Telecom online usage meter ripping people off?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom online usage meter ripping people off?

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22 posts

Geek

#277455 29-Nov-2009 13:13

Ah, didn't realise it was a 24 month contract, but makes sense. Haven't read too much about Big Time - may have to investigate. Am a little worried about shaping, to be honest. I don't torrent or use rapidshare (or functional equivalents) but I do use skype frequently during the day for business. Will need to see if that is shaped.

Sheagae

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#277458 29-Nov-2009 13:25

chatoyer: Ah, didn't realise it was a 24 month contract, but makes sense. Haven't read too much about Big Time - may have to investigate. Am a little worried about shaping, to be honest. I don't torrent or use rapidshare (or functional equivalents) but I do use skype frequently during the day for business. Will need to see if that is shaped.

Skype shouldn't use too much bandwidth, unless you are using video on it. You do know that you can change over once per billing cycle for free and try any of the residential plans right? Change over in the last week or few days of your billing cycle to the big time plan. If it doesn't suit your needs, change back whenever you feel like it, and as its a new billing cycle, you won't have to wait til another cycle to change. This is how I understand it to work, however I could be wrong.

cbrpilot

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#277571 29-Nov-2009 20:27

I would not recommend Big Time for *any* latency sensitive applications (e.g. Skype).

My views are my own, and may not necessarily represent those of my employer.

freitasm

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#277574 29-Nov-2009 20:30

cbrpilot: I would not recommend Big Time for *any* latency sensitive applications (e.g. Skype).

Is this opinion based on first hand experience?

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cbrpilot

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#277606 29-Nov-2009 22:00

freitasm:
cbrpilot: I would not recommend Big Time for *any* latency sensitive applications (e.g. Skype).

Is this opinion based on first hand experience?

It's based upon the fact that all traffic on the plan is shaped, and shaping will add latency. By all means, give it a shot, but if it's a business critical application I'd stay well clear.

My views are my own, and may not necessarily represent those of my employer.

exportgoldman

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#277624 29-Nov-2009 22:21

cbrpilot:
freitasm:
cbrpilot: I would not recommend Big Time for *any* latency sensitive applications (e.g. Skype).

Is this opinion based on first hand experience?

It's based upon the fact that all traffic on the plan is shaped, and shaping will add latency. By all means, give it a shot, but if it's a business critical application I'd stay well clear.

Well from someone actually on Big Time, I can say that I can sustain 1-2 video streams from America or Skype.

Also it's not so much latency, I get good latency to USA, eg now when I'm being traffic shaped, I get the following

Pinging whitehouse.gov [96.6.234.135] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 96.6.234.135: bytes=32 time=181ms TTL=52
Reply from 96.6.234.135: bytes=32 time=202ms TTL=52
Reply from 96.6.234.135: bytes=32 time=162ms TTL=52
Reply from 96.6.234.135: bytes=32 time=146ms TTL=52

Telecom's shaping doesn't kill the latency like some implementations I've seen, but if you want uber speed go PRO.

The problem I have with the usage meter is this month it's all showing 0MB for up and downloads each day.

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#277633 29-Nov-2009 23:34

cbrpilot: I would not recommend Big Time for *any* latency sensitive applications (e.g. Skype).

I run Skype video caling to the UK on Big Time and it works like a charm.

the only stuff I find that is slow is
a) torrents (as expected)
b) non-cached youtube which loads painfully slow.

boby55

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#277635 29-Nov-2009 23:38

I run skype to au, and uk on big time and its great ;D

Things I notice speed on

Torrents (which I leave going over night and they finish)
Un cached youtube (which you just refresh the page and by the time you are done it has cached the video)

I am also having the same problem exportgoldman with the usage meter. Although its not a mager as we don't have a cap I like to see how much data I have used

Sheagae

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#277638 29-Nov-2009 23:45

boby55: I run skype to au, and uk on big time and its great ;D

Things I notice speed on

Torrents (which I leave going over night and they finish)
Un cached youtube (which you just refresh the page and by the time you are done it has cached the video)

I am also having the same problem exportgoldman with the usage meter. Although its not a mager as we don't have a cap I like to see how much data I have used

The usage meter showing 0MB is probably related to the usage meter displaying skewed results for myself and others.

