500plan to unlimited

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › 500plan to unlimited

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#1274535 31-Mar-2015 15:49

I'm currently on the 150 plan naked, i pay $99, then get a $30 discount for being naked and then charged an extra $10 for VDSL, total of $79. So really it looks like i will pay $20 extra but when i go to change the data, it tells me that it will be $10 extra for naked plans. Does that make sense?

If i sign up to another 12 month contract, am i able to get the $100 credit, free modem etc?

Any help is appreciated

Talkiet

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#1274598 31-Mar-2015 16:52

Fabian: I'm currently on the 150 plan naked, i pay $99, then get a $30 discount for being naked and then charged an extra $10 for VDSL, total of $79. So really it looks like i will pay $20 extra but when i go to change the data, it tells me that it will be $10 extra for naked plans. Does that make sense?

If i sign up to another 12 month contract, am i able to get the $100 credit, free modem etc?

Any help is appreciated

From what I can see the Naked discount now for the unlimited plans is $10/month. Disclaimer, I'm a tech guy and don't know the product offers perfectly.

I don't know the historical pricing of the 150GB plan (clothed and naked) sorry.

From what I can see the correct price (currently) for Unlimited Naked VDSL is $99 (and whatever plan you're on you get the free lightbox deal for a year - well... "12 months is 12 Lightbox billing periods of 30 days. Requires a credit card." :-)

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.

nyquist

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#1276670 3-Apr-2015 11:49

We changed from the 500GB plan to the Unlimited data plan since traffic management was going to be removed in February and we thought there would be no impact.

Unfortunately, what we thought and what we have experienced was vastly different.

Since moving to the Unlimited data plan, we have had issues. We usually have around 4 family members (possibly 4+ devices) either gaming, streaming, or browsing the internet, with no issues when we were on the 500GB plan. After going on the Unlimited plan though, we have experienced a lot of frustration with lag and buffering when gaming or streaming (at one point, I couldn't even watch one episode of Suits on Lightbox because of the buffering).

We have asked to move back to the 500GB, but was told no as this plan was no longer offered.

So with VDSL not available (after a frustrating experience with the website telling us it was), we are regretting ever moving onto the Unlimited data plan and running out of options to resolve our speed issues. After around 20 years with Telecom/Spark, it might be time to review other options.

quickymart

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#1276672 3-Apr-2015 11:58

What's your location? Other options available?

nyquist

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#1276706 3-Apr-2015 13:06

We're in New Lynn.

One of the options to resolve our speed issues was upgrading to VDSL or Fibre, so we checked our address on the Spark website and it said VDSL and Fibre was available. We decided to upgrade to VDSL as we prefer an easier installation process. However, the Online team has come back saying after further testing, VDSL was actually not available and the only other options are ADSL and Mobile broadband.

I've asked if we can go back to the 500GB plan one more time, but if we can't then only other option is to look at other ISPs. We would prefer to stay with Spark as we have been customers for a very long time and have home phone, broadband and mobile with Spark, but the speed issues have been frustrating and it might be time to move on.

quickymart

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#1276717 3-Apr-2015 13:27

If you have VDSL and fibre available, why not try for fibre?

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Jase2985

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#1276754 3-Apr-2015 14:54

nyquist: We changed from the 500GB plan to the Unlimited data plan since traffic management was going to be removed in February and we thought there would be no impact.

Unfortunately, what we thought and what we have experienced was vastly different.

Since moving to the Unlimited data plan, we have had issues. We usually have around 4 family members (possibly 4+ devices) either gaming, streaming, or browsing the internet, with no issues when we were on the 500GB plan. After going on the Unlimited plan though, we have experienced a lot of frustration with lag and buffering when gaming or streaming (at one point, I couldn't even watch one episode of Suits on Lightbox because of the buffering).

We have asked to move back to the 500GB, but was told no as this plan was no longer offered.

So with VDSL not available (after a frustrating experience with the website telling us it was), we are regretting ever moving onto the Unlimited data plan and running out of options to resolve our speed issues. After around 20 years with Telecom/Spark, it might be time to review other options.

i can almost guarantee you will have the same issues no matter what ISP you choose, and that its got zero to do with the change, you are still on the same resource pool you were on when you had the 500gb plan

it will be how you are using it now that it is "unlimited"

its an ADSL connection so its actually pretty easy to saturate the connection, especially if you are streaming HD content and trying to game at the same time.

it seems like your trying to do too much on your adsl connection at once.

nyquist

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#1276813 3-Apr-2015 17:05

quickymart: If you have VDSL and fibre available, why not try for fibre?

