Cost of broadband

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Cost of broadband

UnrealWarCheek

86 posts

Master Geek

#31815 31-Mar-2009 13:53

Hi guys,

I've just checked my mums broadband package from Vodafone. The last time I checked (1.5 years ago) it was called the 'Starter' package and it cost $40 per month ($30 if you had your phone calls with them) and you got a reasonable 2GB per month. But as I've discovered, She now has a 'Ideal pack' for $80 with has 5GB allowance. I'd need to check with her, but I can't see her agreeing to change to that amount per month.

[EDIT] The point I'm making is this: Shouldn't the cost of broadband becoming down as more people adopt it? and wouldn't the worse case be that the cost remains the same, but certainly not double in price!

Sorry this isn't the post I originally made, a feedbackdialog kept saying I was using 'bad words'. I didn't realise my spelling was that bad :)

Ilmarin

94 posts

Master Geek

#204429 31-Mar-2009 14:26

The 'Starter' package would have been for broadband only, but the 'Ideal pack' includes the home phone line rental (which is around $40 a month usually), so Vodafone have simply consolidated her broadband and home phone into one package (as most ISPs are now doing). She may be paying slightly more overall than she was before ($5 - $10 more), but she does have the option of downshifting to the 'Easy pack', which is $10 cheaper, and an extra $5/GB if she uses more than 1 GB per month... so she'd be paying the same or less than she was before broadband + phone consolidation.

Broadband pricing has been fairly stable in the past couple of years as far as I've noticed. I think the base price is pretty reasonable now, and not likely to go much lower if at all... but the real killer is still traffic charges, being dictated by international bandwidth costs. Whether ISPs are smoothing those costs across all plans (even the low data cap plans) or not, I don't know, but if we ever get competing international pipes, subscription costs will drop across the board, proportional to the data allowance.

Ragnor

8221 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#204594 1-Apr-2009 00:58

Yes her plan will be phone line rental + internet. Vodafone don't even offer just internet anymore, all their plans are bundled with phone.

Somewhere along the way she would have agreed to ditch Telecom phone rental (if that was she was using before).

nate

6473 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#204647 1-Apr-2009 12:02

UnrealWarCheek: Sorry this isn't the post I originally made, a feedbackdialog kept saying I was using 'bad words'. I didn't realise my spelling was that bad :)

The bad words filter doesn't check for spelling, but for particular swear/vulgar words. You may have included something without thinking about it, and hence the error.

I wish Geekzone had a spelling checker, would make our mod life so much easier...

UnrealWarCheek

86 posts

Master Geek

#204901 2-Apr-2009 14:20

Erm.......

I've juxt logged back in to give my apologies.

Yes, that cost is inclusive of BOTH phone and Internet, as mentioned above.

And yes she did give Telecom the flick.

It was such a suprise to see such a change in the pricing structure.

Feel a bit of a fool now, but I'm fessing up to it

I certainly don't make a habit of using bad language in the public forum, either online or offline, it may have been the excessive use of exclamation marks that caught the filters eye.

Being an IT graduate, I should have been more vigilant with the current pricing etc.

Thats enough Humble Pie for today.

Cheers.