The major opposition party in the Federal
election, the Australian Labor Party, promised to provide the island
State of Tasmania with local (25 cent) phone calls throughout as part of
the party’s electoral “Tasmania Package,” that could provide large savings
to Tasmanian Internet Service Providers.
John Allan is a spokesman from the Tasmanian Internet Association, an
organisation that represents the interests of Internet users and service
providers in the State.
“The Labor party plan will provide significant
cost savings to Internet Service providers in Tasmania, savings which will
be passed onto consumers.”
Currently, ISPs have to provide additional dial-in points to customers who
are outside the local call zone to the nearest point-of-presence (POP).
Under the plan, users outside of the major cities will have the
opportunity to benefit from local-call access to ISPs, when previously
these service providers were not able to offer their services to these
residents without users incurring higher call charges on a timed basis.