Telecom New Zealand launches national WiFi network

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom New Zealand launches national WiFi network

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#903670 27-Sep-2013 12:40

BlueShift:
NonprayingMantis:
GregV: Shame it is not free for Telecom home broadband customers as well, but I suppose it is designed as a marketing tool for the mobile side of the business, with the added bonus of getting traffic off the mobile network.

probably much harder to automatically authenticate a fixed line customer - as their mobile could be with anybody, whereas its very easy to tell which mobile provider someone is with when they connect to wifi.

Is the Telecom Wifi authenticating by querying the SIM of the phone? Or asking the user to enter their phone number and a password? Can someone with a Telecom mobile account connect their wifi-only tablet to the system? Or is it only the specific Telecom-powered devices that can connect?

I would think it would just be a username/password sort of thing?
I imagine it is probably unnecessarily complicated to query the SIM card of a phone, wouldn't that require the Hotspot software 'talking' to the phones OS?

Behodar

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#903671 27-Sep-2013 12:40

I just tried it; it asks for your phone number and then presumably looks up whether or not it's a Telecom number. When I re-entered the area I didn't need to authenticate again so I'm guessing that my MAC address is now logged as valid.

alasta

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#903675 27-Sep-2013 12:41

I'm really struggling to see the point of this. A couple of gigabytes of 3G data is so cheap these days, and I really can't imagine that there would be people out there using several gigabytes a month while on the go.

Behodar

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#903676 27-Sep-2013 12:42

alasta: I'm really struggling to see the point of this. A couple of gigabytes of 3G data is so cheap these days, and I really can't imagine that there would be people out there using several gigabytes a month while on the go.

It's 5x as fast as 3G though!

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#903677 27-Sep-2013 12:49

alasta: I'm really struggling to see the point of this. A couple of gigabytes of 3G data is so cheap these days, and I really can't imagine that there would be people out there using several gigabytes a month while on the go.

In the US AT&T has a wifi network similar to what Telecom is setting up. When you enter the WiFi zone you hand over from the cellular network to WiFi for data and calling. Wonder if Telecom is looking at this as the long term plan..??

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#903690 27-Sep-2013 12:50

old3eyes: In the US AT&T has a wifi network similar to what Telecom is setting up. When you enter the WiFi zone you hand over from the cellular network to WiFi for data and calling. Wonder if Telecom is looking at this as the long term plan..??

This discussion may be relevant here.

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GregV

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#903691 27-Sep-2013 12:53

BlueShift: Is the Telecom Wifi authenticating by querying the SIM of the phone? Or asking the user to enter their phone number and a password? Can someone with a Telecom mobile account connect their wifi-only tablet to the system? Or is it only the specific Telecom-powered devices that can connect?

I wonder if this will remain in place:

You'll be able to connect up to 5 devices from the one registered mobile number for free

eXDee

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#903733 27-Sep-2013 13:48

alasta: I'm really struggling to see the point of this. A couple of gigabytes of 3G data is so cheap these days, and I really can't imagine that there would be people out there using several gigabytes a month while on the go.

A couple of gigs is upwards of $30. Not everyone wants to drop an extra $30 on their data plan. Look how popular the $19 combos are, half a gig isn't very much and many people don't want to spend heaps on their phone.
I still feel restricted in what I do on mobile data, I will almost never watch videos and seldom stream music.

I've used this network a few times to upload Dropbox images. It's very handy and the more the better.

Good to see VDSL is being used where possible, I assume in spots where it's not available everyone's fighting for the lower speed ADSL2+. I wondered whether they would have load balanced/port bonded multiple connections if available.

Additionally, right now telecoms phone network needs as much load off it as possible, it's been a while since I've seen a speed test above 2mbps thst isn't in the middle of the night.

NonprayingMantis

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#903738 27-Sep-2013 14:02

alasta: I'm really struggling to see the point of this. A couple of gigabytes of 3G data is so cheap these days, and I really can't imagine that there would be people out there using several gigabytes a month while on the go.

ummm really? The reason for that is that buying more than a couple of Gigs is pretty expensive.

With this, you can, in theory, use up to 30GB a month on top of your data plan - very handy if you spend, say, 20-30 minutes waiting for a bus every day, or something like that

hamish225

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#903818 27-Sep-2013 15:36

alasta: I'm really struggling to see the point of this. A couple of gigabytes of 3G data is so cheap these days, and I really can't imagine that there would be people out there using several gigabytes a month while on the go.

maybe if you're rich :P

*Insert big spe*dtest result here*

Inphinity

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#903823 27-Sep-2013 15:46

alasta: I'm really struggling to see the point of this. A couple of gigabytes of 3G data is so cheap these days, and I really can't imagine that there would be people out there using several gigabytes a month while on the go.

Extra 30GB/month mobile data ~ $490 (10x 3GB packs @ $49)
Extra 30GB/month wifi data ~ $0

Uh huh.

Even 3GB, at $49, when I can get it free on wifi? Sounds great to me.

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alasta

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#903842 27-Sep-2013 16:35

Wow - I didn't expect my comment to be that controversial!

I use about 1.5Gb of 3G data per month on 2degrees, and if I maxmise the value that I get out of the 12Gb value pack, plan bundled data and data sharing then I spend about $12 per month on average. In all honestly I don't consider this to be expensive.

Yes, I can totally understand that if you use more than this then the wifi service could be great, but it surprises me to think that many people would. I feel that I use my iPhone and iPad a lot, but I honestly couldn't use more than I do even if I wanted to.

NonprayingMantis

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#903863 27-Sep-2013 16:55

alasta: Wow - I didn't expect my comment to be that controversial!

I use about 1.5Gb of 3G data per month on 2degrees, and if I maxmise the value that I get out of the 12Gb value pack, plan bundled data and data sharing then I spend about $12 per month on average. In all honestly I don't consider this to be expensive.

Yes, I can totally understand that if you use more than this then the wifi service could be great, but it surprises me to think that many people would. I feel that I use my iPhone and iPad a lot, but I honestly couldn't use more than I do even if I wanted to.

seems pretty likely you have your maths wrong considering the 12GB pack is $99 and lasts 6 months, meaning even if that was the only data you bought, you would still be spending $16.50 per month.

alasta

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#903865 27-Sep-2013 17:00

NonprayingMantis:
alasta: Wow - I didn't expect my comment to be that controversial!

I use about 1.5Gb of 3G data per month on 2degrees, and if I maxmise the value that I get out of the 12Gb value pack, plan bundled data and data sharing then I spend about $12 per month on average. In all honestly I don't consider this to be expensive.

Yes, I can totally understand that if you use more than this then the wifi service could be great, but it surprises me to think that many people would. I feel that I use my iPhone and iPad a lot, but I honestly couldn't use more than I do even if I wanted to.

seems pretty likely you have your maths wrong considering the 12GB pack is $99 and lasts 6 months, meaning even if that was the only data you bought, you would still be spending $16.50 per month.

I get 500mb per month bundled with my calling plan. So, over a nine month period I get 4.5Gb on top of the 12Gb from the value pack which means that I can average the $99 out over nine months.

Of course I'm coming at this from the perspective that I would have my $29 calling plan regardless of any data use, so the marginal cost of that extra 500mb is zero. In reality I'm averaging $40 a month for the calling plan and data so it depends on how you look at it.

Wade

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#903880 27-Sep-2013 17:27

The difference being i can say use my tablet at a hot spot to say stream video which I would be less likely to do over 3G, Give me a gb a day and i will try and find a way to use it, give me a gb a month and i will try my darnedest to stretch it out

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