Another thread about the parts of the country that still can't get broadband

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Lias

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#2157450 10-Jan-2019 12:20

Coil:

Lias:

Coil: I think a lot of people are forgetting that fixed services only very recently had unlimited data available main stream. Sure orcon was first or what ever but Vodafone and Spark entered the market in 2015 or 2016 with unlimited plans. Radio broadband technologies are still in their early days in the grand schemes of things.
A good RBI connection now with a 80GB data cap has better speed, equal data and price as the best fixed offering would have been, living next to an exchange in the late 2000’s.

I think Chello can claim the first "unlimited" broadband back in June 2000, with some honourable mentions to Telecom's Jet Start, Go Large and Big Time plans over the next decade or so.

If we want to go that far back we can look at the iHug satellite offerings. I think they had something like 15/5 services and it was unlimited.
Edit: 1996-1998 IIRC

I thought the Ihug Satellite options were "highspeed" down, but dialup return or something?

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Coil

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#2157452 10-Jan-2019 12:22

Lias:

Coil:

Lias:

Coil: I think a lot of people are forgetting that fixed services only very recently had unlimited data available main stream. Sure orcon was first or what ever but Vodafone and Spark entered the market in 2015 or 2016 with unlimited plans. Radio broadband technologies are still in their early days in the grand schemes of things.
A good RBI connection now with a 80GB data cap has better speed, equal data and price as the best fixed offering would have been, living next to an exchange in the late 2000’s.

I think Chello can claim the first "unlimited" broadband back in June 2000, with some honourable mentions to Telecom's Jet Start, Go Large and Big Time plans over the next decade or so.

If we want to go that far back we can look at the iHug satellite offerings. I think they had something like 15/5 services and it was unlimited.
Edit: 1996-1998 IIRC

I thought the Ihug Satellite options were "highspeed" down, but dialup return or something?

I was the bane of my parents life at that period in time and there are no internet archives on it so I am going off of very old discussions with ex iHug staff when I was at Vodafone. So they are probably clouded memories at best haha.

KiwiSurfer

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#2157461 10-Jan-2019 12:31

I am certain the uplink was dialup as well. But perhaps that was the case only for the satellite service as it wouldn't have been possible to do uplink via satellite with the CPE gear they used. There was also a terrestrial service (which IIRC used the Sky Tower, Waiatarua and possibly other sites elsewhere) may well have been bidirectional.

KiwiSurfer

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#2157466 10-Jan-2019 12:35

I did some digging and found this:

https://web.archive.org/web/19990128083429if_/http://www.star.net.nz:80/how.html

Looks like it was just the Sky Tower (along with a nationalwide service via Sateliite). And uplink was via dial-up either way.

BarTender

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#2157473 10-Jan-2019 12:53

KiwiSurfer:

I am certain the uplink was dialup as well. But perhaps that was the case only for the satellite service as it wouldn't have been possible to do uplink via satellite with the CPE gear they used. There was also a terrestrial service (which IIRC used the Sky Tower, Waiatarua and possibly other sites elsewhere) may well have been bidirectional.

Are you thinking about Woosh Internet?? That used TDD-CDMA with some proprietary gear. My mother in law was on it and she was a very light user and a "useful" thing about it was that if you had multiple routers such as those you could purchase off TradeMe you could connect with the same username & password and as long as you didn't go over the cap you would be fine. I used it as Mobile Broadband back in the day and just carried the PCICMA card around in my backpack if I ever needed to download a large file would pop it into my laptop in the early 2010's when 1GB of mobile data was a lot. They had plans in the 20-80GB range which was plenty for me.

KiwiSurfer

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#2157489 10-Jan-2019 13:21

BarTender:

Are you thinking about Woosh Internet?? That used TDD-CDMA with some proprietary gear. My mother in law was on it and she was a very light user and a "useful" thing about it was that if you had multiple routers such as those you could purchase off TradeMe you could connect with the same username & password and as long as you didn't go over the cap you would be fine. I used it as Mobile Broadband back in the day and just carried the PCICMA card around in my backpack if I ever needed to download a large file would pop it into my laptop in the early 2010's when 1GB of mobile data was a lot. They had plans in the 20-80GB range which was plenty for me.

