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State Of New Zealand Broadband

Glenn Wolsey

Glenn Wolsey

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 24, 2005
1,230
2
New Zealand
I'm sorry guys but its time I got this of my chest and let off a rant.

I have absolutely had enough with the state of broadband in New Zealand (I dont think I'm alone). I'm on the top NZ broadband plan, 2mbps with a 10GB cap. Doesn't sound to bad huh? Well the advertised speed is just bull, I'm lucky to get a 150kbps download speed on anything.

The 10GB cap is just ridiculous. When we hit our 10GBs for the month we are throttled to 64kbps speed. Yet what do they charge us for this, $50 UDS per month...I wish I could move to America...

Any other New Zealanders frustrated?
 
I'm on a main road in the 10th largest city in Australia and I can't even get broadband. Telstra say they'll do it if I can find 20 other signatories that would be willing to share the cost of setting it up.

No wireless coverage either and even if I did they still are too expensive and not fast/large enough for what I need.

Telstra are currently advertising their cheap plan - A$29.95 a month for 256kbps and 300MB download limit. Absolute total crap.

With their multi-billion dollar profits, Telstra should be looking at setting up broadband for everyone to the point where it is like having a phone. We take having a telephone for granted, we should, in this day and age, take high speed internet (I'm talking 6mbps and upwards) for granted. No haggling with Telstra to enable our line for ADSL. It should be on, we ring up the ISP we've decided on, select the plan and away we go in under 10 minutes.

I am so farken sick of dial-up.
 
frankblundt said:
yep. i presume you're capped to 128 or 256 upstream too? that's the bit that makes life difficult for me. Went wireless instead to bypass the telcos.
Click to expand...

They capped me to just a little over dial-up speed.
 
You are definitly not alone.

I'm with ihug, 256k down, 128k up, $NZ50 no cap (until next month) then I'm onto a 20GB cap.

Its crap, get rid of caps, get rid of rediculous low speeds, get rid of Telecom, open up the loop and maybe get rid of Labour as well.

Have you seen the new 3.5mb down with 512k up plan from Telecrap, coming in April?
 
Glenn Wolsey said:
I'm on the top NZ broadband plan, 2mbps with a 10GB cap. Doesn't sound to bad huh? Well the advertised speed is just bull, I'm lucky to get a 150kbps download speed on anything.
Click to expand...
Speeds are advertised as Mbps, download speeds are shown KB/s. Divide the first number by 8, and you have your maximum theoretical download speed. 2000/8 = 250 KB/s. So you're not quite getting the max, but don't be worried too much about that, because not many people do. I would focus on 1) the low rated download speed and 2) the (very!) low monthly data cap. I can upload more than that in less than 24 hours! :eek:
 
pknz said:
You are definitly not alone.

I'm with ihug, 256k down, 128k up, $NZ50 no cap (until next month) then I'm onto a 20GB cap.

Its crap, get rid of caps, get rid of rediculous low speeds, get rid of Telecom, open up the loop and maybe get rid of Labour as well.

Have you seen the new 3.5mb down with 512k up plan from Telecrap, coming in April?
Click to expand...

No I haven't seen the new plan. I just want something without a cap...I can download like mad sometimes ;)
 
2nyRiggz said:
Well at least you dont get cut off from the net every freaking night......at 70bucks per month getting a crappy service that goes out everynight around 11pm.


Bless
Click to expand...

Only once a night? LUXURY!!!
 
At least Helen spoke out. Our PM is so interested in selling off Telstra he doesn't want to say a word against them. That, and he's so far out of the technology loop (as is the whole parliament now that I think about it) he probably thinks 33.6kbps is "lightning fast" and 56k is "the work of the devil." He's probably never heard of broadband.

I'm so sick and tried of getting the rough end of the stick technology wise. Makes me angry.
 
Don't you have 24mb (ADSL2) in Australia?

And its one thing to speak out about it, but its another to actually do anything about it.
 
Don't look at this thread it'll make you sick.
I'm trying to do actual work with this connection, but i'm still only on 512 up, which is ludicrous. The 1M down i can just about live with - can't afford the 2M, paying an arm and a leg as it is.
 
mad jew said:
For AU$60 per month I get 24,000/1,000 for 40GB which gets throttled back if used entirely. :p
Click to expand...

And you sir, are a poo bum.

I had a plan all ready to go, A$39 a month, 512kbps, 40GB. Bought the A$200 ADSL modem/wireless router. Double checkedon Whirlpool - said yes, can connect ADSL on my number, plenty of ports available. Applied for the plan.......No dice. Plan denied because Telstra won't enable ADSL on my line.

