Telecom New Zealand backpedals and remove un-capped broadband plan Go Large
The Go Large plan was supposed to be a non-cap, max speed DSL plan, with managed bandwidth.
Managed bandwidth, you ask? What is this? Well, when the plan started Telecom New Zealand told everyone that all P2P (peer-to-peer), NNTP (usenet newsgroups) and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) traffic would be "managed", that is throttled so that the bandwidth consumption wouldn't affect users in other (capped) plans, or even web browsing and e-mail traffic.
Now Telecom cancelled the plan and wrote this on their web site:
An error on our part has meant that since 8 December the process to manage traffic on the GO LARGE plan has been different to what was originally intended and communicated to customers. This may have affected the experience some customers had on this plan.
We are currently communicating this message via email or letter to customers who have been on the GO LARGE Plan between 8 December 2006 and the end of February 2007.
As acknowledgement of this error we will be crediting customers for the monthly GO LARGE plan charges for the applicable time they have been on this service between 8 December 2006 and the end of February 2007.
Wow! Look at the revised Traffic Management:
What type of Internet usage is likely to be affected by traffic management on the Go Large plan?
All of your traffic including web surfing, email, downloading, streaming, file sharing or gaming will be managed. This is to try to ensure our network performs as effectively and efficiently as possible for the majority of our customers.
When does traffic management apply on the Go Large plan?
Traffic management will be applied to the Go Large plan 24 hours a day. It will be more noticeable during times of network congestion or at peak times when it is applied more vigorously. Generally, peak times are likely to occur between 4pm and midnight each day.Although traffic management is an effective way of managing congestion, it won't remove it from our network or the internet entirely. During busy periods, there are still heaps of people surfing the web, downloading and emailing, so you are still likely to see some reduced speeds at these times.
In other words, from at least early December Telecom had problems and couldn't make the difference between web browsing, gaming or P2P traffic, affecting the experience for everyone on its Go Large plan.
All while their CSRs kept saying "there's nothing wrong" to irate customers who could barely use the service.
For some time, the advice in our Geekzone forums to users on Go Large was to either change plans or change ISP. This was the most viable alternative and always gave good results. Shame Telecom couldn't see under their noses.
What a fiasco Telecom New Zealand. Who's at fault? Management, Call Centre or your network engineers?
Tag(s):
Other related posts:
Vodafone UK Twitter wasn’t hacked, just a disgruntled employee
Telecom and Vodafone have we covered where kiwis work, live and play - your turn to sell it now
There are more serious things than Bill Shock: modern telephone fraud
Comment by Simone, on 22-FEB-2007 10:03
And what will happen with people that are on GO LARGE now?
You said they removed that plan? Will I be forced to switch to a normal traffic capped or can I stay with that plan?
Comment by antoniosk, on 22-FEB-2007 10:10
Telecom will contact customers to give you options, none of which are really that nice.
This is a neutered plan - switch to something else with a 10 or 20gb cap and be done with it.
Comment by juha, on 22-FEB-2007 10:16
Simone: no, Go Large has been "suspended" in that it won't be offered to new customers or ones wanting to migrate to it.
Even so, I can't see much attraction to a plan that now has rate-limiting on all traffic, even though it's allegedly in the evenings only. Not good...
Comment by TheBartender, on 22-FEB-2007 22:07
I wonder what if any flow-on effect this will have to other ISP's fullspeed/uncapped plans?
I feel redeemed now for all my moaning about he Go Large plan, prompting me too move to Woosh, but what now...
Will Telecom modify thier wholesale agreement, affecting what Woosh offers me?
Will my Woosh connection improve now that the problems are resolved?
Will my Woosh connection degrade?
Should I be happy with my current connection speed in light of this news?
Should I be asking for a refund as well?
I'll reserve judgement for now.
Comment by paradoxsm, on 23-FEB-2007 12:29
This is just going to backfire horribly on xtra, and Telecom as a whole, especially as it's looking to leverage Xtra for it's "full service" offerings. this might have been the defining death pill for NGN, I seriously doubt customers will trust.
Comment by jimmi, on 2-MAR-2007 05:36
move to the uk. Telecom will never get it right.
Comment by Frances, on 12-MAY-2007 10:15
Woosh has now backpedaled too. After we made the switch from IHug which downsized the cap on our plan from 80GB to 10GB, Woosh has changed its unlimited cap to 10GB. It's not like we got fast speeds with those companies either (May 11th 2007). Now it will cost $125 for what Woosh calls a 'professional' package, leaving normal users in the cold.
Internet in New Zealand is just getting worse and worse.
Comment by Cant say, on 4-JAN-2008 15:48
This was another typical fault from telecom where the poor buggers on the phone wherent told s%^t about what was really happening, and where basicly asked to "fob" the custoemrs off, same as with the yahoo/bubble fiasco, and to this day has 1 single person from telecom/xtra managment team stuck there hand up and said sorry? of course not there a pack of old suits who first of didnt know that text would take off as a form of communiaction , and second have little clue about bb/it systems.
Comment by Will, on 3-AUG-2008 16:50
Ive just moved house. im on the go large plan and according to the operators at telecom because it has been 'withdrawn' it is not possible for me to stay on the plan at my new house. Does anyone think this is just telecom trying to get rid of the last go large customers? i get its been withdrawn but i don't neeed to apply, i already have it!
i'd take my $ elsewhere but its unlimited, anyone have any ideas about what to do about this? im thinking of going down the consumer/fairgo/ path etc but am waiting for telecoms marketing department to get back to me like i was told theyd do over a week ago!
Comment by susan, on 11-MAR-2009 09:15
I have go large and find it very bad wondering if to change to explorer?
Comment by billy, on 2-APR-2009 02:13
I moved house shortly before you will and i asked if i could keep my "current" plan (i didnt ay go large for fear of the rep leaing out of there skin at the words, any way i got a ery simple and easy yes from them. no fuss no nohing.
still on go large still happy... but not as happy finding that my new exchange in not adsl2+ and ive more than halfed my DL speeds... but it due for upgrade shortly so no biggy.
Add a comment
Please note: comments that are inappropriate or promotional in nature will be deleted.
E-mail addresses are not displayed, but you must enter a valid e-mail address to confirm your comments.
Are you a registered Geekzone user? Login to have the fields below automatically filled in for you and to enable links in comments.
If you have (or qualify to have) a Geekzone Blog then your comment will be automatically confirmed and shown in this blog post.
Comment by tonyhughes, on 22-FEB-2007 09:36
Im on Go Large, and YouTube started working really well last night!!