[TelstraClear] TelstraClear-ly incompetent: A look at the last 5 years

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] TelstraClear-ly incompetent: A look at the last 5 years

Screeb

698 posts

Ultimate Geek

#33778 12-May-2009 00:51

Let's see what TelstraClear has been up to for the last 5 years (focusing on LightSpeed cable plans and TV).

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1 March 2004

10/1Mbps 10GB plan launched at $139.95 per month

25 May 2004

TelstraClear plans to depeer from WIX in November 2004

23 August 2005

Digital TV launched

10 November 2005

Plans get 2Mbps upload speed (1 week late)

28 March 2006

40GB and 80GB LightSpeed plans introduced

10/2 40GB plan at $99.95

18 June 2007

"25 Mbps downstream by the end of the year"

19 January 2008

25Mbps for Wellington "by mid-year"
Christchurch "next month"

30 March 2008

Again 25Mpbs for Wellington "from mid-year"

2 April 2008

25Mbps launched in Christchurch

8 May 2008

Clearnet launched

1 July 2008

Prices increase. LightSpeed rises $10, TV rises $3 (analogue) and $1.49 (digital) (and others)

6 October 2008

HD promised in November

26 February 2009 (Email)

"In the coming months we will be launching a totally new range of packages and services"

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Between these dates there have been many instances of "delayed until x", where x inevitably rolls by. It's hard to find all these instances on the web though. Feel free to fill in the blanks. Also, don't forget other things such as the delayed new channels, delayed picture quality improvements, and the ill-fated Tauranga network.

Fun facts:

The 25Mbps plan was at least 4 months late in Christchurch (promised before end of 2007, arrived April 2008), and is still not available in Wellington (at least 13 months late, several announced deadlines missed)

Clearnet Deluxe still has no game downloads (site online for 12 months)

HDTV is still not available (at least 6 months late)

Since 28 March 2006 (> 3 years) the LightSpeed (10Mbps) plans have remained unchanged except for a $10 price increase

I'm still waiting to be disappointed (even more than currently - see below) by the 26 February 2009 announcement of "a totally new range of packages and services" - It's been 2.5 months and still no word (I previously challenged TelstraClear to at least give us some more info by the start of this month. This is what made me write this up. I decided to give TelstraClear the benefit of the doubt when I saw that they were doing a lot of maintenance this past few weeks, so I held off until they were done).

Congratulations, TelstraClear. You couldn't have screwed up more if you tried. Oh, but you're making a profit. Hmm, what a conundrum.

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112 posts

Master Geek

#214271 12-May-2009 06:48

A concise history. I love being connected (triple service) via TelstraClear, but when I see what I am missing out on (e.g. HDi and price incentives from others) it makes it tough to stay. We are currently crunching the numbers on moving off to.... well - something else

eeb41039

59 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#214299 12-May-2009 10:18

Nice and healthy post on Telstras under-delivering and general vagueness! I love cable but c'mon this is getting ridiculous :-(

mattbush

784 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#214346 12-May-2009 13:01

We must not forget the months a lot of us had to endure the ARP issue where online gaming on cable was impossible.

Still cannot connect to smh.com.au in a normal fashion.

I believe TC are perhaps only in NZ for the short term and are extracting maximun profits from minimum investment. Their marketing promises are generally misstruths and under delivered.

aaahhh..I feel better now

EvilSteve

232 posts

Master Geek

#214385 12-May-2009 15:32

I wonder how many others feel this way, i was super suprised when they put the prices up on the cable internet around the same time that adsl was being unbundled and prices were dropping.

And just recently they took channels out of the standard DTV service which to me feels like a price increase without forcing people to take it.

im gettin reading to ditch the Digital tv for freeview, the phoneline for vfx and maybe keep the cable cos it still feels like the best performing connection available (except for today where nothing seems to want to connect)

insane

3239 posts

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#214740 13-May-2009 23:48

I think you need to give them some credit, compare what they have achieved vs another major telco and they are looking pretty good, even if they did deliver some services late.

I swear if they never launched lightspeed the rest of the country using that other telco would still be getting told that 2mbps/128k is more than enough for the household/small business user.

sbiddle

30853 posts

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Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#214778 14-May-2009 09:31

mattbush: Still cannot connect to smh.com.au in a normal fashion.

When did you last try? This ongoing issue was fixed ~2 weeks ago.

paradoxsm

3000 posts

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#214801 14-May-2009 10:51

After all the talk about Fibre to the premise or cabinetisation to get around DSL's shortcomings, i'm not surprised TC are wary about pumping large sums of money into the old cable network.

As for price rises, yes it was a bit on the nose at the time but many others have since risen prices as they were losing money.

