ADSL prices fall more for SMBs than consumers

Median SMB broadband pricing fell 17.22 percent and residential broadband pricing 0.79 percent after Telstra fired a February salvo starting a $29.95 price war, a recent study has claimed.

Sydney-based market research company Telsyte has released a report assessing Australian ISPs' ADSL pricing to residential and business customers in April, about two months after Telstra's introduction of $29.95 ADSL plans in February.

ISPs argued at the time that Telstra's cheap $29.95 a month plans would queer the pitch for competitors, making broadband offerings unsustainable.

However, Telsyte's figures suggest that, although plan prices dropped, usage levels may have made up any shortfall in revenue for residentially-focused ISPs at least.

Shara Evans, MD at Telsyte, said many residential users in particular underestimated how quickly they would use their quotas. 'For many typical plans, simply downloading a few security patches and reading your emails will be enough to use up your quota,' she said.

The cheapest 256/64Kb/s residential ADSL plan advertised was $19.95. However, using 500MB a month would bring the cost to at least $29.95. The average cost to most users would have been $73.30, Telsyte found, but could be as high as $519.95 on some plans for the same amount of use and service.

Using 1000MB of month would cost at least $29.95 and an average of $108.27. But some plans would work out at closer to $1014.95 for the same level of use and service, Telsyte claimed.

.