Changing providers

[awa355]

I'm at the end of my 'locked in' contract with Telstraclear. Haven't really had any problems with them, apart from the shit router they sent me, and even that has behaved itself lately.

My current plan gives 20GB ( not enough), nation wide calling, caller ID, ( a waste of money), costs me $117 per month. I want to keep the nation wide calling,.

They are currently offering a better deal than my present contract, at a lower cost for internet, but not sure if that includes nationwide calling.

I want to keep all my phone/ internet services with one company, to keep everything simple.

Any thoughts?

[sil3nt]

Surprised no one else has answered
Telecom tend to have the best Broadband + calling packages:
http://www.telecom.co.nz/packages/packages/plansandpricing/createyourown/
50GB + Free national calling = $99

Internet is capped so I can't check the others but I would be surprised if anyone has a better deal. Maybe try slingshot?

[SMOKEU]

Have a look at Orcon.

[Akzle]

my vote is 2 degrees. even though they piggy back vodafone netowrk. get into the modern wireless shizmo. support NZ companya

phone competitors, (or email) tell them what you're getting, ask if they'll do a better deal (probably want you in a contract though... whether that's a problem..

[tigertim20]

that sounds like fuckall. we pay less than that and get unlimited wireless broadband, and its usually pretty quick.
You can get plans where you get VOIP, which I dont totally understand, but basically I think your phone uses the data or something . . worth looking into.

Ring around, take the time to ask to speak to superiors, and say look, telecom/vodafone/orcon/whatever offered me XXX deal, can you match it. often they will try to get it close enough that it isnt worth you switching, if it aint broke and all that.

[awa355]

I liked the Orcon offers, but finshed up staying with Telstra. Kept my nationwide free calling, dumped the caller ID, dumped the 'never used' spare mob ph, and got my download up'ed to 60GB, ( from 20) and got a drop in the monthly bill. Down $27 a month.

Its a 12 month contract, after which, the 60GB goes up to it's original cost, but by then, I'll be out of the locked in period and able to see what else is on offer at that time.

[SMOKEU]

and got my download up'ed to 60GB.

I thought uploaded traffic was counted, too.

[cameron.new]

How much are you paying for your new deal?

I work for Vodafone and we have sharpened our pencils on a few new Home Phone & Broadband deals.

We have a Mega Pack that gives you 80GB Broadband, Local calling and 5 FREE BestMates on the home phone (can be NZ Mobile or NZ Landlines) all for $95/month.

My relatives had a National calling add-on for $21/month only to find out they were calling 3 national numbers and paying for it using the add-on. The BestMates sussed it and they went from $120 to $95/month.

Even though I am a bit biased, take Orcon with a grain of salt. VOIP is not reliable enough in NZ yet (until UFB is nationwide). We use Orcon for our retail store due to SIP trunking systems and always have something going haywire every month or so.

Or, you could always just stay with TelstraClear and you will belong to the Vodafone family in a few years anyway :woohoo:

NB: These are my personal views and in no way endorsed by Vodafone NZ, 12month contract applies for Broadband discount on Mega pack. (Normally $105/month)

[scracha]

Even though I am a bit biased, take Orcon with a grain of salt. VOIP is not reliable enough in NZ yet (until UFB is nationwide). We use Orcon for our retail store due to SIP trunking systems and always have something going haywire every month or so.


Shit, we'd best not mention the cluster fuck that is Vodafone "easy" office then.


Be more impressed if Vodafone concentrated on actually providing decent nationwide mobile coverage...you know...for talking and shit.

UFB....yeah...great. Pay the current duopoly to provide broadband at more expensive rates than non subsidised providers. Fucking bonkers. Must be that revolving door the politicians have with these companies.

[cameron.new]

Shit, we'd best not mention the cluster fuck that is Vodafone "easy" office then.

Yea better not. Awesome concept and great price but needs a little more stability. They'll get there...

[Berries]

Even though I am a bit biased, take Orcon with a grain of salt. VOIP is not reliable enough in NZ yet (until UFB is nationwide). We use Orcon for our retail store due to SIP trunking systems and always have something going haywire every month or so.
Just to balance that comment, I have been with Orcon since I joined this interweb thing and I don't recall having one problem with them.

