Orcon or Compass for UFB?

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meow
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#1449371 12-Dec-2015 20:17

Why not just stay with Spark? They're a good provider.

You get what you pay for in any case. I'd strongly recommend against going to the "who is cheapest" with providers since they've got to cut costs somehow. What is an extra $2 or so per month is cents per day.

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richms

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#1449372 12-Dec-2015 20:18

Yes, it is more expensive. If the person is insistant on having a landline then let them keep paying the extra costs for it themselves.

Too many people I know have had issues with the landline over fiber to be able to count on it at this stage. Particually when its provided from the ISPs router.

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DarkShadow

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#1449373 12-Dec-2015 20:24

For fibre installs, it's best to add a month or two to the date your ISP gives you. So you won't be disappointed when delays occur.

danepak

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#1449398 12-Dec-2015 22:00

michaelmurfy: Why not just stay with Spark? They're a good provider.

You get what you pay for in any case. I'd strongly recommend against going to the "who is cheapest" with providers since they've got to cut costs somehow. What is an extra $2 or so per month is cents per day.

It's an extra $16 to stay with Spark. They do offer a 110 welcome credit though. I assume that's a free month then, since the monthly plan fee is $110?
So does it mean that by staying with Spark, it's likely to be less trouble?

michaelmurfy

meow
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#1449406 12-Dec-2015 22:24

danepak:
michaelmurfy: Why not just stay with Spark? They're a good provider.

You get what you pay for in any case. I'd strongly recommend against going to the "who is cheapest" with providers since they've got to cut costs somehow. What is an extra $2 or so per month is cents per day.

It's an extra $16 to stay with Spark. They do offer a 110 welcome credit though. I assume that's a free month then, since the monthly plan fee is $110?
So does it mean that by staying with Spark, it's likely to be less trouble?

Spark would be the more "trouble-free" option for you but there are a few things to note:

1) Voice is provided by the ONT itself on Spark. Chorus should wire the rest of the house wiring to a port on the ONT so you can still use the phones as per normal.
2) Orcon uses their own router for voice, I am not sure about Compass.
3) I've read plenty of threads on here complaining about Compass with speed and support however I have never been a customer since the dialup days so don't know for myself.
4) With Spark, you can replace the router with what you like - eg, if you wanted better WiFi then go for it as your voice is still provided by the ONT.

From what I've seen sure you're paying a little extra with Spark however I'd strongly recommend talking to them over the phone - they'll likely sort you out a deal. The testing done by Truenet shows Spark at being the best "overall" performer for broadband speed almost every month and they actually do offer some pretty good customer service if you're not calling them during peak time. I am not at all bias towards any provider (I have my personal picks based on experience) but I was once a Spark UFB customer and they were great, just didn't offer 200/200mbit UFB at the time I was looking at a new house and that is the only reason why I changed (else, I would still be with them).

You've also got to remember that if you're signing up to a 100/50 or 200/20 plan WiFi will be your bottleneck so expect to be using Ethernet if you want to reach the full speeds of your plan. I've also had some pretty shocking experiences with both Slingshot and Orcon many times so personally wouldn't go with them however that is my personal preference as I know many people who have never had any issues.

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#1449424 12-Dec-2015 22:35

danepak: ... So does it mean that by staying with Spark, it's likely to be less trouble?

Yes.

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Aredwood

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#1449438 12-Dec-2015 23:32

Does the Mother in law only use the landline for phone calls? Or is their a monitored burglar alarm, Medical alarm, Sky TV with the ordering Pay per view movies with the remote? As these might not work via a VOIP provided landline. And also ask her if the landline needs to work during a power cut. As all fibre based landline providers need the power to be working for the phone to work. Sure you could get a UPS but that is an extra cost.

I say just get a naked plan. And let the MIL keep on paying for a landline.

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danepak

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#1449439 12-Dec-2015 23:34

Aredwood: Does the Mother in law only use the landline for phone calls? Or is their a monitored burglar alarm, Medical alarm, Sky TV with the ordering Pay per view movies with the remote? As these might not work via a VOIP provided landline. And also ask her if the landline needs to work during a power cut. As all fibre based landline providers need the power to be working for the phone to work. Sure you could get a UPS but that is an extra cost.

I say just get a naked plan. And let the MIL keep on paying for a landline.

No burglar alarms, medical alarms or Sky TV.
She just needs it for phone calls and I don't think it's a massive issue, if it doesn't work during a power cut.

danepak

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#1449440 12-Dec-2015 23:35

OK, I might give Spark a call and see if they can work something out for me.

mercutio

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#1449458 13-Dec-2015 00:05

michaelmurfy: Why not just stay with Spark? They're a good provider.

You get what you pay for in any case. I'd strongly recommend against going to the "who is cheapest" with providers since they've got to cut costs somehow. What is an extra $2 or so per month is cents per day.

