Ben Grubb (who copped a bit of flack for his interview with Tim Marshall) has interviewed Internode network engineer Mark Newton. Mark is the guy who confirmed our suspicions that there wouldn’t be any way to completely opt-out of ISP filtering.

In this rather in depth interview, Mark notes that ISPs not taking part in the Government’s upcoming live trial will be at a competitive disadvantage. In other words, it’s the only way for ISPs to find out what’s in store for them. Mark also says that the extra support staff required to deal with customer queries to do with filtering (such as ‘why is this site blocked’) would mean costs for customers would rise. No doubt infrastructure would also play a part in rising costs.

Visit Tech Wired Au to listen. Transcript here.

I should note that Mark is speaking as an individual and his views don’t necessarily represent that of his employer.