Reduce Your Speed Option Being Removed

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Reduce Your Speed Option Being Removed - 1st March

pjamieson

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#189465 30-Dec-2015 19:30

Just saw this across various fineprint pages on the Spark Website. First I'd heard, certainly haven't had any emails or anything.

From March 1 2016 the option to reduce your broadband speed will be removed and Spark's data cap overage pricing will change and be charged at $5 per 5GB block of extra data, up to a maximum of $50 when we will put you on unlimited for the rest of the month.

I guess it is good from an industry / tech perspective. Will just have to be a little more careful with usage.

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#1459234 30-Dec-2015 19:30

Hello... Our robot found some keywords in your post, so here is an automated reply with some important things to note regarding broadband speeds.

If you are posting regarding DSL speeds please check that

- you have reset your modem and router

- your PC (or other PCs in your LAN) is not downloading large files when you are testing

- you are not being throttled by your ISP due to going over the monthly cap

- your tests are always done on an ethernet connection to the router - do not use wireless for testing

- you read this topic and follow the instructions there.

Make sure you provide information for other users to help you. If you have not already done it, please EDIT your post and add this now:

- Your ISP and plan

- Type of connection (ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL)

- Your modem DSL stats (do not worry about posting Speedtest, we need sync rate, attenuation and noise margin)

- Your general location (or street)

- If you are rural or urban

- If you know your connection is to an exchange, cabinet or conklin

- If your connection is to a ULL or wholesale service

- If you have done an isolation test as per the link above

Most of the problems with speed are likely to be related to internal wiring issues. Read this discussion to find out more about this. Your ISP is not intentionally slowing you down today (unless you are on a managed plan). Also if this is the school holidays it's likely you will notice slower than usual speed due to more users online.

A master splitter is required for VDSL2 and in most cases will improve speeds on DSL connections. Regular disconnections can be a monitored alarm or a set top box trying to connect. If there's an alarm connected to your line even if you don't have an alarm contract it may still try to connect so it's worth checking.

I recommend you read these two blog posts:

- Is your premises phone wiring impacting your broadband performance? (very technical)

- Are you receiving a substandard ULL ADSL2+ connection from your ISP?

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pjamieson

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#1459249 30-Dec-2015 19:33

Ahh, first time I've been PeterReader'd lol.

yitz

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#1459253 30-Dec-2015 19:46

I wonder if existing customers on reduce speed plans will be able to keep the option?

michaelmurfy

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#1459254 30-Dec-2015 19:47

pjamieson: Ahh, first time I've been PeterReader'd lol.

What is your sync speed? Do you have a master filter installed?

I honestly think everyone should be on Unlimited broadband if possible as it is cheap enough to be on. There has been quite a few advancements over the years with NZ broadband and I think removing the low speed option shows promise that people are either in the right plan for their needs (eg, unlimited or never go over). I'd say they'll have the few customers that'll complain but how I see it is if these customers are constantly going over their cap and can afford it then they should be on Unlimited. Thank god ISP's ain't acting like a particular American ISP by emailing it's customers "From next month you'll be on a capped plan best suited for your usage and no-longer on Unlimited, excess data over the cap is charged at $10 per 10gb block however good news! we won't charge you any data overage for the next month!"

Also, there is Sparks "Skinny" offering BigPipe for those who just want broadband without a phone which is as cheap as Sparks cheapest ADSL offering IIRC.

yitz: I wonder if existing customers on reduce speed plans will be able to keep the option?

I'd say the idea here is for Spark to remove some infrastructure saving themselves some money in the process (as well as potentially gaining too).

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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mentalinc

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#1459255 30-Dec-2015 19:50

pjamieson: Ahh, first time I've been PeterReader'd lol.

Should be badge for this!

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quickymart

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#1459302 30-Dec-2015 21:50

I would disagree that everyone should be on unlimited (to a degree) - IMO there would be no benefit for people still connected to Conklins.

Talkiet

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#1459303 30-Dec-2015 21:58

Ah... I'd heard rumours about this but didn't know we'd actually decided on a date. It's a good idea to kill the slow speed over cap plans - all they do is frustrate people and they end up upgrading their plan the same day (or when they notice) or churning to another ISP. The _very_ historical reasons for this are well known and it was an effective way of providing an alternative to the possible billshock people could get if they went over their cap at some horrendous overage rates...

