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

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".