It's obvious that selling "dumb" telecommunications services isn't
the way to make a profit in the new Internet world! In about 1996
and 1997, all of the major telcos (or telecommunications providers
- eg Telstra and C&W Optus in Australia) moved to begin
providing IP service -- that is, to become
NSPs/ISPs.
Telstra Corporation's permanent Internet service is offered as its
Internet
Direct (previously BigPond Direct) service. Pricing is
based on a installation charge, a fixed monthly charge plus a data
volume charge. In addition, customers must (usually) acquire an
"Access Method", see below. On interesting
observation on most Australian full-time Internet (IP) services in
Australia is that pricing is based on a mix of monthly charges plus
a cost for volume of data received and/or sent,
perhaps with a no-fee threshold. This can be contrasted with the
normal (traditional?) USA practice of charging on "pipesize" alone.
This has some interesting implications, see lecture discussion...