5 comments in this discussion

"if theyre blocking irc downloads then am i still allowing to access irc? i mean its pretty hard to block irc downloads without blocking the whole irc access thing i use irc almost daily for ..."

By plasmo

Tags

myone, ispone, peer to peer, p2p, irc, newsgroups, unlimited, adsl, broadband, aapt

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Comments: 5

Photo_journ Oct 28, 2009 5:29 PM	Swindells by name and swindled by action. What a dope. I'm sure those Country Energy, CE Internet and TADAust customers are gonna feel swindled too when they hit the walls put up limiting what they can do online. Sounds like there will be lots of proxy and VPN activity to me. But then again, why bother, just get a decent ISP with someone with a god illusion running it. So what they are offering is an unlimited service where you can browse and send emails only. Brilliant. That should allow them to buy the smallest amount of bandwidth of any ISP. Maybe it's a good way to offer a cheap internet service by reducing bandwidth but I sure as hell would feel swindled. I'm surprised users won't be swindled out of streaming video and audio as well. Sounds like shades of internet circa 1987 to me.
deonast Oct 28, 2009 6:41 PM	If it is purely for bandwidth reasons then why block IRC and newsgroups I wouldn't expect high bandwidths over those protocols. Could this be some attempt at malware protection as some bots use IRC channels to communicate? Perhaps a few questions these protocols should have also been raised.
Markus_Welby Oct 29, 2009 12:28 AM	IRC and newsgroups (usenet) are both widely used to transfer stacks of data just like peer to peer. myONE seem to have forgotten about rapidshare and other web based services however. But they can just remove the worst offenders if they choose to anyway. I can see how plans like these would appeal to some people, but I'd rather pay more for a real connection. These are all legitimate protocols that may be required by just about anyone from time to time.
meski Oct 29, 2009 12:09 PM	I'd really like the ACCC to have a go at these companies that say free* and unlimited^ when they don't really mean these words within the accepted use of them at all. Deceptive usage. And if I was an MD with a name of Swindells, I'd change it by deed poll. Of course, that would be deceptive, too. :)
plasmo Nov 3, 2009 2:32 PM	if theyre blocking irc downloads then am i still allowing to access irc? i mean its pretty hard to block irc downloads without blocking the whole irc access thing i use irc almost daily for keeping intouch with friends so this is definitely not for me. i think they have to realise that irc is not only just being used for downloading warez also for p2p does this also affect games that utilise p2p technologies for playing online, eg: call of duty : mw2 which uses p2p for their online play blocking p2p/irc is no go