Aussie Telco drops SL

I picked this up from another thread and checked my Bigpond Home page which for the last couple of years has had a direct link to SL, now all evidence of SL is gone, I used to hang out at the pond a bit and it was popular, but there was a management change and everyone seemed to drift away other than at the Pondex Sandbox. I expected them to scale back but not a complete closure, anyone else confirm this?

"POND ESTATES CLOSURE 16 DECEMBER 2009

Dear Residents, Vendors and Guests,

Telstra BigPond would like to thank you for participating in Second Life through BigPond. Our creative experience with Second Life has been very rewarding for both BigPond and our members. We’re constantly looking for ways to take advantage of the latest social media trends, however, our focus is moving towards entertainment options that are gaining in popularity on computers, mobile phones, TVs and game consoles.

From December 16 you will still be able to continue your Second Life experience directly through Linden Lab at www.secondlife.com but no longer through the BigPond portal.

This will also mean that all Second Life use will go towards your download limits given that the BigPond islands currently unmetered for BigPond customers are closing. Please note that this may put you over your plan download limit sooner than you were expecting.

Please contact our in-world Social Operations Manager Peta Philbin if you have further questions and she will provide information and/or BigPond Support personnel to assist you.

Again, we hope that you continue to enjoy your Second Life experience and keep checking back at www.bigpond.com for other exciting BigPond services.

Regards

The BigPond Team"

Expect the grid after midnight to be again plagued by wandering drunken Aussie Yobbo's and Sheila's

I had heard its closing also which is not surprising they were not getting money from it

Wow you guys had free usage on their islands? That's interesting!

Download limits? OMG what a F@#$% NIGHTMARE!!!

I enjoy dunken Assies.


I never knew about the place but it sucks seeing it go. It looks like it was a good thing while it lasted though. It sux to see the good stuff disappear.

Well it depends which plan you are on as to what your download limit is, when you hit the limit you ither pay horrendous rates for excessive uasge or are slowed to diallup speed for the rest of the month. 12GB seems to do me just fine haven't hit the limit for a couple of years, I could drop to a lower plan but that would also mean slower sownload/upload speeds too.

What exactly is that?

It probably has to go to make way for executive salaries.

In Australia, Telstra IS the bandwidth, they basically own it all. so it's not like they give anything away for free by not counting usage to SL.
So it's most likely.. no, most probable, that they are doing it to suck more money out of their consumers. Those that will now go over their limits.

Download limits (or "metered usage" is a right pain. It's the reason why many Aussies disappear/cut back on coming inworld on a monthly basis...when we run out of juice and have to sit on the bench until our new month starts. Don't ever let a telco introduce this scheme.

Telstra was only allowing 'free usage of its islands' in that time spent there (and in sl) was unmetered. Tenants still had to pay rent. So Big Pond users were just getting the same service that most people in the world enjoy.

Thank goodness we still have the ABC And internode.

The system was if you came into Sl ,and were a Big Pond member , vial their port hole then you were not metered when in some sims. This was handy as SL is heavy on the DLs and telstra give small DL for the money.
Many will get caught out and have to pay them a large fee. I have never been with BP due to many reasons but for all the Aussies out there Look around there are many good companies out there that offer better service and prices that you are getting with Telstra

What exactly is a download limit?

A download limit doesn't really bother me, if I want a higher limit I cough up more dough, pay for what you need is how it works, if it was no limit for everyone I guess our lines would be clogged with neighbours downloading DVD's and Music 24/7.

Telstra seem fine for me as my connection is bulletproof, other people go on how good their freebie internet plans are, but I never have a problem connecting with SL or TP or inventory, I get better FPS from the opposite side of the planet than some people in the same city as the servers are getting.

I could save $20 a month by going back to Optus but they had a crap internet, the connection was always dropping out. Even their diallup was useless. I'm on a good thing, I'm sticking to it, not about to change unless I have problems connecting.

No I know what a download limit is, I am not sure what this big pond is.

You have heard of Bell South, Or Comcast, Or some other provider that supply's your internet. That is what BigPond is.

There are not many company's in Australia that you can go with, BigPond owns most if not all of the wire that the service goes through.