[willsken]

I saw this on another thread and felt fear :laugh I love surfing and will say it's one of my main hobbys. What are the costs like in NZ and what are the caps?

[Diny]

Can't bring costs or caps to hand but what I can tell you is that broadband over here (on Xtra anyway) seems sooooooooooooo slow.

Diny

[jubjub]

We have this package http://www.telecom.co.nz/chm/0,5123,204549-202570,00.html

and we regularly go over the limit, at which point it slows down to dial up speed *snore*

There is an article on next weeks Sunday (TV1 here) that is abnout why we have the slowest broadband known to man in NZ!

It is being opened up to competition at the moment, so hopefully prices will come down, and service will get better. It recently went down by $10.

[StevieD]

I read somewhere that Telecom's monopoly over such things is slowly being eroded. This, coupled to Telecom's reluctance to upgrade it's rural network leads to speed problems. But that is of no comfort to those who are used to CAN/UK/US speeds.

Whoosh wireless and satellite access seem to be expensive dead ducks as well - so it is a case of waiting for the internet explosion to creep along at Telecom's pace....

[GeorgeM]

Our current plan has a 2Mbps download speed (128kbps back the other way) with a 10Gb data cap and costs us $60 a month.

From next month the download speed is going to be increased to 3.5Mbps, and they are introducing a plan which has a 5Gb data cap (currently the plans are 1Gb, 3Gb and 10Gb)

We have the 10Gb plan at present because our normal usage is about 3.5Gb - this is for a household of 4 people on a home network with everyone on the net at sometime every day pretty much, plus an old laptop in the kitchen which we use as a radio to listen to the BBC and Classic FM.

Next month we'll probably switch to the 5Gb plan which should be sufficient for our immediate needs - at the price (approx $50 per month) I don't think that this is too much to pay for a 3.5Mb d/load speed. Higher data caps would just be a theoretical benefit to me at the moment, and I consider our usage to be very much on the higher side of average (although we don't let the kids rip music off the net, so other parents may find this limit restrictive if they do permit suchlike).

[Park City Partner]

We signed up with Orcon for 2Mbps speed and a 10Gb cap. We had no idea how much data the 2 of use would use so we went with the max so as to hopefully not incurr overages. We pay $39 a month because we are also using them as our Toll provider. If we didn't use them for our Toll provider it would be $49. Any data overage is $10 for the next 10 GB ( I think). It is also not as fast as our cable modem was in the States.

[willsken]

Thanks everyone - very useful. Not as bad as I had feared :)

[Radders]

Hi,
We pay $40 with xtra (telecom). I'm on the web a couple of hrs each day I'd say. I download video from BBc etc, listen to the sport on 5 live, and also Radio 1 sometimes for a few hours. I download songs, maybe half a dozen a week sometimes. My wife is on mainly to check e-mails.We never go over our limit.
Before I was working days, I spent alot of the day online, searching for work etc, listening to online radio etc, and rarely went over 1GB, the times I did, it never slowed down anyway, before a new month was upon us.
If that's you, you won't have a problem, and unless you are on speed, I'm not sure you'll notice the sloooow broadband. It's plenty fast enough for me.
If you like online gaming then that might be different, but I prefer real surfing so haven't tried that!

[willsken]

Thanks Radders

That does sound like us! :yes

[katandbob]

Our current plan has a 2Mbps download speed (128kbps back the other way) with a 10Gb data cap and costs us $60 a month.

From next month the download speed is going to be increased to 3.5Mbps, and they are introducing a plan which has a 5Gb data cap (currently the plans are 1Gb, 3Gb and 10Gb)

We have the 10Gb plan at present because our normal usage is about 3.5Gb - this is for a household of 4 people on a home network with everyone on the net at sometime every day pretty much, plus an old laptop in the kitchen which we use as a radio to listen to the BBC and Classic FM.

Next month we'll probably switch to the 5Gb plan which should be sufficient for our immediate needs - at the price (approx $50 per month) I don't think that this is too much to pay for a 3.5Mb d/load speed. Higher data caps would just be a theoretical benefit to me at the moment, and I consider our usage to be very much on the higher side of average (although we don't let the kids rip music off the net, so other parents may find this limit restrictive if they do permit suchlike).

Cheers George, nice to know that we can get what we have here for about the same money, could you pm the company :D

[foolsgold99]

As Sal said we have a 10GB download limit, with 2 days to go until the end of the period, we are dead on the ten gig. On a average week, i'll download 2-3 TV shows (Sky is really behind with stargate), on average these are 400mb an epiosde, we also do some VOIP, I work remotely from home from time to time, and can have 2 - 3 RDP / Citrix sessions going for a couple of hours at a time, Plus heavy surfing with 2 Pcs, and some webcam traffic.

We only go over if I download some DVD iso files, or an enitre tv series. A full DVD can be 3.7gb, but this is rare, most movies can be downloaded in divx, at around 700 - 800mb.

In short 10gb, is a fairly decent limit, although of course I'd prefer no limit.

[Park City Partner]

Ok, so I am admittedly a TV junkie and our sky is not due to be installed until March 16! The 3 TV stations we get now are killing me. Where do you get your TV shows from? I access some on iTunes but is there another source?

[Dozzer]

You can only access them illegally... do a google for "emule plus" and install it...

Edited: btw emule plus has no spyware.

[foolsgold99]

I tend to avoid all the file sharing apps like e-mule. I don't like to share and open my pc up to all manner of spyware, plus the legal probs (i've had issues in the past with the mpaa). I pay $10 a month for a premium newsgroup subscription. I use Giganews, it has all the tv, music movies, software I want, at excellent download rates, with no upload.

