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The Stranger
25th May 2011, 10:22
Ok, so we're about to get all these wonderful speeds, download a movie in a minute. Wow, awesome!!
The newspapers are waxing on about how great this is going to be and I see example after example of speed comparrisons and cost comparrisons.
All very wonderful right?

What I haven't seen yet is ANY indication of data caps.

Does that mean that there are none?
Somehow I'm way to sceptical to make that assumption.
Though if they do remain in their present form it would be a 1.35 billion white elephant for the average NZer as in a few minutes you could blow your data caps to hell.

So does anyone have any knowledge of whether or not caps will remain in place or not? Assuming they do are they likely to be revised from there currently extortionate position? Will they drop the current double dipping on local data transfers?

yod
25th May 2011, 10:43
......are they likely to be revised from there currently extortionate position?

Only if the commerce commission forces them to. My guess anyway.....

James Deuce
25th May 2011, 10:49
They'll need to drop them because the rest of the world has, simply in response to the way broadcast media is changing and will have to change. Even the current Freeview model will be gone a lot sooner than analogue broadcasting lasted. I give it 10-15 years total.

Bald Eagle
25th May 2011, 10:54
What I haven't seen yet is ANY indication of data caps.



Data caps will be with us for a long time, they might be giving you a bigger pipe but they're always going to 'control' the volume - it's the revenue for no cost part of the ISP business that makes it so profitable.

oneofsix
25th May 2011, 10:55
They'll need to drop them because the rest of the world has, simply in response to the way broadcast media is changing and will have to change. Even the current Freeview model will be gone a lot sooner than analogue broadcasting lasted. I give it 10-15 years total.

sad thing is ISPs in the USA are looking to impose data caps.
Also you have super dupa speed from your ISP to your home but that doesn't directly translate to super speeds sucking down that movie or Linux ISO.

James Deuce
25th May 2011, 11:00
sad thing is ISPs in the USA are looking to impose data caps.
Also you have super dupa speed from your ISP to your home but that doesn't directly translate to super speeds sucking down that movie or Linux ISO.
You're dead right, but that's because they've cottoned on to being the default transport medium of choice. Regulation will be required to control or broadcasters will need to be paying a portion of advertising revenue to ISPs to ensure free access to their product.

A download is only as fast as its weakest link.

Mental Trousers
25th May 2011, 11:01
Also you have super dupa speed from your ISP to your home but that doesn't directly translate to super speeds sucking down that movie or Linux ISO.

That's about right. The bastards are always going to claim that there's not enough international bandwidth so data caps are required to prevent saturation etc. Unfortunately, that is mostly true (but not the entire truth of the matter).

mattman141
25th May 2011, 13:39
Have a look at this:http://pacificfibre.net/

cbfb
25th May 2011, 13:49
Ok, so we're about to get all these wonderful speeds, download a movie in a minute. Wow, awesome!!

Actually was listening to Radio NZ the other day, doesn't sound as if the speeds will be wonderful at all (well not unless you want to remortgage your house that is). The packages sounded pretty average tbh.

The Stranger
25th May 2011, 14:08
That's about right. The bastards are always going to claim that there's not enough international bandwidth so data caps are required to prevent saturation etc. Unfortunately, that is mostly true (but not the entire truth of the matter).

Fine, but what's the bottleneck on local traffic?
If I transfer a file to me from the USA my ISP charges me once for the privilege of using their expensive international pipe. OK I guess.

If I send that file to you it doesn't use their international pipe and they get to charge twice (both you and me) for you to receive that same file. It would be cheaper for you to use their expensive limited international link than obtain it locally.

I feel that there is something inequitable about that, probably more so as it is stifling innovation.

Bald Eagle
25th May 2011, 14:12
The real sneaky bit in the equation is the use of 'transparent proxy servers'. Mr smith in Gore downloads a youtube clip. The ISP transparently caches it on their NZ server. The next 200 or more local users download it ( from the transparent proxy ) and get charged the International traffic cost of it.

