Telstra Cable -> Telecom ADSL

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telstra Cable -> Telecom ADSL

gwoollett

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#50337 24-Nov-2009 14:33

I'm thinking about making a switch to Telecom from Telstra.
I'm presently on the 20GB/month 10mbps $79.95 plan and have noticed that Telecom are offering a 40GB fixed ip plan for the same price.
I live in Parkway Wainuiomata (Lower Hutt) and according to Telecom am 905m from the exchange.
They can't give me any clues as to what down speed I would get other than it will be a maximum of 7mbps (ADSL).
My Street isn't scheduled to get ADSL2 until Jan 2012.
Is there anybody on this forum that lives near me that could give me an idea of what I'd be in for??

The International speeds on Telstra haven't been great (eg the NZ Ubuntu mirror, which ends up travelling to LA and back again).
I'm figuring the speed back to the exchange is the least of my problems, and wouldn't notice too much the drop back to ADSL.

Any advice appreciated

sbiddle

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#275816 24-Nov-2009 15:03

Are you on the 20GB plan for $79.95 with no phoneline? If so you do realise that to move to the Telecom ADSL plans that you'll need a Telecom PSTN line as well?

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rossmnz

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#275817 24-Nov-2009 15:03

Dont know but im thinking exactly same thing. possibly to go to uncapped bigtime thing.

Im not a supporter of telecom, but feel my $80 could be spent better than the 20g with telstraclear too.

Yes, cable is the best connection but it just seems like all their competitors are throwing customers a bone where telstra wont change plans, wont drop price and still havent came up to speed with digital TV packages.

The force is strong with this one!

gwoollett

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#275818 24-Nov-2009 15:11

I do have a phone line with Telstra as well, one from Telecom is only a few more dollars per month.
Otherwise Telecom charge an extra $10/per month for the broadband only. As long as the speed is around 4-5mbps I'll be happy.

sbiddle

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#275863 24-Nov-2009 16:39

It really depends what you usage habits are.

VoIP is rock solid over TCL's cable network so if you move to VoIP you could be paying $10 - $11.25 for your phoneline which work work out cheaper than moving to Telecom and paying for a landline+broadband.

TCL's pricing is on the steep side when compared to what is on offer from ADSL providers. Compared to the ULL and naked ADSL plans however (and remember you don't need a phoneline for TCL cable) it does actually work out quite competitive.

rossmnz

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#275873 24-Nov-2009 17:11

sbiddle:

VoIP is rock solid over TCL's cable network so if you move to VoIP you could be paying $10 - $11.25 for your phoneline which work work out cheaper than moving to Telecom and paying for a landline+broadband.

TCL's pricing is on the steep side when compared to what is on offer from ADSL providers. Compared to the ULL and naked ADSL plans however (and remember you don't need a phoneline for TCL cable) it does actually work out quite competitive.

Yes i hadnt figured in the phone line thing.

Im doing exactly as you mentioned SBiddle in using a totally VOIP package plus the 20gb telstraclear net. As mentioned it is great reliability and i had not considered that the ADSL equivalent might be much less so.

The force is strong with this one!

gwoollett

27 posts

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#275880 24-Nov-2009 17:27

I've tried VOIP with TCL around 2-3 years back. During peak times especially I would get echoing, distorted and garbled speech.
This resulted in my wife saying don't you dare cut our landline!

WHY do Telecom and Telstra insist on tying up expensive bandwidth on the Sotherncross cable with traffic that should NEVER leave the country??
One conspiracy theory I have is that if they make the latency so bad people will simply not bother with VOIP, given that VOIP doesn't serve either of their interests.

sbiddle

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#275895 24-Nov-2009 18:06

gwoollett: I've tried VOIP with TCL around 2-3 years back. During peak times especially I would get echoing, distorted and garbled speech.
This resulted in my wife saying don't you dare cut our landline!

WHY do Telecom and Telstra insist on tying up expensive bandwidth on the Sotherncross cable with traffic that should NEVER leave the country??
One conspiracy theory I have is that if they make the latency so bad people will simply not bother with VOIP, given that VOIP doesn't serve either of their interests.

Any problems with VoIP would be solely hardware issues. I've been 100% VoIP for ~4 years now on TCL cable and never have any issues at all. TCL certainly aren't doing anything to mess with VoIP because there haven't been (and aren't presently) any quality issues when using a NZ or Australian based VoIP provider. The only exception was a short period of time where some people were on loaded nodes before their network expansion and may have suffered some performance issues.

