Best ISP for streaming

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sbowness

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#138264 27-Dec-2013 16:04

I live in Totara Vale on the North Shore in an area that will not see UFB for the foreseeable future (even though it's already rolled out only about 500m away on both Wairau Road and Ellice Road). I'm with Vodafone and about 300m from the nearest cabinet but I get continual buffering on both Netflix and iPlayer. I hear that VF are not the best ISP for streaming.

Which ISP would you recommend and would you go the VDSL route?

NonprayingMantis

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#957988 27-Dec-2013 16:11

Have you checked whether you can actually get vdsl? Vodafone don't offer it. But lots of other ISPs do. I would definitely get it if you can,

Telecom, slingshot, snap, bigpipe, and some others I have forgotten all offer it.

Check them out and see what you think. All have different pros and cons. Price, service, modem, contract length, datacaps etc.

kingjj

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#957990 27-Dec-2013 16:19

Telecom are pretty rock solid for streaming, helps when you own a chunk of the pipe. On ADSL2 with them, never had any issues with streaming Netflix or Hulu, speed has been consistent for last few years, always quick and peppy. Others on here seemed to have had issues with Telecom streaming though so I guess its one of those things in the world of Telecommunications...

Snap also have a good rep for streaming.

VDSL's great and all if you can get it, but if you are happy with the speeds provided with ADSL2+ it may not be worth upgrading (we have both VDSL and UFB available at home, happily staying with ADSL2 at present).

hio77

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#957994 27-Dec-2013 16:23

ild suggest switching to snap, for what little i have tried streaming on them, it has been great - im not one to watch streaming media all that often mind you

never had congestion issues with them, their support is great.

regardless of who you go with, a hope your chorus visit goes well..

kingjj:
VDSL's great and all if you can get it, but if you are happy with the speeds provided with ADSL2+ it may not be worth upgrading (we have both VDSL and UFB available at home, happily staying with ADSL2 at present).

you make so many people here jealous! including me :/

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l43a2

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#957995 27-Dec-2013 16:29

Telecom has a pretty good network for streaming etc and atm their VDSL is free install which includes a master filter etc

this an image of your general area and the redish orangely areas are VDSL coverage with the Blue squares being cabinets

hio77

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#957996 27-Dec-2013 16:32

l43a2: Telecom has a pretty good network for streaming etc and atm their VDSL is free install which includes a master filter etc

this an image of your general area and the redish orangely areas are VDSL coverage with the Blue squares being cabinets

all vdsl installations (the master filter etc - which is required for vdsl) is free somewhat. - its included in the vdsl fee that chorus charge providers

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l43a2

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#958005 27-Dec-2013 17:05

well if your an existing telecom customer you have to pay $99 :) which sucks :|

sidefx

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#958020 27-Dec-2013 17:17

Netflix on snap VDSL has been completely rock solid for our household. The kids and Mrs love it.

EDIT: And yeah, I'd absolutely go the VDSL route. I had no issues paying the extra $25 per month when that was the premium on it over ADSL. At only $10 extra now it's brilliant.

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sbowness

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#958038 27-Dec-2013 18:01

Thanks to everyone for the responses so far. We are in VDSL-land, so it is very definitely an option. The painful thing will be unwinding the various discounts I get with VF for Sky, home and mobile. Would love to move away from Sky but I need it for the sport (same old story).

NonprayingMantis

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#958091 27-Dec-2013 20:02

sbowness: Thanks to everyone for the responses so far. We are in VDSL-land, so it is very definitely an option. The painful thing will be unwinding the various discounts I get with VF for Sky, home and mobile. Would love to move away from Sky but I need it for the sport (same old story).

They can be deceptive. You might find you are actually a lot better off going to telecom or 2d prepaid for mobile, and the savings you make more than offset the sky discount Vf gives you.

Whether this works for you depends on your usage, but as an example:

You can get unlimited naked vdsl on bigpipe for $99 per month.
Add a telecom prepaid mobile for $19 per month to give you 100 mins, unlimited SMS, 500MB mobile data and 30GB of wifi data.
Add netflix and unblockus for $15 per month total and all your broadband, mobile, and entertainment is sorted too for less than $150 per month.
Sport can be found on the internet in many different places if you are willing to use google.

What do you get with VF and how much do you pay?

michaelmurfy

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#958103 27-Dec-2013 21:06

I'm with Telecom and find it awesome, totally worth it!

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hairy1

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#958105 27-Dec-2013 21:18

I have no issues streaming with Vodafone ADSL. Netflix starts instantly and is in HD after less than a minute. Why don't you just try sticking with Vodafone for a start and see how it goes?

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sbowness

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#958172 28-Dec-2013 07:26

What do you get with VF and how much do you pay?

I've just moved to the Entertain package with Sky Sport and SoHo and multiroom and my mobile on their $39 plan. I got a loyalty discount off a new phone bu t didn't have to sign up to a term. I'm still waiting for the first bill with the whole lot on it, but I'm expecting the first one to be around the $215 mark. I should also mention that my mother's email address hangs off my account as well, so I would need to move us both to a more generic one.

I posted a comment on the Vodafone Community forums (adding to the long-running "Where's the VDSL?" thread) and apparently VDSL was the subject of their most recent Vodafone Voice survey. As usual, VF won't confirm anything at this stage "but a little more patience might just pay off." I'll give them until the end of January and then make a call. Snap seems a good alternative but the cost of their modem is a bit up there. Telecom seems to have a great package but their recent results in the TrueNet testing came off second best to Snap (they were the only two VDSL providers that met the criteria).

I'm not sure why I don't get good streaming here. My Speedtest results are pretty good:

but I know there is more to it than that. Any tips?

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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#958209 28-Dec-2013 09:47

sbowness:
What do you get with VF and how much do you pay?

I've just moved to the Entertain package with Sky Sport and SoHo and multiroom and my mobile on their $39 plan. I got a loyalty discount off a new phone bu t didn't have to sign up to a term. I'm still waiting for the first bill with the whole lot on it, but I'm expecting the first one to be around the $215 mark. I should also mention that my mother's email address hangs off my account as well, so I would need to move us both to a more generic one.

I posted a comment on the Vodafone Community forums (adding to the long-running "Where's the VDSL?" thread) and apparently VDSL was the subject of their most recent Vodafone Voice survey. As usual, VF won't confirm anything at this stage "but a little more patience might just pay off." I'll give them until the end of January and then make a call. Snap seems a good alternative but the cost of their modem is a bit up there. Telecom seems to have a great package but their recent results in the TrueNet testing came off second best to Snap (they were the only two VDSL providers that met the criteria).

I'm not sure why I don't get good streaming here. My Speedtest results are pretty good:

but I know there is more to it than that. Any tips?

If you just changed packages then you have probably locked yourself into a contract for 12 or 24 months.

As for vdsl, the difference between the truenet scores of snap and telecom is so small as to be basically unnoticeable.

sbowness

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#958220 28-Dec-2013 10:41

I'm on open term. I made sure of that.

sbowness

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#958834 29-Dec-2013 22:21

Just to provide an update, I had Netflix working really well on Saturday afternoon with resolutions of 720HD - 1080 Super HD. However, after 1830 it started to deteriorate to the stage where it was unwatchable after 1900. It appears that prime time congestion is probably the issue.