[TelstraClear] TelstraClear in Merivale, ChCh?

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › [TelstraClear] TelstraClear in Merivale, ChCh?

sloth

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#17419 26-Nov-2007 14:06

Hi

So there I was, excited about getting TelstrClear in my new house, call them to sign up and - nope, denied, seems I'm outside of the cable area. Support person was unable to tell me about their plans to expand the covered areas in Christchurch, but does anybody else know?

Just because I don't want to go and sign up with another ISP + Sky etc. then find out a couple of months later that TelstraClear is available!

thanks

chiefie

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#96959 26-Nov-2007 14:08

There's no foreseeable expansion for TCL cable in the last 1/4 of the chch. Funny enough, all other areas that got cabled are less-prestige/lower-value than the north-west part of chch :-D

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sloth

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#96960 26-Nov-2007 14:13

oh well, thanks for quick reply! Does seem a bit odd that they left out those areas!

xcubed

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#96977 26-Nov-2007 16:08

You can find the Telstra cable coverage map here: http://telstraclear.co.nz/residential/inhome/index.cfm

They've made some interesting decisions about where to put it, but I suspect that they crunched the numbers beforehand to determine which suburbs would be most profitable. It would appear that there is more demand for Telstra services in the lower socio-economic areas, than there is in places like Merivale, Fendalton, etc. It might also be related to the fact that a lot of the suburbs that currently have TCL cable also have overhead lines, making the installation for TCL cheaper. I doubt the "upper class" suburbs have much overhead wiring left, and even if they did, they would probably consider an overhead installation unsightly.

I was entertained at my last flat on Hereford Street. We could see the TelstraClear Christchurch HQ from our window (probably about 100m away) but couldn't get cable as it didn't run down that part of Hereford Street. You can see it in the coverage map as a blank circle. Wierd.

Carey

sloth

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#96978 26-Nov-2007 16:12

ah, I hadn't noticed that they'd improved the coverage map - guess I should've looked there first!

Was pretty hard to tell which areas were covered on their old site.

Wob

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#96987 26-Nov-2007 18:10

It seems the good folk of TCL (or any cable company for that matter) consider that the more affluent areas are not a high priority for cable services.

It is a sad irony that cable companies always seem to target areas where the customers can least afford their services. I saw this in the UK too.

What's the situation like in Wellington? Can you get cable TV in Thorndon?

Now based in Perth WA.

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#97039 26-Nov-2007 23:09

I think it was in early 2004 that TCL announced that they had stopped cable network expansion in Christchurch. Original plan had been to wire Kaiapoi and Rangiora as well. Oh well.

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#97056 27-Nov-2007 06:03

Wob: It seems the good folk of TCL (or any cable company for that matter) consider that the more affluent areas are not a high priority for cable services.

It is a sad irony that cable companies always seem to target areas where the customers can least afford their services. I saw this in the UK too.

What's the situation like in Wellington? Can you get cable TV in Thorndon?

In parts of it, yes.

I think you'll also find that the 'affluent' folks of fendalton and so on also vehemently resisted having overhead cables from the powerpoles as they feared it would drive down property values, and wanted all cables buried. As any service provider will tell you, trenching and burying vs overhead is tremendously expensive as well as disruptive to the community.

This was comtemplated a few years ago, so I don't know if the mood has changed (I'd say the broadband fiasco of 2006 has reinforced for people that perhaps an upgrade is necessary), but the spectre of LLU means smart neighbourhoods that care about aesthetics - those with residents willing/able to organise - will resist the rollout of new wires and just ask for the old telecom copper to be reused.

It's an interesting observation of democracy in action!

In the UK I found Sky dishes meant C2D neighbourhoods for a longtime - until most people twigged that there was good content on the box, and that regardless of whether you're rich or poor, humans like to sit and watch tv.....

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#97193 27-Nov-2007 18:30

I faced a different situation. My road has overhead cables including TCL's However I live in a subdivided section (rear) and all cabling to the house is underground. TCL would not do an aerial drop to my house since it would not be in keeping with the rest of the utilities. Instead after some negotiation, they ran conduit down from the pole to the driveway, and ran the conduit along the side of the driveway attached to a common fence between myself and the neighbour.

When the conduit reached the house, they trenched (sideways drilled) under the concrete driveway to my house and from wired the house up. Glad they did. A year or so later a friend tried to ask the same and TCL refused saying they would not trench the driveway to the rear section and would not run conduit. Talk about trying to get customers - the conduit would have been relatively cheap.

Larry

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