At best of all, new season of The Sopranos starts on sunday in the US. I'll have it downloaded and watching it on Monday night.

[Dozzer]

OMG... I'm on ntl (cable) here in the UK - 10Mbps download and 512k upload... cap of 75 gig. £34.99 per month

The broadband in NZ seems worse that the UK with BT at the helm.

[jonSE]

The good news is that this week the govt here effectively ended Telecoms monopoly on the local loop which should in the next year or so improve both the speed,availablity and economy of adsl services.

What amazes me is that despite the fact that BT in the UK had this forced upon them about 10 years (ish) ago because they refused to do it themselves (and consequently lost the opportunity to take commercial advantage of doing it before they were regulated to do it) The same thing has happened here despite the blindingly obvious lessons apparent from "overseas"

[jo-and-jeff]

Right before we moved here, we purchased a membership to NZ Consumer Online (http://www.consumer.org.nz) because we knew we would be buying 2 cars and other items, as well as Internet Access. It was worth the fee just for the ISP ratings -- it saved us from going with Xtra (which had days and days of outages recently, and which I've now heard from various people is notoriously slow and unreliable). As I may end up telecommuting, it was pretty critical to have reliable service. We went with iHug ADSL, which we felt had the best overall ratings combination for reliability, user satisfaction, and pricing (Maxnet was a close second).

I was sceptical about ADSL, but have found it to be just as speedy as our Cable DSL back in the U.S. (sometimes, even more so). We've had to use Customer Support on several occasions (Jeff is not a computer professional, and had to set up the modem and access by himself with their help, since I wasn't here yet). I've been happier with iHug's Customer Support than I ever was in 4 years with ComCast, the Company From [your choice of Underworld here].

That's not to say that iHug is perfect, I'm sure that it's not, but we've been pleased so far.

[StevenC]

A 10Gig limit - OMG! :no

I had a note from my IT department last month (my firm installs broadband at home for us to "work from home".....y'right). They said we had a DL limit of 2Gb pcm (I wasn't told this upon installation) and they just wondered why I'd hit 25Gb, more than the rest of the firm put together :raebanana

Hmm, perhaps I ought to rethink how many episodes of "24" one really needs....... :uhoh

[willsken]

A 10Gig limit - !

I had a note from my IT department last month (my firm installs broadband at home for us to "work from home".....y'right). They said we had a DL limit of 2Gb pcm (I wasn't told this upon installation) and they just wondered why I'd hit 25Gb, more than the rest of the firm put together :raebanana

Hmm, perhaps I ought to rethink how many episodes of "24" one really needs....... :uhoh
:laugh :laugh

[jo-and-jeff]

I use Giganews, it has all the tv, music movies, software I want
I'm confused. I checked out Giganews.com, and all it appears to offer is Usenet and Newsgroup access. Where do you find the TV shows, music, etc?

:confused:

[shameless]

These speeds don't seem TOO bad, but the limits scare me. We have no limits in the US and I bet I hit 10 gigs in 2 weeks on average and that's without heavy MP3 or video downloading which I will now need once the NBA season starts.

What happens when you go over? $40-$50 NZ seems pretty reasonable, so if I had to pay more to get more I would probably do that as long as it is within reason.

Thanks!

[dawn]

What happens when you go over? $40-$50 NZ seems pretty reasonable, so if I had to pay more to get more I would probably do that as long as it is within reason.

You get kicked to dial up, I spend 3/4 weeks on dial up! You can pay more to get more though.

All telecoms price plans are here http://www.telecom.co.nz/chm/0,8763,203071-202449,00.html

[shameless]

You get kicked to dial up, I spend 3/4 weeks on dial up! You can pay more to get more though.

All telecoms price plans are here http://www.telecom.co.nz/chm/0,8763,203071-202449,00.html


Thanks! That makes more sense. Seems like the prices aren't that bad. Clearly more than the US, but not totally prohibative either.

[Questor]

I think I must have stumbled on a great deal then!

We're with maxnet (www.maxnet.co.nz) and we're paying $53 pm for 3.5Mbps and 10Gb limit - but the crucial thing for me is that it DOESN'T slow down if you go over your limit - you pay $10 for 5Gb extra - I'll live with that!!

[Smiler]

I think I must have stumbled on a great deal then!

We're with maxnet (www.maxnet.co.nz (http://www.maxnet.co.nz)) and we're paying $53 pm for 3.5Mbps and 10Gb limit - but the crucial thing for me is that it DOESN'T slow down if you go over your limit - you pay $10 for 5Gb extra - I'll live with that!!

Jon

Techno numpty here please speak slowly and clearly. :D

But do they use the Telecom tubes though? :confused:

I'm concerned with the telecom outages and want to get away for that reason.

[Questor]

Yeah - you keep the telecom line for phone calls - maxnet just provide your ADSL service. You are in NO way tied to telecom for broadband, although it seems easy to sign up cos IIRC they give you a $10 a month discount for having phone and broadband with them.

OK we've only had broadband for about 4 days, but it's been great so far! and you get to talk to a person almost immediately on the phone if you ring!

[Dozzer]

A useful tool to have running (Windows XP etc) is netmeter... keeps an eye on your internet usage.
http://readerror.gmxhome.de/

[Smiler]

Thanks for the recommendation Questor. :nice1

We've just switched to maxnet. They've been extremely helpful and the whole process would have been extremely painless if we had left Telecom out of the equation. :roll

But all sorted now and we're up and running on warp speed. :D

[Questor]

Glad to be of service Deborah! :)

I've still not had any problems, and the router is left on 24/7 - It's actually faster than we were getting in the UK :)

I can certainly recommend Maxnet to anyone

Jon