[mvjs]

iiNet have teamed up with Apple to provide unmetered content on iTunes. Before you get too excited, it's only on the Australian Store. No unmetered TV Shows or Movies. Bummer.

[HDK]

Originally Posted by mvjs

Before you get too excited, it's only on the US Store.

Huh.?

Originally Posted by iiNet

iiNet's unmetered iTunes downloads are only available from within Australia.

[decryption]

haha, iiNet - the actual stuff that uses up quota (the movies and trailers) don't count. Song previews are bugger all data. Unless you're a compulsive iTMS downloader and concerned about bandwidth, it's easier just to go buy the CD (and cheaper sometimes). Oh well, it's better than nothing I guess!

[mvjs]

Originally Posted by HDriveKilla

Huh.?

Sorry, I meant Australian Store

[lavo]

Only because the movies and trailers are delivered from the US, not here. Once Apple get into gear here with TV Shows and Movies, I'm guessing they will be unmetered too. I see it as a great step forward for both companies. Might not seem like much now, but a year down the track....

(I miss the free WAIX traffic we used to have on ADSL1 :-( )

I wish iiNet would host podcasts here though. Some of them are getting quite big now (200meg plus), which add up over a week. Some of the download rates really do suck. A 40meg Mobuzz show is taking 15-20 minutes to download!

[The Architect.mac]

this is fantastic news!

[Jazarus]

I agree they should have done podcasts, but this will really make a big difference when they roll out non-DRM 256 kbps AAC here in Oz.

Imagine downloading an album with say 20 tracks at 6-8 megabytes each that could potentially be 120-160 megs per album! Would make a big difference for me anyway because I will get the 256kbps versions - I'm a big sucker for gimicky type things like that

[Pirotess]

Originally Posted by decryption

haha, iiNet - the actual stuff that uses up quota (the movies and trailers) don't count. Song previews are bugger all data. Unless you're a compulsive iTMS downloader and concerned about bandwidth, it's easier just to go buy the CD (and cheaper sometimes). Oh well, it's better than nothing I guess!

I would normally agree with that (though it's rarely easier/cheaper to get the CDs for what I buy on iTMS), but last week I bought an album that included a 175mb commentary video by the producer. We're right on quota most months so this is very welcome!

[thorevenge]

Reasons for no podcasts and no trailers:

1) Podcasts - they aren't all hosted by Apple via Akamai so it makes it hard to determine the origin of the data and count is as freezone. So it wasn't included.
2) Trailers: HD trailers are massive(sometimes 200mb or more). People always attempt to abuse things, its human nature, so the temptation to abuse the free traffic wasn't introduced. This is why trailers are not counted as freezone - the amount of bandwidth should people abuse it would be too excessive.

All songs, games and current movies available on the Australian iTMS count as freezone for iiNet customers. This suggests that should more movies (besides the Pixar ones) and TV shows be made available would count as freezone traffic as well - but I don't know. Guess we have to wait on Apple for that one.

[nard]

Australian ISP iiNet, once very popular around here because of its early rollout of ADSL2+, has just announced that downloads from the iTunes Store will not longer be counted towards it users download quotas.

This is interesting of itself but it got me wondering whether they have an inkling of movie or television downloads heading for the Australian iTS sometime soon.

iiNet announcement
iiNet + iTunes mini-site

[thorevenge]

This was done in another thread here

A frivolous Macbook question

[Graham]

It certainly makes sense for movie downloads, especially if they can negotiate a small slice of the income for keeping a local cache of the downloads to allow free traffic over their network. Overall the existing (audio) iTunes traffic won't make much of a dent on most monthly quotas but it would make iiNet significantly more attractive as an ISP when movies do finally/hopefully appear.

[nard]

Originally Posted by thorevenge

This was done in another thread here

A frivolous Macbook question

Sorry. On a related note, does anyone else have as much trouble as me these days getting any results from the Forum Search function?

[thorevenge]

Thats cool. But yes, it is an interesting set of events. There is more information in that thread as to why trailers aren't counted as freezone.

[ClockWork]

Yes.
And I'm afraid to say I've never fully wrapped my bowler-hatted nut around it.

[Al Aero]

What if say, umm, err, you had a US Itunes account?

al

[ClockWork]

Originally Posted by Al Aero

What if say, umm, err, you had a US Itunes account?

al

And this would be traced... how by iiNet - as if iiNet were in the habit of playing god?

[Currawong]

Merged...

I just realised that the offer is pretty pointless...I doubt iTunes would count much towards someone's quota these days.

[thorevenge]

Depends on whether or not TV and movies become available - and perhaps this is a sign that it is coming? You are right Curra, makes little sense otherwise unless it was coming down the pipeline. I could be wrong though.

As to the whole how can iiNet determine where the traffic is from, it's due to where the Akamai content is hosted. Obviously things purchased from the US store are downloaded from the US Akamai mirrors and thus would count towards your quota.

EDIT: The other thing is that I suppose it encourages users to purchase music legally if you aren't going to have issues like corrupt torrent hashes from public trackers.

Lastly, when you look at Optus and Telstra who both have similar services, maybe its a push in that direction as well.