Chorus broadband maps are a lie!

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matisyahu

1623 posts

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#1222525 26-Jan-2015 16:46

Oh sweet mercifuls:

The experience you get is subject to some factors which is worth bearing in mind. This includes distance from the exchange or cabinet, home wiring, age of your computer, operating system, your modem and broadband plan.

Do people read?

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

RunningMan

8956 posts

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#1222567 26-Jan-2015 17:04

kawaii: Oh sweet mercifuls:

The experience you get is subject to some factors which is worth bearing in mind. This includes distance from the exchange or cabinet, home wiring, age of your computer, operating system, your modem and broadband plan.

Do people read?

I think what the OP's issue is that there are some areas where you simply cannot ever get close to your line speed in actual throughput due to local congestion. These areas are known / well defined, and not affected by any of the factors in the disclaimer above.

The maps are a guide only (and should only be used as such), a prequal is really the only way to know for sure, and there's going to be the odd exception where someone can only get 8.5Mb/s in a 10Mb/s area, but advertising an area as >5Mb/s when there is simply no way actual throughput will ever even approach that speed (despite sync rate being over 5Mb/s) is pretty confusing for the end user.

Perhaps Chorus could advise expected throughput (on their network) rather than expected sync rate but that's going to have all sorts of other issues when the end user complains they can't get that throughput off a single connection when downloading files over their congested WiFi network in central Auckland.

hotrok

71 posts

Master Geek

#1223110 27-Jan-2015 11:46

What I do find strange is that half of the people on here get what I am saying and half seem to think I am illiterate. To those that think I am illiterate or not correct, can you please tell me what I am trying to say in my original post from your view point.

I will reinterate what I said before. The Network maps that Chorus have on their website state the approximate broadband speeds you can achieve in those zones. ( I presume they mean modem sync speeds but actually they don't say exactly what). At the bottom of the maps they have some "disclaimers" about distance/modem/ wiring etc from the exchange/cabinet and that speeds and service are down to your ISP.
These factors are all correct but they have no acknowledgement that their network could be an issue and in fact for a lot of rural areas this is the main issue.

To me its not a true reflection and I think it would be fair to ISP's and householders who are sharing the disclaimer issue that Chorus could be at fault to why the service is not optimal.

kiwikiwi

455 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1223408 27-Jan-2015 17:38

The chorus maps were recently updated and they do get updated often. Of course yes there are those areas where it may not be optimal but as you say:

At the bottom of the maps they have some "disclaimers" about distance/modem/ wiring etc from the exchange/cabinet and that speeds and service are down to your ISP.
These factors are all correct but they have no acknowledgement that their network could be an issue and in fact for a lot of rural areas this is the main issue.

They already know this, and the answer has already been given. It's a best effort service. It pays to ask around, get the prequals done and look at maps and you take the educated guess or what you MIGHT be able to get.

If you don't like chorus' service they're not making you stay on it. There's RBI and Satellite and other WISPs who will gladly take your money.

Crikey, if it wasn't for me asking around and poking my nose around I think I would of stayed on ADSL2+ instead of VDSL2 when I was in Maungatapere.(which is pretty rural itself but is fortunate to have a fiber fed cabinet and living 150M away from it)

TimA:
It would identify the estimated sync speeds. Chorus can also check for congestion on the prequal if asked.
So yes if specific about it congestion can be looked into.

There will always be a way to get a better service but it isn't Chorus's fault really. They're only providing what they can on the equipment they have already.

You can also follow me on twitter here @kiwifortw I do twitch streams every now and then at twitch.tv/kiwiforthewin :)

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graemeh

2078 posts

Uber Geek

#1223605 27-Jan-2015 21:32

kiwikiwi: They already know this, and the answer has already been given. It's a best effort service. It pays to ask around, get the prequals done and look at maps and you take the educated guess or what you MIGHT be able to get.

No, it is misleading information from Chorus. The OP is not mad, pedantic perhaps but that doesn't make him wrong or mad.

The fact is that Chorus know that customers can not and will not achieve anything like the speed stated on the map in those areas.

You can't advertise something as available that you have no intention to provide. It is a breach of NZ law.

kiwikiwi

455 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1223611 27-Jan-2015 21:44

graemeh:
kiwikiwi: They already know this, and the answer has already been given. It's a best effort service. It pays to ask around, get the prequals done and look at maps and you take the educated guess or what you MIGHT be able to get.

No, it is misleading information from Chorus. The OP is not mad, pedantic perhaps but that doesn't make him wrong or mad.

The fact is that Chorus know that customers can not and will not achieve anything like the speed stated on the map in those areas.

You can't advertise something as available that you have no intention to provide. It is a breach of NZ law.

Except they aren't advertising at all, and you don't deal with chorus directly at all. Chorus is not an RSP/ISP at all so they can't exactly advertise anything except what they are doing.

I'm going to go back to spectating for a little bit. I've had my say in it.

You can also follow me on twitter here @kiwifortw I do twitch streams every now and then at twitch.tv/kiwiforthewin :)

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graemeh

2078 posts

Uber Geek

#1224033 28-Jan-2015 13:23

kiwikiwi:
graemeh:
kiwikiwi: They already know this, and the answer has already been given. It's a best effort service. It pays to ask around, get the prequals done and look at maps and you take the educated guess or what you MIGHT be able to get.

No, it is misleading information from Chorus. The OP is not mad, pedantic perhaps but that doesn't make him wrong or mad.

The fact is that Chorus know that customers can not and will not achieve anything like the speed stated on the map in those areas.

You can't advertise something as available that you have no intention to provide. It is a breach of NZ law.

Except they aren't advertising at all, and you don't deal with chorus directly at all. Chorus is not an RSP/ISP at all so they can't exactly advertise anything except what they are doing.

I'm going to go back to spectating for a little bit. I've had my say in it.

True, they are not selling direct but the Fair Trading Act is pretty broad in its scope.

13False or misleading representations

No person shall, in trade, in connection with the supply or possible supply of goods or services or with the promotion by any means of the supply or use of goods or services,—
- (b)make a false or misleading representation that services are of a particular kind, standard, quality, or quantity, or that they are supplied by any particular person or by any person of a particular trade,

I'd say they would be caught by the fact that they are still promoting the use of the services. It would obviously take a court case to determine this and the Commerce Commission is probably unlikely to ever do anything about it.

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BarTender

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#1224189 28-Jan-2015 16:19

The minimum speed required last time I checked was 256k over a sustained 15 min period. Which you are getting.

The easiest way to check if you are connected to an ISAM and thus EUBA network or an ASAM/Conklin and thus BUBA is to check all the layers. If you can see you are connected back to a cabinet that gives 20+mb it's an ISAM.

Many rural areas have been upgraded to ISAMs such as Norsewood. But there is still over 1200 non ISAM cabinets out there. Probably sub 100k people on it if I was a betting man

This is vs the 6k+ ISAMs out there serving the 1.4 million EUBA people.

If it was my call I would just shut down the old buba network and force everyone onto wisps or rbi/mbb. As the costs to support it are only going up and spares will become an issue I am sure. However strangely enough some people prefer slow speeds to no internet or the non trivial costs associated witb mobile broadband.

These are also the same people who aren't prepared to pay any more for their internet than metro people even though the cost to service them is so much higher.

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