[YellowDog]

the shit router they sent me, and even that has behaved itself lately.


That shit router connects at double the speed of the CISCO thingy my wife's work sent us.

D-Limk, Netgear, & Linksys were also unworkable.

It's Dynalink or something similarly named.

Faaarkin good :yes:

[SMOKEU]

That shit router connects at double the speed of the CISCO thingy my wife's work sent us.

D-Limk, Netgear, & Linksys were also unworkable.

It's Dynalink or something similarly named.

Faaarkin good :yes:

Cisco gear is normally good. How old is that router?

[Edbear]

I liked the Orcon offers, but finshed up staying with Telstra. Kept my nationwide free calling, dumped the caller ID, dumped the 'never used' spare mob ph, and got my download up'ed to 60GB, ( from 20) and got a drop in the monthly bill. Down $27 a month.

Its a 12 month contract, after which, the 60GB goes up to it's original cost, but by then, I'll be out of the locked in period and able to see what else is on offer at that time.

Just did the same. Been with TCL for years and no complaints. Got 60G, nationwide calling, ditched the mobile as their res plan no good for business. Got divert to mobile 60min and a couple other bits and cut my bill by $20 per month. Already asked about home-biz but they advised stay on res. better and cheaper.

Been with Vodafone forever and staying with them for mobile as their biz plan suits me. Only advantage Vodafone residential has is the 5 land to mobile freebies but would never use it anyway.

[awa355]

I did look closely at Telecom, but their nationwide calling was weekends only. I have saved $27 per month by ditching the TC mobile, 420 ( never used) and the ID service, $7. The sim card for the spare mob, was supposed to be a 'freebie' ( so I thought at the time ). Turned out to be a $20 per month add on.

My bill is $110 per month. $7 less than before but total up/download increased from 20-60GB.

[wysper]

Even though I am a bit biased, take Orcon with a grain of salt. VOIP is not reliable enough in NZ yet (until UFB is nationwide). We use Orcon for our retail store due to SIP trunking systems and always have something going haywire every month or so.



I would have to disagree with that comment on voip. We have been on voip for at least 3 years with Xnet.
No dramas except the couple of times that Internet had issues or our router died.

Overall pretty happy with voip. I probably wouldn't use voip as a business but it is fine for us for home and we are out of Ham, so not in the best spot for speed but never had a call quality issue or a call dropped. International calls are clearer than we had with Telecom although we usually use skype for that now.

[The Lone Rider]

I'm paying $85 a month for phone and broadband. Think I have a 50gb cap and I've measured it as reaching about 3megabits in speed, and any unused cap falls over to the next month. And I get off peak traffic (between 1am and 7am) that doesn't subtract from my cap.

[Suntoucher]

Had no bad experiences with VOIP yet, used 2008-2011 on both Xnet and Slingshot. Power went out once and we lost phone, about it really. Usually works out cheaper over Naked DSL.

At the moment best plans are with Slingshot for pure bandwidth for price, couple issues with delays when we set up but after the set up no problems whatsoever.

Moved into a flat with Orcon, expensive, slow, not much bandwidth, charge you through the nose per gig once the cap is reached without the option to go slow. Hours to get through via phone when we had to call them because phone (not VOIP) and broadband weren't working simultaneously.

Now with Vodafone in my current house, it's not expensive, but it's not cheap. Reliability and speed is on par with Slingshot. The Huawei HG556a modem/routers that you are sent, whilst they look good, are garbage.

Current recommendations would be Slingshot first based on price/performance but you have to be prepared for issues during initial set up. Followed by Telecom/Vodafone, followed by the rest. Snap looks good but I don't have any experience with them.

Edit: Axle or whatever, the guy who writes in green in the other page is the world's biggest troll. Seen him comment on a few tech threads now and he has the worst advice I have ever seen to the point where you can just take whatever he writes and reverse it for good advice.

[caspernz]

Vodafone works for me. Started off with Ihug many moons ago, which Vodafone took over. We've got what they call the Ultimate pack, 100GB a month anytime, landline etc, for $100 a month. Gives us a discount on the Sky deal as well, so all in all it works out well for us.

Funny thing is that if you're always chasing the cheapest deal you could end up changing providers regularly. Would go along with the comment made earlier to hit up your current supplier for a better deal :2thumbsup