Telstra offers blogs to broadband customers

In an e-mailed statement, BigPond group managing director Justin Milne claimed the service -- dubbed 'BigBlog' -- was the first such to be provided by an Australian Internet service provider (ISP) to its customers.

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Milne pointed out the popularity of blogs -- basically online personal journals -- was growing at a fast rate.

"The number of personal weblogs is expected to rise to over 60 million worldwide this year according to a report by global consulting firm Deloitte," he said in the statement.

BigPond's service will have to compete with a number of free services already in existence, that are not bound to a specific ISP. For example, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are already offering such services.

One advantage of BigBlog is that it allows users to send photos, video, audio and text data directly from their "compatible Telstra mobile phones" to their blogs, the statement said.

"An additional five mobile numbers can be nominated to upload pictures, texts and video to each BigBlog site, and it takes only moments for information sent from a mobile to appear online," the statement added.

BigBlog users receive up to 10MB of Web space for free and can add extra for prices starting from AU$2.50 per month for 100MB.

BigBlog usage will not count towards download quotas of BigPond's ADSL, cable or wireless broadband services, the statement said, but will count against those using dial-up or satellite services.

The service is the latest add-on Telstra is offering to its retail broadband customers in an attempt to stop them switching to other Internet service providers in a process known as "churning".

Last month the company launched an online movie download service, through which broadband users can legally access film, television and music video titles from Sony Pictures Television.