Nice multi clipping of all the traffic. :sick:

SMOKEU
25th May 2011, 14:15
If data caps are imposed, then they should be offering at least 100GB per month for an affordable price. I've got 40GB per month and most of that is gone within a week.

Bald Eagle
25th May 2011, 14:17
There should not be any such thing as a data cap.

It would be like your local council ( if you are unfortunate to have a water meter) telling you how many gallons of water you could use in a month.

Bandwidth limits and data caps are a profit driven business ideal. There is no technical reason existing copper can't do the sort of speeds they are 'promising' with new ultra fast products. It's a case of up-grades for profit versus improvements for customers.

Hurrie
25th May 2011, 14:23
what difference does it make? its not like its gonna be as easy to download all your movies and tv shows as it used to be :facepalm:

Smokin
25th May 2011, 16:21
You can have as much speed and high data limits as you want but as soon as the copyright laws kick in we wont be able to benefit from it.

Ronin
25th May 2011, 16:34
sad thing is ISPs in the USA are looking to impose data caps.
Also you have super dupa speed from your ISP to your home but that doesn't directly translate to super speeds sucking down that movie or Linux ISO.

Pretty sure I could live with a 250 Gig data cap.

Kendog
25th May 2011, 16:51
You can have as much speed and high data limits as you want but as soon as the copyright laws kick in we wont be able to benefit from it.
You mean benefit from it illegally.

The Stranger
25th May 2011, 17:42
what difference does it make? its not like its gonna be as easy to download all your movies and tv shows as it used to be :facepalm:


You can have as much speed and high data limits as you want but as soon as the copyright laws kick in we wont be able to benefit from it.

I'll let you guys into a secret.
There is more to the internet than movies, tv shows and downloading copyright material. Some people actually use it for commerce - fancy that.

Mental Trousers
25th May 2011, 17:54
I'll let you guys into a secret.
There is more to the internet than movies, tv shows and downloading copyright material. Some people actually use it for commerce - fancy that.

You forgot what 90% of the internet is used for - porn

paturoa
25th May 2011, 20:14
Telecom is being split into 2 totaly separate companies and the new Chorus company gets about 70% of the coverage / customer base.

The new Chorus company is NOT allowed to be a retailer. So the prices you will pay will be set by the retailers and will likely reflect the price that they have to pay for the fibre access from the new Chorus company or the other 30%.

The prices that the new Chorus company will charge have already been mostly set by the MED as I understand it (they get a dividend / pay back after a while so don't expect the govt to set cheap prices!). I don't know the same pricing applies to the other companies with the other 30%.

“Wholesale household prices will start at $40 or less per month for an entry level product and $60 per month for the 100 Megabit product. There are no connection charges for households,”

Gremlin
25th May 2011, 23:20
If I send that file to you it doesn't use their international pipe and they get to charge twice (both you and me) for you to receive that same file. It would be cheaper for you to use their expensive limited international link than obtain it locally.

I feel that there is something inequitable about that, probably more so as it is stifling innovation.
You'd be after something like Xtreme, which has some plans with unlimited local data, that sort of stuff is useful for linking offices if you don't have the budget for the more expensive options.

Technically speaking... further upstream from homes, the lines/pipes are not provisioned by data limits. You pay for the pipe, and how much you can fill it, is your responsibility.

Motig
26th May 2011, 07:30
Personally its will I be able to afford it that worrys me.

The Stranger
26th May 2011, 08:59
You'd be after something like Xtreme, which has some plans with unlimited local data, that sort of stuff is useful for linking offices if you don't have the budget for the more expensive options.


Yes, from memory though you pay a pretty Xtreme monthly charge for the privilege of "free" local data.

Grasshopperus
26th May 2011, 10:48
Another complication for 'zero rating' local content is ISP peering. There is basically three levels of connection classes between ISPs/providers.