I agree with this, that said there have been a few complaints about Spark/Globalgateway routing recently, with weird / high latency routes to Europe etc.. and they sold their Singapore capacity, so Asia routing in general got worse..

Also I'm not sure if they ever got around to peering with Cloudflare - giving worse performance to many web sites, such as Geekzone.. (Cloudflare is very popular) they were at least slow if they're peering now.

From what I understand of Orcon at the moment is that in recent history there have been a few DSL/UFB congestion issues, and that this may be worse from the Orcon/Callplus/M2/etc merger as they're still trying to find their bearings. But they generally seem to have okay routing, and "reasonable" reliability for home use. I wouldn't necesarily dismiss them without consideration.

Kiwifruta

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#1449459 13-Dec-2015 00:08

danepak:
Aredwood: Does the Mother in law only use the landline for phone calls? Or is their a monitored burglar alarm, Medical alarm, Sky TV with the ordering Pay per view movies with the remote? As these might not work via a VOIP provided landline. And also ask her if the landline needs to work during a power cut. As all fibre based landline providers need the power to be working for the phone to work. Sure you could get a UPS but that is an extra cost.

I say just get a naked plan. And let the MIL keep on paying for a landline.

No burglar alarms, medical alarms or Sky TV.
She just needs it for phone calls and I don't think it's a massive issue, if it doesn't work during a power cut.

Most people use cordless phones these days, and these don't work during power cuts neither. Anyway power cuts are so rare these days, the only time they seem to occur is when a vehicle crashes in to something it shouldn't. Crumbs I don't even recall a power cut here in Hamilton in the last 10-20 years.

mercutio

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#1449461 13-Dec-2015 00:13

Kiwifruta:
danepak:
Aredwood: Does the Mother in law only use the landline for phone calls? Or is their a monitored burglar alarm, Medical alarm, Sky TV with the ordering Pay per view movies with the remote? As these might not work via a VOIP provided landline. And also ask her if the landline needs to work during a power cut. As all fibre based landline providers need the power to be working for the phone to work. Sure you could get a UPS but that is an extra cost.

I say just get a naked plan. And let the MIL keep on paying for a landline.

No burglar alarms, medical alarms or Sky TV.
She just needs it for phone calls and I don't think it's a massive issue, if it doesn't work during a power cut.

Most people use cordless phones these days, and these don't work during power cuts neither. Anyway power cuts are so rare these days, the only time they seem to occur is when a vehicle crashes in to something it shouldn't. Crumbs I don't even recall a power cut here in Hamilton in the last 10-20 years.

He said he's in Auckland, did he not? Power cuts are common here. They can happen from trees falling on lines, car crashes, substation faults, and the most recent for me (a few months back) was some kind of planned event.

Cordless phones will work during a power cut if you have a ups, but so will the internet :)

Kiwifruta

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#1449681 13-Dec-2015 15:15

mercutio:
Kiwifruta:
danepak:
Aredwood: Does the Mother in law only use the landline for phone calls? Or is their a monitored burglar alarm, Medical alarm, Sky TV with the ordering Pay per view movies with the remote? As these might not work via a VOIP provided landline. And also ask her if the landline needs to work during a power cut. As all fibre based landline providers need the power to be working for the phone to work. Sure you could get a UPS but that is an extra cost.

I say just get a naked plan. And let the MIL keep on paying for a landline.

No burglar alarms, medical alarms or Sky TV.
She just needs it for phone calls and I don't think it's a massive issue, if it doesn't work during a power cut.

Most people use cordless phones these days, and these don't work during power cuts neither. Anyway power cuts are so rare these days, the only time they seem to occur is when a vehicle crashes in to something it shouldn't. Crumbs I don't even recall a power cut here in Hamilton in the last 10-20 years.

He said he's in Auckland, did he not? Power cuts are common here. They can happen from trees falling on lines, car crashes, substation faults, and the most recent for me (a few months back) was some kind of planned event.

Cordless phones will work during a power cut if you have a ups, but so will the internet :)

I had no idea powercuts were still common in Aucks. I lived there in the 80s and remember having a few.

Anyway I guess I've gotten this off topic.

danepak

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#1449931 14-Dec-2015 00:12

Spark will switch my mum in law over to unlimited ADSL early January (not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but she's on 10GB at the moment, which is adequate for her - however we'll use that in a few days), when we arrive. No contract, so we can cancel, if we can't agree to a deal on the fibre.
Chorus won't do any installs before late January anyway (at the earliest).

richms

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#1449933 14-Dec-2015 00:17

Kiwifruta:
I had no idea powercuts were still common in Aucks. I lived there in the 80s and remember having a few.

Anyway I guess I've gotten this off topic.

On the shore with the creaky old united networks network that vector have done a bit of a tart up on then yeah, quite frequent. Had one where the internet went out because it was so long. Thats one thing that fiber will have over ADSL, comes from the exchange building with diesel back up.

Richard rich.ms

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