[AusNOG] ISP pricing in the NBN world

[Matthew Moyle-Croft]

On 16/04/2012, at 7:18 PM, Dobbins, Roland wrote:

> 
> On Apr 16, 2012, at 4:37 PM, Mark Newton wrote:
> 
>> I'm imagining a service that aggregates the billing policies from a large number of carriers and provides subscription access to XML files which my phone can download to automate its path selection algorithm. 
> 
> Gotcha - but this doesn't exist yet, and likely won't for a long time, as it requires parties who see no direct incentive to cooperate to work together, as well as external information about transit costs and so forth which unfortunately simply isn't available as metadata.

It won't actually happen either.  Increasingly the "value" of calls is being diminished and bundled in on mobile and fixed line.  The actual benefit of avoiding these tolls is becoming lower and lower.  

Interestingly, I'll point out what Apple have done with iMessage to avoid SMS tolls.  (Mainly to serve the US market which SMS is often not included in the plans).  Suddenly everyone who has iOS5 don't spend money on SMS, which, is  a good thing considering SMS is an outrageous way of paying for bits.   Admittedly it's Apple only (Android users froth here) but it shows that the value is probably not voice.  

MMC