VDSL and Fibre isn't available....as per my previous post, the website said it was, but the Online team said after further testing only ADSL was available.

Even if Fibre was, we prefer an easier installation like VDSL.

Jase2985: i can almost guarantee you will have the same issues no matter what ISP you choose, and that its got zero to do with the change, you are still on the same resource pool you were on when you had the 500gb plan

it will be how you are using it now that it is "unlimited"

its an ADSL connection so its actually pretty easy to saturate the connection, especially if you are streaming HD content and trying to game at the same time.

it seems like your trying to do too much on your adsl connection at once.

I'm not sure that makes sense since how we've been using our connection hasn't changed, only the plan we are on.

We didn't suddenly start gaming or streaming in the last 2 or 3 months we have been on the Unlimited data plan - we have gaming or streaming simultaneously for the last couple of years on the 500GB plan and have had no problems with either. We only had issues once we moved to the Unlimited data plan.

If anything, we have had to change the way we use our connection after moving to the Unlimited data plan, because of the frustration of lag/buffering. We are likely using less than we have previously on the 500GB plan.

I think we were on a different resource pool when we were on the 500GB plan back when we there was traffic management on the Unlimited data plan. Now, I'm not sure if this is still the case - someone can confirm - but it would explain the drop in speed/performance we are currently experiencing.

Talkiet

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#1276816 3-Apr-2015 17:13

nyquist: [snip]
I think we were on a different resource pool when we were on the 500GB plan back when we there was traffic management on the Unlimited data plan. Now, I'm not sure if this is still the case - someone can confirm - but it would explain the drop in speed/performance we are currently experiencing.

You were not on a different bandwidth pool. Nobody was EVER in a different bandwidth pool. There was never any traffic management applied to the unlimited plan. I can't believe how often this needs to be stated on here.

I'm afraid I don't know why you are experiencing the issue you have.

We'd need some more controlled descriptions of the issues to look into it.

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.

Jase2985

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#1276817 3-Apr-2015 17:14

but your not on a different resource pool, spark have even said that. and look while i was posting they have :)

you are very quick to blame the ISP but you haven't bothered to diagnose your side of the connection. do you know exactly whats going on, on the other devices when things start buffering?

a HD stream from lightbox will use over half of your available bandwidth, so doing anything else like loading a youtube video will cause it to buffer.

it could also be the content provider, have you thought about that?

also things like online streaming/gaming are the least likely things to be bandwidth managed if that were to happen. its things like torrent, P2P and downloads that would be limited, so your streaming wont be affected.

but hey keep blaming the ISP

you haven't mentioned what exactly you are doing when things slow down

nyquist

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#1276820 3-Apr-2015 17:30

Jase2985: but your not on a different resource pool, spark have even said that. and look while i was posting they have :)

you are very quick to blame the ISP but you haven't bothered to diagnose your side of the connection. do you know exactly whats going on, on the other devices when things start buffering?

a HD stream from lightbox will use over half of your available bandwidth, so doing anything else like loading a youtube video will cause it to buffer.

it could also be the content provider, have you thought about that?

also things like online streaming/gaming are the least likely things to be bandwidth managed if that were to happen. its things like torrent, P2P and downloads that would be limited, so your streaming wont be affected.

but hey keep blaming the ISP

you haven't mentioned what exactly you are doing when things slow down

I'm not exactly sure what I need to do to diagnose my connection. Nothing has changed. We stream Lightbox, we stream Netflix, we stream Youtube, and I stream NHL games occasionally. This is going on while someone might be gaming. We don't do any P2P or torrenting. Our behaviour hasn't changed. These have not posed any issues in December and for the last two years on the 500GB plan.

I have contacted a Spark CSR via the Online chat on their website and they told me it was because the Unlimited data plan was traffic managed - I had to direct them to the updated web page where the traffic management clause was removed.

Honestly, I'm not exactly sure who to believe in this case. I'm not blaming the ISP - but I am quite frustrated at the different information I am receiving, and the fact that we have tried different options with Spark to resolve these issues, but end up seeming to go nowhere - or end up being blamed for the way we use our internet? I'm not sure, but like I said, we've been with Telecom/Spark for a very long time, and leaving is mostly a last resort.