Peering - companies in question have a direct, basically free, link to each other. This is like running a cable to your next door neighbour. No restrictions, bugger-all cost.
National Transit - Your ISP's upstream provider (WorldNet, some tier1/2 provider etc) provides transit between the ISPs in question. This is cheaper than going international but the ISPs still get charged by volume of data
International Transit - No way to link locally so you go out to the international links, usually the Southern Cross fibre, this is expensive.


For example, a Telstra Clear customer going to a Telecom hosted webserver is fast and local (in that it doesn't go over an international connection), these two companies 'peer' with each other.

Orcon -> Telecom is not peered but it's local.

I work for TVNZ and look after plenty of their video ondemand service. We peer, via Citylink's CDN, in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch at free peering points (APE, WIX, CHIX ) as well as a shitload of Telecom's peering points. Any ISP that wants can run connections to these (what are effectively) switches and 'peer' with us. Orcon, Snap and a bunch of other ISPs peer there and 'zero-rate' traffic to us. That means that as an Orcon customer you can watch as much of our stuff as you like, at full speed, and not have it count against your data cap. This is great for the users.

It's basically free for all NZ ISPs to do this but they don't because it's a power game. The attitude is; we're big, you're small, therefore you pay us to get fast access to our customers. They try to get content providers, like TVNZ, to pay them (ISPs) for fast access to their customers (home DSL users) and then also charge the consumers for the privilege (via datacaps)

What we've found in the past is that it's a crap-load cheaper for us to serve some NZ-based ISPs out of San Francisco than it is to pay for equivalent data rates within NZ. That is how insane the pricing can be. It actually costs the NZ-based ISPs far more when we do this than if they made their prices reasonable but this is how much they value their 'fortress' of users.

Bit of a rant eh.

oneofsix
26th May 2011, 10:55
Not a bad rant Grasshopperus. Read between the lines a bit and you will also start to understand why UFB wont deliver all the benefits the media spin is attributing to it.
Providing you are not with the fortress mentality ISPs UFB may mean you can watch the TV On Demand with out having to constantly wait on updating :Wink:

Bald Eagle
26th May 2011, 11:09
Telecom in the news again about this sort of behaviour

The Commerce Commission is set to issue proceedings against Telecom for not giving equal access to rivals on its unbundled copper network. (http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/5057575/Commission-to-take-action-against-Telecom)

imdying
26th May 2011, 13:11
It could poo magic moon beans and I'm still not paying for it.

There is nothing of a high traffic nature on the internet that I need at home, or couldn't happily live without. Downloading movies is a waste of time, they're all shite... the odd one I do want to see I can get cheaper from the video store.

oneofsix
26th May 2011, 13:15
It could poo magic moon beans and I'm still not paying for it.

There is nothing of a high traffic nature on the internet that I need at home, or couldn't happily live without. Downloading movies is a waste of time, they're all shite... the odd one I do want to see I can get cheaper from the video store.

yeah too right, who would want to stream shit like the motoGP or european motocross? :scooter:

The Stranger
26th May 2011, 15:26
Telecom in the news again about this sort of behaviour

The Commerce Commission is set to issue proceedings against Telecom for not giving equal access to rivals on its unbundled copper network. (http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/5057575/Commission-to-take-action-against-Telecom)

Nooo you're shitting me, Telecum not playing fair? Who'd have thought?

imdying
26th May 2011, 16:04
yeah too right, who would want to stream shit like the motoGP or european motocross? :scooter:I tried streaming (i.e. paying for) the motogp, but it was crap and completely unreliable, so that's not an option. Fortunately I just happen to trip over the motogp qual/warmup/practice/races in HD a few hours after they're run anyway so not a biggy for me.

SMOKEU
26th May 2011, 17:19
It could poo magic moon beans and I'm still not paying for it.

There is nothing of a high traffic nature on the internet that I need at home, or couldn't happily live without. Downloading movies is a waste of time, they're all shite... the odd one I do want to see I can get cheaper from the video store.

What about porn?

Geeen
26th May 2011, 17:24
Its a bit of a Moot point for those rural customers who still can't get faster than Dial up via the wired system......

imdying
26th May 2011, 17:25
Ok, you got me there...