See the broadband report released yesterday (pdf)

Vodafone was rated second worst out of the major ISPs in New Zealand.

But I'm not going to change anytime soon.

Though there are small markets for extreme speeds and/or impressive reliability, I believe most people (which includes me) want the following:

• "reasonable" speeds for the service that they're getting (so 256kbps is reasonable if the user only requires such a speed. I'm happy with the 4-5mbps I'm getting)
• affordability (in hard hitting times like these)
• efficiency of the broadband network
• simplicity

Affordability is a major factor of choosing ISPs.

Here is a table of the providers detailed in the report's ADSL "premium" plans:

	Internet			Landline		Complete
	Plan	Data (upto 50GB)^	Subtotal	Plan	Subtotal	Total
TelstraClear	TelstraClear PDQ Max	$59.75	$103.75	PhoneLine Basic	$44.49	$148.24
Maxnet	DASH MX/MX	-	$152.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
Inspire	Bitstream FS-FS	$20.00	$147.50	N/A	N/A	N/A
WorldxChange	Xnet Flood	$51.20	$101.15	N/A	N/A	N/A
Orcon	Orcon Purple (with calling)*	$39.60	$79.55^	Homeline	$45.00	$124.55^
Slingshot	Inferno (with Data)	$35.00	$94.95^	Homeline	$44.95	$139.90^
Vodafone	Ultimate pack	$45.00	$95.00^+	Home phone+	$40.00+	$135.00^
Telecom	Pro Ultra	-	$149.95	Anytime	$41.20	$191.15

(non-LLU, non-VoIP, Max/Max broadband speeds, only closest plan under 50GB compared, unless otherwise stated)
^ Only comparative pricing (via data blocks, and if not available, then through data overage)
* Only Purple was one which had no frills, therefore it was used.
⁺ Vodafone uses packages - therefore these are only representative pricing.


Out of all of the major providers with landline services (TelstraClear, Orcon, Slingshot, Vodafone, Telecom), broadband pricing from cheapest to most expensive was:

1. Orcon
2. Slingshot
3. Vodafone
4. TelstraClear
5. Telecom

... and the complete home phone and broadband pricing:

1. Orcon
2. Vodafone
3. Slingshot
4. TelstraClear
5. Telecom

So I'm getting pretty good value and speeds from my provider.

I'm not going to argue or prove anything about my ISP's speeds.
Why?
Simply anyone at any place at any point in time with any equipment and any sort of traffic from anywhere will have any sort of attainable speed... which is why it's only a matter of trial-and-switch.


Simplicity is a matter of personal opinion, which cannot be described by anyone. I could feel that running 3 programs to do one thing is simple, and another with only 1 program to do the same job.


Efficiency of the broadband network is something I have no knowledge about - I don't work for any telecommunications company, and so I'll have to agree with information gathered by companies like Epitiro.



This wraps up my long post - long live the ISPs...

Australians may be getting an unlocked iPhone 3G from AUD$699...

Don't know if it's true, but this does show something:



Most reports say that we're getting an On Account iPhone here on the Vodafone New Zealand network though.

Most people with Vodafone's broadband plans know about the "Double your Data" service, allowing customers to have twice the data allowance for a set price.

Here is the list available from within My Vodafone:


Heh - broadband easy, ideal and ultimate repeats itself twice.

The main thing is though, that there is broadband 1 Red broadband 2 Red and broadband 4 Red. Is Vodafone allowing old customers to be on the Red network too? Or is it just a mistake?

Telstra has threatened legal action over claims made by Optus:

“iPhone 3G is the handset Australians have been waiting for,” said Paul O’Sullivan, Optus Chief Executive. “With Optus, more iPhone users can enjoy 3G services as we expand our network to 96 percent of the population by December 2008 and 98 percent by December 2009. We look forward to providing our unique services and content to consumers and business customers via this outstanding handset.”

Optus and Apple to Bring iPhone 3G to Australia on July 11 - Optus Media Centre

The network being referred to is the Optus/Vodafone 900MHz 3G network which, like the network which Vodafone here is rolling out, is not supported by the iPhone 3G for 3G data, and will instead be running on their 2100MHz network which has very poor coverage (unfortunately like Vodafone's 3G network here).

The thing here is - Telstra's Next G 3G network runs on 850MHz, which luckily could be supported by the iPhone 3G.

Mozilla's flagship browser, Firefox, will be available in it's third version on June 17.

... and if you can't wait that long, Firefox 3 rc3 is available too.

EDIT: Also don't forget Download Day - make Mozilla and the Firefox community proud by challenging the Guiness Book of World Records for the most software downloads in 24 hours!