I don't know whether it will be applied to existing plans - there may be legal reasons it is - but I dearly hope not and that we're pushing it to everyone. I'll find out when I am back at work...

Good Riddance Throttle on Cap.

Cheers - N

ps. not everyone needs to be on an unlimited plan - anyone that thinks so hasn't seen the distribution of usage of a meaningful number of customers.

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

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richms

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#1459305 30-Dec-2015 22:00

I think the capping the spend to the unlimited plan is a great idea. Makes this an excelent choice for old people that may occasionally have the grandkids for a weekend and blow thru 50 gigs in that time.

Richard rich.ms

hio77

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#1459310 30-Dec-2015 22:04

Interesting move.

Certainly will be a cause of a complaint or two to those who don't actually pay attention to the letter they likely received explaining the change.

As an isp that has a bit of a rep for good for "last day download day" Certainly is a good move. will be interested to see if those who do that will react - Why they arent already simply using Unlimited is anyones guess but anyway..

Certainly a move i support. Data caps are realistically a thing of the past, Why waste the money on the equipment to handle it..

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yitz

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#1459318 30-Dec-2015 22:23

richms: I think the capping the spend to the unlimited plan is a great idea. Makes this an excelent choice for old people that may occasionally have the grandkids for a weekend and blow thru 50 gigs in that time.

Not sure how an extra $50/month for having the grandkids over is an excellent choice for pensioners or those on fixed incomes. The spend cap is actually between $20-30 more than the cost of their unlimited data plan. The potential extra data charges (if applicable for grandfathered/existing plans) would be higher for those who are staying on old plans such as Total Home 10G for the included national calling.

Kind of disappointing to see the removal of the flat rate plan option from the market, but I guess they are trying to align themselves with mass market players Vodafone and more recently 2degrees Broadband. Especially with the Chorus copper price increases there is evidently no money to be made in $69 flat rate broadband.

richms

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#1459319 30-Dec-2015 22:25

yitz:
richms: I think the capping the spend to the unlimited plan is a great idea. Makes this an excelent choice for old people that may occasionally have the grandkids for a weekend and blow thru 50 gigs in that time.
Not sure how an extra $50/month for having the grandkids over is an excellent choice for pensioners or those on fixed incomes. The spend cap is actually between $20-30 more than their unlimited data plans when compared to their current plans. The potential extra data charges (if applicable for grandfathered/existing plans) would be higher for those who are staying on old plans such as Total Home 10G for the included national calling.

Kind of disappointing to see the removal of the flat rate plan option from the market, but I guess they are trying to align themselves with Vodafone and more recently 2degrees Broadband. Especially with the Chorus copper price increases there is evidently no money to be made in $69 flat rate broadband.

Better than having it stop working, which is basically what the speed cap does to anything other than wechat and text messages in hangouts etc.

The idea of a throttled connection has to die. IMO if people want a spend cap it should stop working and redirect to a page to add more data.

Richard rich.ms

jonb

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#1459393 31-Dec-2015 08:30

hio77: Interesting move.

Certainly will be a cause of a complaint or two to those who don't actually pay attention to the letter they likely received explaining the change.

As an isp that has a bit of a rep for good for "last day download day" Certainly is a good move. will be interested to see if those who do that will react - Why they arent already simply using Unlimited is anyones guess but anyway..

Certainly a move i support. Data caps are realistically a thing of the past, Why waste the money on the equipment to handle it..

Changed to unlimited a few months ago, before that I was a committed 'last day downloader', it would've been very annnoying to pick up a $50 overage fee for going over the limit on the last day of the cycle.

Batman

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#1459399 31-Dec-2015 08:50

I smell a move to no more unlimited. Which is fine. Why should a 151GB user pay for 151TB people.

Rikkitic

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#1459401 31-Dec-2015 08:55

I wouldn't mind an uncapped option but RBI doesn't offer that. We still get the choice to pay per extra gb, or return to dial-up speed. Guess which one we choose?

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Talkiet

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#1459406 31-Dec-2015 09:19

joker97: I smell a move to no more unlimited. Which is fine. Why should a 151GB user pay for 151TB people.

Hang on, WOT?

A) I don't follow your logic and

B) No, you're imagining things.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

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