Well just the other day we received our letter to say that fiber is on its way. ill be honest, I have been keeping a serious eye on the fiber roll out. Our connection has been shocking for years but has been getting steadily worse over the last 2 years to the point where its almost unusable at peak times. 

Yes I realize speedtest is not an accurate test but it shows the issue we are dealing with. We have contacted spark in the past but never got anywhere. We are on a spark 500GB ADSL plan in Auckland central suburbs so lucky for us 200/200 is available from chorus. But we have some strong requirements that we cant live without as we have a small business in the garage (Too small to afford a business line) and 6 people living on the property. The business needs a public static ip for our remote support software. A number of the family have also requested to keep the public static ip for hosting small game servers and streaming games outside of the network. These wont be high bandwidth upload usage, just now and then during the week.
We also host our own email server for our personal servers so again static public ip needed.

The other issue we need is usage. 6 people streaming youtube, lightbox, downloading games, linux distros. We need high bandwidth. 200 down and at least 100 up (Though we would prefer to have the full 200/200 connection) We also easilly hit the current 500GB cap. 6 people using one line does that. Especially with someone who can use 100+GB's of data a week. So unlimited is needed

We also need to keep one of our two phone lines. We dont mind if we have to switch to VOIP. We are dropping one of them just to save money but cant lose the other. I understand bigpipe will leave you connected to the copper if you request it but its up to you to ether switch to VOIP or keep using a different provider.

Now I have looked through the different options and there are only 3 ISP's that jump out at me. Snap, Orcon and Bigpipe. 

I have looked at staying with spark, Too expensive, No static with unlimited and maximum speed of 100/50. 

Snap, Offers 200/200 but we have worked with snap for years setting up connections and they just dont have the consistency or reliability we need.

Orcon, Seems like one of the best at the moment. Offers everything but the static public ip and 200/200 speeds. Again maximum of 100/50.

Then theres Bigpipe. everything we need except for one thing which confuses me. They say they dont offer public IP's yet they sell static ip's?
What is ging on there? We need a static ip and are fine with paying the $45 up front for it but we need to be able to connect to systems on the network off site. Will bigpipe provide? I know they say if we are a business, go for a business plan with someone else but no one else provides everything we need at a price we can afford. Spark is $170 with a 500GB cap and slower speeds. We are currently on ADSL 500GB cap static ip for $115. The cost difference is impossible to swallow and they refuse to give an unlimited business plan with a static ip. We have tried in the past and got no where.

So can Bigpipe give us the static public ip that is acceptable from outside of the network? They have everything we need. And if this is possible, They will have a new customer because from what i have seen, they provide the best bang for your buck with service on par with orcon and spark.

Thanks 

Rudster