25mbps would only "match vdsl" but 100mbps would be quite different hence the reluctance to invest in parts but then you need to find and hope people are willing to actually pay real prices for such bandwidth.

Cable still in most cases has superb download speeds and 2mbps upload is very hard to get. Remember there is no contract either so kudos for that.

Sharesies kids

Free kids accounts - trade shares and funds (NZ, US) with Sharesies (affiliate link).

amanzi

Amanzi
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#214814 14-May-2009 11:34

I think most Telstra customers would agree that the internet service (now that the network issues have been fixed) is top notch. 10mbps download speed is still adequate for most day to day browsing and there aren't any other residential internet packages that match the 2mbps upload speeds.

But the TV service is lagging behind now as there is still no HD broadcasts, and still no PVR set-top box, whereas Freeview and Sky both have offerings which do this. And now that more homes are getting access to >20mbps download speeds through ADSL2 and VDSL, it makes you wonder how important that 2mbps upload speed is when you're missing out on internet plans which are twice as fast.

My main gripe with Telstra at the moment is the lack of an HD PVR solution. Faster download speeds would be nice but not that essential.

mattbush

784 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#214826 14-May-2009 12:54

sbiddle:
mattbush: Still cannot connect to smh.com.au in a normal fashion.

When did you last try? This ongoing issue was fixed ~2 weeks ago.

I look at that site every day and it still takes close to a minute to load.

Screeb

698 posts

Ultimate Geek

#214859 14-May-2009 16:11

insane: I think you need to give them some credit, compare what they have achieved vs another major telco and they are looking pretty good, even if they did deliver some services late.

I swear if they never launched lightspeed the rest of the country using that other telco would still be getting told that 2mbps/128k is more than enough for the household/small business user.

What? Telecom (or any other ISP for that matter) has never competed against or paid any attention to TelstraClear's cable plans. They don't have to, because it's in Wellington and Christchurch only. If they DID, then they would have to do it for the whole country, which probably wouldn't be worth it. For one thing, it took them a LONG time to move from 128k up to full up, while TelstraClear had 1 and 2Mbps up.

And what have TelstraClear done with Lightspeed in the last 3 years? Like I noted in the original post, NOTHING, besides a price rise and the late addition of an absurdly expensive plan in Christchurch.

anatoki

85 posts

Master Geek

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#214869 14-May-2009 16:47

Screeb:
insane: I think you need to give them some credit, compare what they have achieved vs another major telco and they are looking pretty good, even if they did deliver some services late.

I swear if they never launched lightspeed the rest of the country using that other telco would still be getting told that 2mbps/128k is more than enough for the household/small business user.

What? Telecom (or any other ISP for that matter) has never competed against or paid any attention to TelstraClear's cable plans. They don't have to, because it's in Wellington and Christchurch only. If they DID, then they would have to do it for the whole country, which probably wouldn't be worth it. For one thing, it took them a LONG time to move from 128k up to full up, while TelstraClear had 1 and 2Mbps up.

Uh, have you not noticed that the price for a phone line in Christchurch & Wellington with Telecom is cheaper than anywhere else in the country? Yeah, uhm, that's because of competition (...TelstraClear).

Remember, in terms of telecommunications providers in this country - TelstraClear is _very_ young and new to the game.

kiwipawl

273 posts

Ultimate Geek

#214871 14-May-2009 17:01

I remember some time ago in Kapiti, that Telecom would only offer the cheaper phone rate if your house was on the side of the street that had TelstraClear on and if you lived on the other side that didn't, you payed their normal rate!!!!

Screeb

698 posts

Ultimate Geek

#214877 14-May-2009 17:32

anatoki:
Uh, have you not noticed that the price for a phone line in Christchurch & Wellington with Telecom is cheaper than anywhere else in the country? Yeah, uhm, that's because of competition (...TelstraClear).

Remember, in terms of telecommunications providers in this country - TelstraClear is _very_ young and new to the game.

I was referring to broadband plsans, not phone line prices. There's a big difference between dropping the price on something and upgrading your infrastructure to offer better plans.

JonC

425 posts

Ultimate Geek

#215045 15-May-2009 14:34

mattbush:
sbiddle:
mattbush: Still cannot connect to smh.com.au in a normal fashion.

When did you last try? This ongoing issue was fixed ~2 weeks ago.

I look at that site every day and it still takes close to a minute to load.

Yup - I'm still getting this problem. The workaround for this is to add a "direct.fairfax.com.au/*" filter to AdblockPlus. This is presuming you're using Firefox.

anatoki

85 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#215062 15-May-2009 15:03

As I said in the other thread, it's a problem with 1 particular host so I'd hazard a guess and say the problem is with FairFax Media and not TelstraClear. It may be worth logging a fault with TelstraClear if you really are concerned (and really want to see all those ads they're trying to serve you!).

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