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Comment by masklinn | Hacker News Reader

Even without the latency (which is significant), there are two more technical issues:

1. Australia has pretty limited data pipes to the outside, so the more traffic is kept in-country the cheaper it is and the less likely there will be issues with world-traveling traffic

2. Aus ISPs have pretty low quotas for international traffic (40-200GB range I believe) but none for national traffic[0], which also lead those same ISPs to build or help building massive national caches of international resources (I believe Steam download traffic, for instance, is kept mostly or solely national)

[0] I may be wrong, and please correct me if I am. That's what I recall from past conversations on the subject

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Neither of the above is true anymore.

There used to be a lack of competition in the submarine cable sector, this is no longer true. In some cases it would cost more to push it to the user (DSL wholesale etc), and this is solely due to monopoly infrastructure providers.

No ISP has ever explicitly differentiated international and local traffic. Many ISPs unmeter their own content and mirrors, this was a result of international and some domestic traffic costing a fortune back in the day. Some ISPs unmetered peering exchange traffic as well, but I don't think any do anymore. The trend now is towards true unlimited plans.

I never had any different caps for international vs local data traffic.

Many of the smaller ISPs (of which there are now not many) and some of the larger ISPs have peering agreements (with PIPE networks) which mean that this traffic is effectively "free". It used to be quite the selling point, but appears to be no longer be the case (possibly because it's a bit iffy as to what is and isn't free).

My Aussie relatives' caps don't differentiate between international and domestic traffic, it's just one number. They're with the major telecom Telstra, I believe.

I have seen plans that have separate quotas. And even ISPs that don't, I think it's safe bet that there is shaping and throttling on international routes.

No, there are generally not separate quotas for national and international in Australia, at least not any longer.

(Checked: Telstra, Internode, iiNET, TPG, Optus.)

That said, they do tend to have bandwidth quotas in the order of 50-500 GB/month depending on the plan you have.

And it is dirty expensive here. I currently pay $89.95/month for 300 GB/month via ADSL2 (20/1 Mbit/s) including line rental.

> And it is dirty expensive here. I currently pay $89.95/month for 300 GB/month via ADSL2 (20/1 Mbit/s) including line rental.

It's not as expensive as you think-at least if we're comparing DSL vs DSL and ignoring FiOS/Cable.

Our download limits are pretty similar to the most of the limits "hidden" by the US ISP's, and our ISP's typically offer better free content and are FAR better in terms of customer service[1] and more lenient if you are the type to regularly hit your limit.

[1]: In part because they have to be due to consumer advocate bodies, and also because this will be the key differentiator (along with content) when the National Broadband Network gets deployed to the majority.

Fair enough, about the same costs as in the US.

...but I am used to Swedish pricing levels. $45 for 100/10 Mbit/s with no quota.

I pay Comcast $60 for 20 Mbit / 2 Mbit up, with 250 GB a month (with threats to disconnect me after that and ban me from ever being their customer).

I don't have any other Internet providers that service my house...

Limited in several ways: total bandwidth, independence, number of routes, and latency.

Australia is a long way from anywhere. It's closest technical neighbor is NZ, but by several measures, that's tiny. Among the benefits AU has is that it's relatively close to India and the Philippines, both of which share a fair bit of language and culture (Commonwealth / US protectorate).

Shared culture with the Philippines and India? What an interesting way of looking at things.

Both are countries with their own distinctive histories and cultures, tough they share a pretty significant colonial history under an English-speaking power (England, for India, the US for the Philippines), resulting in a population that's largely English-speaking. At least among educated classes. As opposed, say, to most of the rest of Asia. Yes, China was some English dominion, but other than Hong Kong the legacy isn't particularly deep. Japan's largely been independent (though with some US influence post WWII). Vietnam some French/US influence, but it's not a significant tech player.

Australia from my time there is very much a crossroads of Asian and the Pacific. Especially Sydney. But I see stronger cultural ties with these two countries in particular.

So, yes, for countries which are technically relatively forward in its hemisphere, India and the Philippines offer some cultural landmarks offering commonality.

I've been subscribing to ISPs in Australia for 14 years, and have never had an international traffic quota.

I'm a subscriber to iiNet and I think what they meant is - downloading from iiNet's mirrors doesn't count towards my quota.

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