I've linked above to the info about ihug's service. Woosh was different as they had a handful of sites in various regions. I used Woosh myself for a couple of years back in the 00's. My mum's place was right on the edge of coverage (in the Kohimarama valley with no LOS to the Waimarie St water tower site in St Heliers nor the Kohimarama & St Heliers Bay Roads site) so it was an interesting exercise to figure out where to place the antennas to get the best signal. They also offered static IP addresses so I ran my own mail server for a while off that connection—something I could never to do today! Today the WBB situation is a big improvement as my mum now has WBB to Spark's Kohimarama site which she can see from her lounge window. Looking back it seems that ihug/Satnet and Woosh were pioneering WBB and ahead of their time.

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#2157594 10-Jan-2019 14:19

tim0001:

Possibly people’s expectations of rural internet are being set too high. For example on https://www.chorus.co.nz/tools-support/broadband-tools/broadband-checker it can show a “Potential Speed” for a Conklin served address of 19Mbit/s.

This is ~40 times higher than the real speed during the day.

Do you have an example? It shouldn't show that.

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evilengineer

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#2157596 10-Jan-2019 14:20

tripper1000:

"now" being the operative word.

When the RBI project kicked off 80Gb would have comfortably closed the digital divide. Netflix etc wasn't a thing back then.

Streaming video has dramatically increased the appetite for data and strained networks all over the 1st world. It isn't the governments or ISP's faults that peoples video consumption habits have changed and appetites for data has risen a whole order of magnitude.

In essence, a slice of cake was promised and now people are complaining that because they haven't been given 3 whole cakes, they are somehow hard done-by.

Edit: Spelling.

Which is kind of the point, isn't it?

Expectations change.

When RBI was launched 5Mbit was classified as "Broadband" which would be considered laughable now.

The current target appears to be getting "as many people as possible" over 20Mbit for RBI2 according to CIP's website. (No mention of data caps).

What's the current legal definition of broadband and what will it be in 10 years time?

And why shouldn't rural users who have paid their taxes just like everyone else not expect their broadband to keep up?

After all, the whole point of RBI was to make sure rural users didn't get left behind and could make use of the same digitally delivered services as the townies.

Rikkitic

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#2157643 10-Jan-2019 15:27

As an RBI user, I sometimes get a little annoyed at the blithe assumptions some seem to make about rural expectations.

As I stated in a previous post, When my RBI performs well, which it does more than it does not, I am perfectly satisfied with it. I don't mind the data cap (naturally I would prefer not to have one but it isn't onerous and it can be expanded as needed) and I understand and accept the reasons for the higher price. I was permanently scarred by the years of dial-up and I will never cease to be grateful for the miracle of RBI.

My only complaint, and it is more of a feeble plea, is when our otherwise excellent service goes to hell every time there is a school holiday or too many kids skiving off. It is really frustrating when you are looking forward to streaming something in the evening. I would appreciate a service less vulnerable to congestion drop-outs but that is all.

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tripper1000

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#2157960 11-Jan-2019 10:00

evilengineer:

tripper1000: "now" being the operative word....

Which is kind of the point, isn't it?

Expectations change.....

And why shouldn't rural users who have paid their taxes just like everyone else not expect their broadband to keep up?....

Paying tax doesn't mean expectations are translated into reality. Paying tax doesn't enable the laws of physics to be broken. Freeview Satellite is the taxpayer subsidised rural TV service.

RBI is a communications service, not a TV service. Net Flix etc is able to provide a TV service for a lower headline-cost because the cost of delivery is paid for separately & sourced by the consumer, where as SKY/TVNZ etc, have to facilitate and pay the cost of getting the content to the consumer. If the consumer is unable to source an affordable delivery method for online TV providers then they are stuck with Sky/TVNZ and other TV companies who can deliver the content to their premises.

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