Still As Life

I'm not sure how long iPrimus have been running their green broadband program, but it is a very interesting idea.

I came across an ad for this earlier today whilst reading an article on the Sydney Morning Herald website. The ad is very simple and when you click on it it takes you straight to a semi-cliche page, that is also very evocative. Straight up you are confronted with a Windows save prompt with the cursor hovering over yes in the foreground. In the background is a satellite image of the earth.

Almost the entire page is a link that leads you to more information on iPrimus' green broadband program.

There is nothing overly special about any of iPrimus' plans, none of them have unusually high bandwidth limits for the money, they are all very average priced plans, and are definitely not in the expensive end of the market, nor the cheap end. I don't have any personal experience with their service, or even with them in general, but neither would the majority of people they are marketing to.

Are the facilities used by iPrimus any more environmentally friendly, or green, than any other ISP's? Probably not. Do they use any less power? I doubt it.

What they are advertising is that for less than a dollar a month on each contract, they are partnering with Landcare Australia to plant an average of 5 trees a year per contract.

Is this making their services any cleaner? No. It is providing a solution though that is helping the environment, and this is a big selling point these days. With global warming and attempting to reduce greenhouse emissions and so on, people like to be able to perceive that they are doing something to help the environment. After all, this is what Blackle is selling using their custom black front to Google Search.

As I mentioned earlier, there is nothing overly special about any of the iPrimus plan's, but their green broadband plan gives them something unique to offer as a selling point over other ISP's. They appeal to people's emotion's and fear of global warming. In this day and age, this is a great selling point. The majority of people want to do their part, and in the I.T. industry, everything uses electricity, so other things have to be done to attempt to offset greenhouse emissions. Not every company has the budget to use solar or other alternative green friendly energy schemes to power their systems, so offsetting the cost of planting tree's is really a great idea.

For anyone that is unsure about what they are actually doing, they also provide a facts sheet that also covers statistics on water runoff and the effect that trees have on rain water and where it goes. This is a great way to build on their point and idea.

It doesn't cost much more per month, and people can perceive that they are making a difference. What a great way to sell an internet connection!

Labels: internet