[jcisco]

Hello All,

We arrived in Welly a couple of days ago. We just found accommodation and are needing to sign up for Broadband.

As I understand, our only option living in Wellington City is Telecom.

Is this a pretty decent service?

I'm a pretty heavy user -- I'll be doing video chatting via Skype with family back in the states, as well as using a few bit torrents here and there.

Is there anything I need to be aware of w/ regards to my usage? What would all of you suggest?

Thanks,

Jonathan Cisco

[anna_c]

told you I was always answering your posts :D

No, it's absolutely not your only option. We have telecom atm but are in the process of switching to Orcon at the moment because of reliability and speed issues (www.orcon.net.nz) and I'm pretty sure you can get clear (www.clear.net.nz) and ihug (www.ihug.co.nz) and quite a few others.

The one thing I'd check out is what happens if you go over your data cap - are you charged extra, cut off, or slowed back down to dial-ups speed. Also look for whether you have peak time limits and (particularly important for torrents) how your upload speed compares to download.

Another thing to check is if you go with a different provider to that which provides your phone line they sometimes charge you extra unless you have tolls with them. This means, for example, you might have your phone line with telecom and your internet and tolls with orcon. You pay line rental to telecom but the cost of calls to Orcon at the rate orcon sets.

[ellenmelon]

we've been in wellington for about 2 months and were previously on telecom broadband. and its CR@P!

my partner would be a fairly heavy torrent user and he found it slow...things like youtube etc as well buffered and buffered. we've just switched to orcon and find it great. its actual broadband..not like telecoms bad service for a shocking price.we pay the line connection to telecom still though (i hate the hold they have on this country...).

[jnathan]

I also heard that Internet speed in NZ is crappy and costly as well.

[StevieD]

It is but the hold of Telecom is about to be challenged, much in the same way as British Telecoms was in the UK. (or so I have been informed ;) )

[KerryS]

It is but the hold of Telecom is about to be challenged, much in the same way as British Telecoms was in the UK. (or so I have been informed ;) )
Local Loop Unbundling was announced last year, but as the NZ market is small it is taking longer to have any effect.
There are alternatives to Telecom - Woosh and TelstraClear, but they don't cover everywhere, and I doubt it would be economical for them to do so. In many rural areas it isn't feasible to provide a service.

[barryp]

In effect, Telecom will be split further, and the line-service provision company will be forced to allow access by other ISP's at identical cost. The legislation is very similar to the 'last mile' requirements imposed by the FCC in the USA.

The network is supposed to open by April, or the government will fine Telecom a huge amount. Word from my colleagues (who have contacts on the inside) is that Telecom will not be ready.

I'm not sure what we'll be doing for broadband long-term, but I'm glad I downloaded a huge pile of bit-torrent audio before we left the States.

There are a number of 3G services (one of which, GenI, is from Telecom) and other wireless services such as Whoosh that offer high-quality, low-latency, fast service. But the caps are low, so they're really not suitable for hardcore downloaders or multimedia use. You might be able to use Skype periodically with one, though.

[eternalkiwi]

The Core ISPs in NZ are Telecom (Xtra) & TelstraClear for fixed wire and a few wireless providers like Woosh & NZ Wireless. Telecom also wholesale their network to most other ISPs including Orcon and Ihug (Now owned by Vodaphone).

If you live in Wellington CBD and some surrounding areas you also have the option of CityLink cable which provides excellent speeds and reliability.

Shawn

[Jo_b]

I'm on Telstraclear for phone, cable TV and broadband as of last week. Costs $115 per month, free local phone calls, BBC World (yeah!) and other TV channels as standard and 4mbps speed with a 10gb per month traffic allowance. Free connection (we got them to move the connections to where we wanted them as the house was already wired for it).

So far, I've been impressed with the speed - faster than my old Virgin.net one back home.