I HATE OUR TELCOS!!!!
 
The amount of broadband "holes" in both countries is ridiculous. It's a wonder we're considered HDCs. :eek:

mad pooh bum - kinda has a nice ring to it, no?
 
pknz said:
Dam! I would seriousluy be declaring war.
Click to expand...

I just had a look at Orcons plans. Do you think it would be worth moving to their 2mbps connection which charges $10 for every 10GB downloaded? Then I wouldn't get capped and I could download 21GBs for the same price.

Thoughts?
 
pknz said:
Dam! I would seriousluy be declaring war.
Click to expand...

I spent three hours on the phone trying to get them to explain to me why they couldn't just press the button and connect me. Oh, I'm sorry but there aren't any ports in your area, "So how come even your own Bigpond site says that I should be able to get ADSL"? Oh, that's only a cursory check, we do a more thorough one when you register for a plan. "So if I registered for a plan through you would you be able to enable my line for ADSL?" I don't know, would you like to register a plan? "Not with you guys, your plans are too expensive for what they offer." Oh OK. "But if I did register a plan would you turn on ADSL?" We'd have to check the line.

Then I got the run-around and gave up.

If I had the money to set up a plan (not many monthly plans going around, most of them are at least 6 months and I'll be out of here in 6 months) I'd register with the other ISP again and see what happens. If Telstra block me again I'll ring up and register a plan with them. If they can enable the line then - OH MAN, you would not want to be within earshot as I tear the supervisor a new arsehole. I'd be going to the press, the ombudsman, everyone. I just don't have the money to set up a plan anymore, especially as I have a perfectly good ADSL modem/wireless router sitting in my endtable cupboard stopping the endtable from floating away.

STUPID GODDAMNED TELSTRA!!!
 
^ Heh, when a big company behaves like an arse!

Glenn: I guess if you find it a better deal than what you are on currently its good.

I will probably moved to ihugs 20GB @ 2Mb in March as it will be the same price as the 20GB @ 256KB. After that I will wait and see what happens, I assume the other ISPs will take Telecoms latest offer (pretty much same deal as what Telecom is offering in April).

*Hopefully* the governments 'investigation' into Telecoms broadband plans will conclude that the loops needs to be unbundled. But who knows.
 
pknz said:
^ Heh, when a big company behaves like an arse!

Glenn: I guess if you find it a better deal than what you are on currently its good.

I will probably moved to ihugs 20GB @ 2Mb in March as it will be the same price as the 20GB @ 256KB. After that I will wait and see what happens, I assume the other ISPs will take Telecoms latest offer (pretty much same deal as what Telecom is offering in April).

*Hopefully* the governments 'investigation' into Telecoms broadband plans will conclude that the loops needs to be unbundled. But who knows.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help, I'm going to order Orcon on the weekend and finally get rid of this awful Telecom connection :D

EDIT: Just saw the new Telecom connections, 10GB cap still but 3.5MBPS connection. I might stay for a while...
 
I feel your guys frustration too. It took an age before our neighbourhood was eligible for ADSL. I also think BB here is a complete rip-off. We packaged our home phone and BB with iPrimus so for $35 a month we get 256/128 with a 12GB limit. I wish we could get cable, but that's like $40 for about 500MB/month. I'll be happy soon though - I'm moving to Melbourne next week and the place I'll be living has a 512 connection (which I won't have to pay for :) )
 
In NZ, I think there is Fibre Optic cable connection in NZ in Christchurch and Wellington. Really angry that no one is bothering to put one up in Auckland.
 
Glenn Wolsey said:
I just had a look at Orcons plans. Do you think it would be worth moving to their 2mbps connection which charges $10 for every 10GB downloaded? Then I wouldn't get capped and I could download 21GBs for the same price.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I'm on Orcon's 256kbps plan. It's atrocious - particularly for Acquisition/BitTorrent. For me, anything that isn't HTTP downloads at an average of about 5kbps. I understand that they need to throttle P2P traffic, but the problem is that if I'm downloading from BitTorrent and surfing at the same time, my BitTorrent speed is about 5kbps and my HTTP grinds to a halt.

I suggest you check out their forums. They have a lot of unhappy customers.
 
Glenn Wolsey said:
Any other New Zealanders frustrated?
Click to expand...

Create a website encouraging people to create a Wifi mesh between local properties. You should be able to find enough enthusiasts to build homebrew directional links between neighbouring towns.

You'll find plenty of support groups and articles on Google to help you on your way.
 
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