Try and use a VoIP provider in country such as the USA or Europe and network interconnects are something that's beyond TCL's control so performance may or may not be great.

gwoollett

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#275973 24-Nov-2009 22:02

When I was signed upto xnet I was getting pings to their server of up to 250ms - more than enough to stuff up VOIP.
A friend has a VOIP setup over TCL, it drives us and his wife nuts.

Back to the original question - I'm still very interested to see what types of ADSL rates people are getting around 1km from the exchange.

sbiddle

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#276048 25-Nov-2009 08:17

gwoollett: When I was signed upto xnet I was getting pings to their server of up to 250ms - more than enough to stuff up VOIP.
A friend has a VOIP setup over TCL, it drives us and his wife nuts.

Back to the original question - I'm still very interested to see what types of ADSL rates people are getting around 1km from the exchange.

I have no idea why you'd ever had ping times to so high. I get 20ms ping times to VFX and that's been the case since I first started testing their services not long after they launched. As for your friend having troubles - if it's with a NZ provider it's certainly a case of poor hardware or configuration, it's certainly not TCL's fault.

There are plenty of things that will cause issues if things aren't set up correctly. If they want any help setting things up correctly let me know.

gwoollett

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#276177 25-Nov-2009 13:18

I've come to the conclusion that I asked a how long is a peice of string question. Too many factors influence any internet connection, I'll just have to suck it and see.

We'll agree to disagree about what's TCLs' fault and what isn't, VOIP don't work for me, I've moved on. Telecom are offering more GBs for the dollar. As long as the ADSL connection is reasonablty reliable and >4mbps its googbye TCL...

martyyn

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#276192 25-Nov-2009 13:49

I made this switch last month and I wish Id done it sooner.

TCL does of course offer a rock solid connection and speed, but I couldnt justify the $250 a month I was spending on their triple pack for 40Gb of data a month with an awful picture quality from their so called 'digital' tv service. This amount included the odd bit of overage each month and various toll calls around the country but after Id made a few phone calls it was a no brainer.

The TCL CSR had no idea what I was talking about when I asked if there were plans for a PVR or if there was going to be any changes to plan caps or prices, whereas the Telecom CSR was fantastic and couldnt have been more help if she had tried.

I got a special offer for myskyhdi which means I get full HD goodness from Sky for only $42 a month for six months and Im now on totalhome with bigtime for $110 a month with no overage and toll calls thrown in. Im around 2km from the exchange and get around 5-6mb at the moment but I will be ADSL2+'d in January with the cabinet expecting to be across the road from me.

The Telecom install was $50 with the only fly in the oitment being the two week wait to be ported because I was the first in my area apparantly to port from TCL to Telecom and the numbers werent 'in' the exchange yet, thats how it was explained to me anyway. I was called every couple of days throughout the process to be kept updated and received a call after it was all done to make sure everything was working.

Last night at peak time I was still downloading at 300Kb (or kb I can never remember which !) aswell as surfing youtube with no trouble. I have no idea what its like off-peak because as long as any download is finished by the time I get up Im happy.

Even when the Sky offer runs out and it goes up to $110 a month Im still paying less than I was to TCL but am getting 'all I can eat' internet, free national tolls along with HD sport and movies.

crazed

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#276254 25-Nov-2009 17:03

I have also done the same, went from TCL cable 80Gb 10mb/2mb plan, DTV, and TCL Phone to Telecom Bigtime, I couldnt justify the $270 a month, now only paying $116. TCL's DTV service was a deadloss and had the same problems as the Sky service I dumped, mainly because they are the same service.

But rather impressed with the Bigtime, haven't had half the problems others have had on bigtime, although wont speak to soon.

CraZeD,
Your friendly Southern Geeky Fellow :P

gwoollett

27 posts

Geek

#276512 26-Nov-2009 14:06

I just got off the phone with Telecom, the tech support person put me onto another person who had a line speed test performed on an address 2 doors down from me. They said the average speed was 2-3 mbps, well below my requirement of 4-5mbps.

So I will remain a customer of TCL, the only show worth going to in my part of town.

I'm assuming that if the line speed is that bad with ADSL it won't be much better with ADSL2+ ??