Time for some new plans??

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Time for some new plans??

Blindspot

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#61115 10-May-2010 09:08

Seems like every other day there is a new addon or plan for mobile users..

I guess its because TC are trying despirately to encourage people to use their XT phones and people already happily use the internet...

I'd like to see some movement in broadband all the same.
New broadband plans for a start with higher data allowances although charged at a reasonable price. $20 overage is just a complete rip given the cost of 1GB of international traffic.

c'mon, give the people what they want for once... I'm sure most wont mind paying for it.

I am a Vodafone employee, however all comments/opinions expressed are my own. i.e. I do not represent Vodafone.

muppet

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#328388 10-May-2010 09:24

You kinda contradict yourself by saying how you're not happy with how much the plans are, then saying that you're sure "most won't mind paying for it"!

There's a lot more competition in the Internet market than there is in the Mobile space and I think the prices are probably fairly reflective of the cost of not only International Bandwidth, but the cost of the associated routers, switches, servers and staff costs.

Then there's the back-haul as well. It's not cheap, depending on who you are. That's the reason a lot of plans like "free national traffic" have died, because people use that to their advantage and "clog up" the carriers back-haul capacity, thus giving everyone using that carrier a poor experience. There's a couple of ISP's that still have back-haul capacity issues.

That's the impression I get from what I read on here and talking to a few people about it. I'm curious as to what some of the other more enlightened people think.

Audiophiles are such twits! They buy such pointless stuff: Gold plated cables, $2000 power cords. Idiots.

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Blindspot

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#328461 10-May-2010 12:36

I don't think I contradict.

What I am saying is people don't mind paying if they feel they are getting value.

There is not enough flexibility in the plans, no 60GB, 80GB, 100GB plans.

At $20/GB I don't think anyone will feel they are getting value.

I am a Vodafone employee, however all comments/opinions expressed are my own. i.e. I do not represent Vodafone.

rscole86

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#328464 10-May-2010 12:41

Telecom do offer a 40GB plan, with reasonable overage. And they do offer a 60GB plan.
You might want to do a little research.

crazed

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#328474 10-May-2010 13:05

rscole86: Telecom do offer a 40GB plan, with reasonable overage. And they do offer a 60GB plan.
You might want to do a little research.

The residential Telecom Pro plan overage is not reasonable and is actually very overpriced for over the cap usage.

The business plans however are better priced with a 60Gb cap and $2.67 per Gig over that or 40Gb cap and $3.56 per gig over that.

With even normal internet use many of the current offerings on residential are out of touch. I even know of several elderly couples who use more than 20Gb on average a month.

CraZeD,
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rscole86

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#328499 10-May-2010 14:16

crazed:
rscole86: Telecom do offer a 40GB plan, with reasonable overage. And they do offer a 60GB plan.
You might want to do a little research.

The residential Telecom Pro plan overage is not reasonable and is actually very overpriced for over the cap usage.

The business plans however are better priced with a 60Gb cap and $2.67 per Gig over that or 40Gb cap and $3.56 per gig over that.

With even normal internet use many of the current offerings on residential are out of touch. I even know of several elderly couples who use more than 20Gb on average a month.

I was merely pointing out to the OP that if thay had looked a little harder, they would have found the business plans, which are available to all consumers. Also, your pricing needs to have GST added to it.

Agreed, the consumer Pro plan is expensive for overage. But Telecom do offer an alternative.

I guess everyones needs are different, as I know of a lot of people who can hardly use their 5-10gig per month.

In the end though, if you are not happy with their plans, then go elsewhere. I am sure TNZ will happily become more competitive for those who want large data caps, when they realise that no one is signing up with them.

Blindspot

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#328594 10-May-2010 16:42

rscole86, they hardly make it clear on their website that a Business plan is available to all... and as a long time consumer I consider this a little weird anyway.

When I talked to the sales person they recommended the 40GB plan, although the 60GB plan would have better suited.

I only found out this was available after joining on their 40GB plan, however I was not willing to pay $200 for early disconnection to change over to their Business plan.

I am a Vodafone employee, however all comments/opinions expressed are my own. i.e. I do not represent Vodafone.

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Ragnor

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#328637 10-May-2010 18:00

The business plan can't be used with Total Home.

Telecom badly need a residential 60GB plan, they also need to change the way overage on the 40GB plan is done, $20 per GB is nutty.

Actually the way their system works is simply crazy (imo).

Let's say you're normally on a 20GB plan but you have a big month for whatever reason and run out of cap 1/2 or 2/3 through the month. You have to manually ring up and request a plan change (you're allowed one change per calendar month).

It's counter intuitive too, if you only want another 10GB for the rest of the month and you're on the 20GB plan you actually need to change down to the 10GB instead of up to the 30GB plan because when you change plans usage is reset to 0 and the cost is pro rata'd for the part of the month you were on each plan.

Then next month you need to remember to manually ring up and change back to your normal plan.

If you're willing to continually ring up and change plans to your advantage you can exploit the pro rata system and get more much more GB for the same price as 40GB.

Basically it's mental.

simon14

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#328713 10-May-2010 21:51

Why wait for Telecom to offer a new plan when there are plenty of other ISP's out there with better plans up for grabs right now?

nzbnw

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#328717 10-May-2010 22:06

Ragnor: You have to manually ring up and request a plan change (you're allowed one change per calendar month).

You can preform a plan change online which AFAIK take effect at midnight, no need to call 123 / Broadband.

http://www.telecom.co.nz/broadband/changeplan

nzbnw

Ragnor

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#328739 11-May-2010 02:51

Good point, you can replace the words "ring up" with "change online" it's still has the same basic issues.

Anyway some other ISP's are just as bad, don't get me started on Telstraclears data pack system, charge you for 4x10GB data packs ie: 40GB usage when you end the month on 31GB... usage meter is inaccurate and not reliable etc etc

I'm quite happy on Big Time at home myself.

Behodar

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#328770 11-May-2010 09:01

Ragnor: Anyway some other ISP's are just as bad, don't get me started on Telstraclears data pack system, charge you for 4x10GB data packs ie: 40GB usage when you end the month on 31GB

I actually prefer TCL's system. I don't need to predict my usage in advance, which is good since I can use anything from 20 to 80 GB in a month. Sure, there's the case where you pay for 40 GB after using 31, but imagine if I was on Telecom's 60 GB plan and only used 20 that month!

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Blindspot

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#328860 11-May-2010 11:59

I tried another ISP (Slingshot) prior to TC. Slingshot were heavily shaping traffic even though I was paying for FS/FS plan.

Overage on 40GB plan is nutty alright!!

I am a Vodafone employee, however all comments/opinions expressed are my own. i.e. I do not represent Vodafone.

crazed

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#328934 11-May-2010 14:38

the current 10, 20 and 40gb plans are good, but the major issue for most people is the over cap charge for the 40gb plan. Either change it to a better priced charging system ($5/gb??), or give people the option of being speed capped(56k) till the end of their billing period.

$20 a Gb is stupid considering most other ISP's in NZ charge between $1/Gb up to around $7/Gb???

CraZeD,
Your friendly Southern Geeky Fellow :P