ihug and broadband lack of service

[vifferman]

Another couple of days and I will be going back to Telecom.

I bet you have the same problems changing back.

I've been with LOTS of providers: Xtra/Telecom for years, then several fly-by-nighters who've since done the GurglingThing, but I've been with ihug now for quite a while. No real complaints about ihug, just the odd hiccup. Conversely, Telecom were terrible. Everytime we changed providers, they cocked up the billing. Eventually, they cocked it up to our advantage, which made up for all the hassles.

The thing to bear in mind is that often the problem is overly-successful marketing campaigns, or problems with subcontractors.

[Usarka]

Hear Hear, changed to Ihug for same reason with same results. Since then a number of family and friends have changed also,

It's ironic that you've just switched to IHUG. After ten years with IHUG I have dumped them because of their lousy broadband performance

And it's gotten worse recently. Quote #1 is possibly the reason, increased customers without proportionate increase in infrastructure investment?

Naaahhhh.

[Ewan Oozarmy]

Don't forget guys, regardless of which ISP you subscribe to for your ADSL (not cable or wireless) connection, you will still be using Telecom's outdated copper infrastructure. Only when LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) starts to take effect, ie. ISPs being allowed into Telecom exchanges to install their own equipment, will you see any speed/connection improvements.

iHug and Orcon have started to unundle but currently only in a handfull of Auckland and North Shore exchanges.

As for billing/helpdesk issues, these are normally down to the ISPs.....

[Disco Dan]

Went from Woosh wired broadband to Xtra to try and save some money and simplify things (have one bill) but Xtra have managed to make things complicated... big surprise eh?

Took a week to sort out what was meant to be a almost instant changeover. Now that it is going my connection drops out every couple of days and I have to reset the cheap modem they supplied.

I can get over that but what is frustrating..... with woosh if I went over my cap I could just 'top up' and an extra $20 added to my bill, go back to full speed for the remainder of the month. With Xtra? Nope. Go over the cap and im screwed till it clicks over. Thanks xtra - i'll just keep downloading huge big files all night while im asleep since you dont want my money!

[Disco Dan]

Don't forget guys, regardless of which ISP you subscribe to for your ADSL (not cable or wireless) connection, you will still be using Telecom's outdated copper infrastructure. Only when LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) starts to take effect, ie. ISPs being allowed into Telecom exchanges to install their own equipment, will you see any speed/connection improvements.

iHug and Orcon have started to unundle but currently only in a handfull of Auckland and North Shore exchanges.

As for billing/helpdesk issues, these are normally down to the ISPs.....

Do you know what they are by any chance?

[Ewan Oozarmy]

Do you know what they are by any chance?

So far, Ponsonby, Glenfield, Ellerslie and Browns Bay + a couple of others. You'll only notice any improvement if you subscribe to one of the ISPs who have unbundled in these exchanges and you are on their current test plan.

They'll both be stepping up their LLU projects during the 1st half of 2008. Internet speeds post LLU will also depend on your distance from your local exchange, as they do currently, but should be vastly better than Telecom's current offerings.

[sinned]

On the 8th day I have service.
Yippeeeeeeeeeeeee

Am I addicted to the internet??? It has been a hard week.

[Rhino]

A couple of things that may be of interest to broadband users;

1. Changes to Xtra customers take preference to UBS customers at Telecom. If you are changing ISP or moving to a different speed plan at your ISP, you are at the rear of the queue.

2. The backhaul (in simple terms, the bandwidth to your ISP) is not sufficient for the current number of users trying to run at "full speed" in most areas. When full speed plans where introduced, I stayed with my 2Mb plan and can still run it at around 98% of its theoretical maximum. Many who went to the 7.6Mb plans are lucky to get 2-3Mb at busy times.

[Zapf]

A couple of things that may be of interest to broadband users;

1. Changes to Xtra customers take preference to UBS customers at Telecom. If you are changing ISP or moving to a different speed plan at your ISP, you are at the rear of the queue.

2. The backhaul (in simple terms, the bandwidth to your ISP) is not sufficient for the current number of users trying to run at "full speed" in most areas. When full speed plans where introduced, I stayed with my 2Mb plan and can still run it at around 98% of its theoretical maximum. Many who went to the 7.6Mb plans are lucky to get 2-3Mb at busy times.

1.) I assume you work for Telecom? Finally we have proof they are fucking other ISP's over.

2.) Need to clearify that the "backhaul" is actually owned by Telecom, and the amount of bandwidth is also decided by Telecom. So yes blame them for crappy connection speed.

[devnull]

1.) I assume you work for Telecom? Finally we have proof they are fucking other ISP's over.

2.) Need to clearify that the "backhaul" is actually owned by Telecom, and the amount of bandwidth is also decided by Telecom. So yes blame them for crappy connection speed.

Yep, they've been doing that for years...

A lot of regions still use ATM for the backhaul, which is good for voice but adds overheads for data, so isn't as efficient. (An STM1 circuit is 155M & an STM4 is 622M in size)

The company I used to work for (WorldxChange), beat them up over capacity. We devised a method to measure latency across the Telecom network facing the customers, then used the data to get the links to us fixed. End result was excellent performance for the customers.

The product is Xnet (http://www.xnet.co.nz)

No web caching is done, and speeds are really good.
I'm not working there any more, but I know that they aren't shy about getting stuck in to Telecom if there are any provisioning delays or customer affecting faults. Worth a look...