ETA: Back to the basic gist of the first post - given that we had no issues when we were on the 500GB plan VDSL/Fibre is not available, this is why we would like to try and go back to that plan.

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Jase2985

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#1276823 3-Apr-2015 17:38

CSR's are notoriously out of touch with information that isnt to do with setting up a modem or basic fault finding info. so in your case im going to say they have embellished and told you the wrong thing. If you are on here a lot, you see if from all the ISP's CSR's giving out incorrect information because they didn't know what else to say.

you may think your habits haven't changed, but are you 100% sure of that, and is the content you are viewing the same quality as you used to watch? a lot more content is coming out in HD now

what more do you want people to say? its a coincident what has happened but im almost 100% certain the issues isn't with spark and traffic management.

spark could do all the testing they can but they wont find anything.

Do you want to post up what devices you have, what your speed tests are to auckland, and your modem stats, what modem you use, anything else that could help to diagnose what could be the cause of the issue

nyquist

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#1276863 3-Apr-2015 19:05

While I understand some CSRs may require additional training, they do have access to my account and information I don't have, so I usually give them the benefit of the doubt. This particular CSR may have had incorrect information, so I will ask again the next time I contact Spark.

Actually, because of these speed issues a lot of the time we are streaming in lower quality, so we have changed our habits - just in the opposite direction.

I'm not sure why you think I want people to say anything? I was only posting about our 500GB to Unlimited plan experience like the previous posters in regards to the OP's query, but unlike the previous posters, our experience was not as seamless.

I actually prefer we do tests or checks so we can conclusively say the issue isn't traffic management or the Unlimited plan or our profile or anything else I'm not aware of. Or it might just be our connection and the number of devices we have connected - I'm not ruling that out - but I would rather we test and confirm then make assumptions.

In any case, we are currently waiting for Spark's response and will review our next steps from there. I might post some stats if this becomes worse, but for now we are managing these issues by streaming lower quality or not streaming at all. I haven't watched anything on Lightbox or Netflix for a while now.

ETA: Not to say the offer to look into these stats aren't appreciated - it is just easier and less time-consuming at the moment stop streaming/gaming for the short term and wait for Spark's response.

BarTender

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#1276875 3-Apr-2015 19:48

nyquist:
Jase2985: but your not on a different resource pool, spark have even said that. and look while i was posting they have :)

you are very quick to blame the ISP but you haven't bothered to diagnose your side of the connection. do you know exactly whats going on, on the other devices when things start buffering?

a HD stream from lightbox will use over half of your available bandwidth, so doing anything else like loading a youtube video will cause it to buffer.

it could also be the content provider, have you thought about that?

also things like online streaming/gaming are the least likely things to be bandwidth managed if that were to happen. its things like torrent, P2P and downloads that would be limited, so your streaming wont be affected.

but hey keep blaming the ISP

you haven't mentioned what exactly you are doing when things slow down

I'm not exactly sure what I need to do to diagnose my connection. Nothing has changed. We stream Lightbox, we stream Netflix, we stream Youtube, and I stream NHL games occasionally. This is going on while someone might be gaming. We don't do any P2P or torrenting. Our behaviour hasn't changed. These have not posed any issues in December and for the last two years on the 500GB plan.

I have contacted a Spark CSR via the Online chat on their website and they told me it was because the Unlimited data plan was traffic managed - I had to direct them to the updated web page where the traffic management clause was removed.

Honestly, I'm not exactly sure who to believe in this case. I'm not blaming the ISP - but I am quite frustrated at the different information I am receiving, and the fact that we have tried different options with Spark to resolve these issues, but end up seeming to go nowhere - or end up being blamed for the way we use our internet? I'm not sure, but like I said, we've been with Telecom/Spark for a very long time, and leaving is mostly a last resort.

ETA: Back to the basic gist of the first post - given that we had no issues when we were on the 500GB plan VDSL/Fibre is not available, this is why we would like to try and go back to that plan.

There was a major upgrade occurring that kicked off in October finished around February. I would bet that would have more chance of impacting you. Ask to go on a static ip on non proxied range. And I wonder if that sorts it.

nyquist

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#1277926 6-Apr-2015 18:26

@BarTender, thanks for the tip.

Unfortunately, the CSR told me static IPs weren't available for customers on the Unlimited plan. He suggested I call back at a later date to follow up, as there have been a number of requests from other customers, so it may become available.

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