On another note, anyone use bigtime on Xbox Live?

tardtasticx

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#277639 29-Nov-2009 23:48

Lukej, I use BigTime on Xbox Live, its ok sometimes, but its really inconsistant. like, connection will be mint on day, then it will just turn and take like 2 mins to sign into xbox live. My xbox actually said it couldnt connect to xbox live today, thats how slow it went. IDC anymore, were stuck with it over the holidays anyways because 20gb just wont last me and my house. And my usage meter has been showing I've only used 0.08MB over the last week or so. lol.

Sheagae

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#277640 29-Nov-2009 23:51

tardtasticx: Lukej, I use BigTime on Xbox Live, its ok sometimes, but its really inconsistant. like, connection will be mint on day, then it will just turn and take like 2 mins to sign into xbox live. My xbox actually said it couldnt connect to xbox live today, thats how slow it went. IDC anymore, were stuck with it over the holidays anyways because 20gb just wont last me and my house. And my usage meter has been showing I've only used 0.08MB over the last week or so. lol.

Ah I see, thanks for sharing. We have 3 xboxes using xbox live in this household. Was curious to know how that was. I saw when Telecom first advertised bigtime it was aimed at "heavy internet users, including gamers" but now they have taken that statement back.

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tardtasticx

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#277722 30-Nov-2009 10:25

c71931f:
tardtasticx:

Just a note to ya, You might wanna take your msn addy " MSN: tardtasticx [at] msn.com" off your signature...
As i'm sure there's alot of spam bot's etc that won't mind collecting that email address....

Thats a spare email account I check like, once every couple of days. Not my main one. Not that stupid. :D

freitasm

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#277726 30-Nov-2009 10:39

tardtasticx:
c71931f:
tardtasticx:

Just a note to ya, You might wanna take your msn addy " MSN: tardtasticx [at] msn.com" off your signature...
As i'm sure there's alot of spam bot's etc that won't mind collecting that email address....

Thats a spare email account I check like, once every couple of days. Not my main one. Not that stupid. :D

Then people write "Hotmail is a magnet for spammers!" but there's a reason ;)

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Sheagae

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#278227 1-Dec-2009 12:20

Ok well the update on this topic: Telecom claim everything is fine with their usage meter for my account, after admitting there are problems :s doesn't really add up.

There are people on here and gpforums that are experiencing this exact same problem.

But they have confirmed twice via email that nothing is wrong. This is ridiculous. Customers are very low on their priority list. I will be calling them up and wasting hours of my time trying to talk sense into someone, and will most likely be ignored and told i'm wrong.

How's Telstraclear these days?

Spong

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#278357 1-Dec-2009 15:56

lukej: Ok well the update on this topic: Telecom claim everything is fine with their usage meter for my account, after admitting there are problems :s doesn't really add up.

There are people on here and gpforums that are experiencing this exact same problem.

But they have confirmed twice via email that nothing is wrong. This is ridiculous. Customers are very low on their priority list. I will be calling them up and wasting hours of my time trying to talk sense into someone, and will most likely be ignored and told i'm wrong.

How's Telstraclear these days?

I phoned Telecom last night, as I'm certain my useage is being metered at approx twice my actual data download. The CSR went away, came back and agreed there were many people experiencing this problem, and they are working on it. No ETA for a fix though, and they weren't able to confirm my account's affected. I now have to cut my useage to about 50% this month, otherwise my overage could cost a small fortune, and with no guarantees I won't be charged for overage. I find this unacceptable. My 40GB plan is currently at 25GB with 18 days to go, and I've been cutting back seriously. In addition, this month, day 1 of my plan showed 5GB, and I'm pretty certain nearly all of that was from the day before. Is it essential to reboot your modem on a Telecom connection to avoid this? (as suggested on the daily usage page.) If so, this is a pretty inaccurate method of charging for sure.

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