Firstly my current situation...
I've been a loyal Telecom customer for as long as I can remember (over 8 years). They've serviced my home phone and broadband needs well, although they weren't always the cheapest they offered a high quality service. Even though Telecom being Infamous for their horrible call centres and useless help, they were always able to have any problems fixed within reasonable times.
My Current (soon to be old) plan...
I'm currently on Telecom's 'Total Home - 60gb' Plan. I also have an 0800 number set-up (for private use) and I utilise the free (some-what static) IP address offered to the more higher plans. I'm currently paying $105 a month + extra phone charges for National/International and cell phone calls. I've had no problems with this plan with the average speeds of 10Mbps Download and 0.75Mbps upload.
I've had a total of 3 free modems from Telecom, 1) The old orignal DLink single PC (ADSL only I believe), 2) THOMSON ST5x6v6 (single PC) and 3) Thomson TG5858 (wireless multi PC). All modem have been sufficient for the situations. Although none of them have made port forwarding easy it was still doable.
Reasons For Change...
My main and simply only real reason for wanting to change plans (and in this case ISP) is I need more data. I've had broadband for over 4-5 years now (with Telecom) and my data needs have gone from originally 3gb/month-10gb-20gb-40gb and now to 60gb. I could continue this pattern and opt for Telecom's 80gb plan for an additional $20/month or I could wait for them to drop all the prices again (like they seem to do every 6-12 months) but then why should I wait for them to change their plans when there are plans out there that offer more value for money.
Why Vodafone?
Well firstly as discussed above I could stay with Telecom and just add some more data. Alternately there is Orcon who offer uncapped data for downloading and playing games via Steam (however I know a friend who says he still gets charged data for Steam downloads, seems a bit limited), they also have Voip options and they have uncapped data for various kiwi sites like Trademe. But realistically there plans aren't that great, the best option for me would be 105gb/month (incl home phone) for $155/month and that is simply too much. And as for Telstra clear I've simply know too many people who have had bad experiences with them regarding speeds. So as of the 10th of January 2012 Vodafone had the best deal to offer.
The Deal...
So the deal I've just signed up for with Vodafone includes...
- 120gb of Data/month
- 1x Free Talk 0 Plan
- Sky to MySky upgrade for free (I have a sky digital subscription already)
- A Much better (spec wise) wireless modem than Telecom's (12 month contract)
All for $120.60/month.
The Negatives...
The negatives will include a possible home phone number change (being in the Red network and all), I'll loose my 0800 number (which I hardly used anyway) and I believe so far I'll loose my static P which isn't really essential. And Lastly I will in theory loose my @xtra.co.nz email addresses. I've heard several people say they've changed ISP away from Telecom and they have been able to keep their email addresses, then others say they've kept them either by paying $10/month for a dialup service. Either way I've spent an hour migrating all my addresses to Gmail (Don't know why I didn't just use Gmail in the first place).
Well that's pretty much it for now, I've used Vodafone's online order form, now I've just got to wait. I'll keep this thread posted with my experience with speed of roll out and speed comparisons from Telecom to Vodafone's Red Network. I'll also let you know how the free modem turns out as it looks quite neat on paper.
Thanks,
Aidan
Administrator
Trusted
Geekzone
A Thomson ST5x6v6 (ADSL2+ Modem, single ethernet output). This then connects into my Linksys E1000 wireless N router and 4 port ethernet switch. I did used to use Telecom's free Thomson wireless modem however after it constantly dropping signal and rebooting 4 times a day I upgraded to the E1000 which is AMAZING! :) 
