Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
If all the "deal" covers, though, is delivery of books (as will be the case with the Sony "Daily Edition", for example), there's no reason that couldn't work. The typical eBook is about 300kb; if the operator charged Sony (or whoever) $15/GB, that's less than half a cent to send the book - that's really not a terribly high overhead for the bookstore to "eat". And I'm sure that in reality they'd be able to get much cheaper rates than are charged to consumers.
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It all depends on carrier choice. I'm not aware of anyone other than Exetel offering such a deal on mobile data, though presumably other companies could negotiate similar terms with Optus (Exetel resell Optus service). Assuming that Exetel didn't get some really special deal that is no longer available.
However if you want maximum coverage you have to deal with Telstra, and
they are quite expensive and renowned for their disinclination to negotiate with anyone smaller than themselves. The other carriers only cover the major cities, and even there the coverage can be a bit spotty.
But yes, given the size of the typical ebook,
if the vendor chooses to not deal with Telstra then they may be able to eat the cost. Or they may choose to avoid the whole issue by selling the units without SIM or network lock and have the customer deal with it. Not a great out-of-box experience but probably a lot easier to get going.