Who has broadband?

[mdb]

Personally I wouldn't use Xtra. They charge more than anyone else for less service. If you can get Telstra they have a better service (provided it is cable) as you got quicker upload speeds (may be important depending on what you're going to do).

[paturoa]

Xtra, more reliable than rest, one bill, consolidated discount thing, know what u r going to get.

Price wise each keep leap-frogging each other, so u should make your choice on stuff that is meaningful to you (not emotion).

[raster]

I have dealt with hundreds of broadband connections around AK and have found Xtra to be the best if you don't want to piss around, but then I just tell them what to do and they do it, have found the others (clear being a major one) don't know their ass from their face.

Just watch out for the cap, I would suggest not to go for the plans that have any over usage charge, I have seen a family with a $20,000 bill because some visitor installed bittorrent on the machine, scarry stuff.
I think they got some ammount taken off but not all.

I went to slingshot for about 3 months and gave up, ihug are OK if you don't have any problems, but then they do have some very good staff who actually think for themselves, they will actually call you to give you updates of what is happening.

[paturoa]

Just watch out for the cap, I would suggest not to go for the plans that have any over usage charge, I have seen a family with a $20,000 bill because some visitor installed bittorrent on the machine, scarry stuff.
I think they got some ammount taken off but not all.

Xtra has a setup page that you go to, to setup a threshold (i've set mine at 80%) and when my useage reaches that it emails me.

[mdooher]

Now who took thoes

Holy shhhh.. It’s worse than I thought, I’ve seen bigger generators on a Morris 1100. Thanks for the pics nz_liam

[Timber020]

Telecom takes $8,000 off me a year, and very little of it do I have any choice in, their business practises have insured services I need are not readily available unless I go through them. They have been underhanded and downright scum making sure they get as much money from a captured market as possible.

We are getting telstra broadband when we get around to it.

[Matt Bleck]

Now I'm totally confused.... Ah fuck it, I'll just stay with dail-up......

[Dooly]

I'm on dialup at home via Xtra, and its crap. We only live 6km from town but they say they cant do broadband because the nearest exchange needs updating, but wont do it.
Friends of ours 25km out have BB no probs.
We keep getting wireless companies ringing us up and trying to sell that for $100 a month.

[Lias]

Was with ihug for 8 years or so, then left at the end of last year and moved to Orcon.

Ihug generally have very good customer support, but they shafted a lot of long term customers when they switched to the 2mb plans and I was one of the many who packed my bags. (They wanted to switch me from an uncapped plan to a 15gb data cap for the same price.. fuck that!)

Orcon customer support is really good.. when you can get through :-) Orcon also recently had to redo their flatrate plans (IE double the price), but at least they give me a 40gb cap a month, so I dont have to cut back tooooo much (average before cap was 60-80gb a month).

I'm just hoping that with the telescum arseraping we'll start seeing an end to datacaps, as its the datacaps that are the real problem with broadband in NZ, not the speeds.

Avoid Xtra like the plague, unless you like miniscule data caps, and giving your money to the second biggest pack of thieving bastards in the country (after the gummint)

[Zed]

Speaking of broadband, I upgraded my plan today with ihug (most helpful btw) and now it is super quick!!! But KB is now extremely slow, anyone else finding the site slow today??

[bobsmith]

Yeah, KB has been very slow, earlier this afternoon, I could hardly open up a page without me trying to gnaw my eyes out.... (well maybe not that bad)

[MD]

I'm on dialup at home via Xtra, and its crap. We only live 6km from town but they say they cant do broadband because the nearest exchange needs updating, but wont do it.
Friends of ours 25km out have BB no probs.
We keep getting wireless companies ringing us up and trying to sell that for $100 a month.

This is where I think (maybe I've got it wrong) Telecom have been unfairly treated with the unbundling. Hey, I'm pleased about the change. But, if Telecom spend big bucks to upgrade the exchange/hardware/copper whatever it's called, which they supposedly own and wont share with the other Kids for free. Then why the hell should the other hanger on providers be able to then sell Dooly their ph/net services? Ihug and co. don't fork out their cash to maintain the 'local loop' So why should they be allowed to get a free ride on it? Just doesn't sound like normal commercial practice to me. If you build a road into the bush to extract, say gold, why the hell should you be FORCED to allow others to use your road for free so they can cut trees, plant dope or - compete against you for gold!

[Ixion]

They won't get a free ride. The other ISPs will have to pay telecom a fee for use of the network. That fee will be set by the government. (When I say "will have" I mean that is the actual situation, not my prediction)

So, whether this works out to be a Really good Thing or just a PR waggle depends on what that fee is set at.

And we may be sure that Telecom will be factoring in the upgrade, capital and maintainance costs of all of it into the figure they start talking at.

[sAsLEX]

As in pic, no cap 55 incl gst a month!

test your speed for comparison at http://www.nzdsl.co.nz/index.php?module=Speedtest

[SN4PD]

This is where I think (maybe I've got it wrong) Telecom have been unfairly treated with the unbundling. Hey, I'm pleased about the change. But, if Telecom spend big bucks to upgrade the exchange/hardware/copper whatever it's called, which they supposedly own and wont share with the other Kids for free. Then why the hell should the other hanger on providers be able to then sell Dooly their ph/net services? Ihug and co. don't fork out their cash to maintain the 'local loop' So why should they be allowed to get a free ride on it? Just doesn't sound like normal commercial practice to me. If you build a road into the bush to extract, say gold, why the hell should you be FORCED to allow others to use your road for free so they can cut trees, plant dope or - compete against you for gold!

They won't get a free ride. The other ISPs will have to pay telecom a fee for use of the network. That fee will be set by the government. (When I say "will have" I mean that is the actual situation, not my prediction)

So, whether this works out to be a Really good Thing or just a PR waggle depends on what that fee is set at.

And we may be sure that Telecom will be factoring in the upgrade, capital and maintainance costs of all of it into the figure they start talking at.

The fact that telecom are being forced to publish their wholesale (un-bundled) accounts separately to their other business interests is the first step to splitting them into two companies, (a lines company and a communications company). By the time this actually happens there should be more competition in the 'last mile' access market (e.g. WiMax, 3G Wireless etc) allowing normal market forces (competition) to regulate local loop prices. In the mean time the government does need to regulate how and at what price telecom allows access to their copper network as it has the potential to make or break competitive telecommunications in this country.

You also have to remember that a reasonable amount of the network was built with public money, albeit sold as a commercial entity to Bell Atlantic and Ameritech in 1990 for $4.25 billion, last year they posted a profit of $916 million, (not a bad buy).

P.S. Bring on the mobile phone reforms

P.P.S. I am a capitalist, really