RBI launch prices

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#585402 22-Feb-2012 23:29

loganjames: Are the towers different to the normal Cell towers? What's to stop someone using a vodem or pocket wifi device and using one of these plans

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/mobile-broadband/all-plans/

Less data but little or no install fee

It is the same, but the antenne allows for better throughput.

jjnz1

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#585434 23-Feb-2012 00:13

Zeon: If a tower is fibre fed they shouldn't have any problems with backhaul. There will be multiple fibres at least for link aggregation (1gbps gear is very cheap). Even 10gbps is getting cheap these days.

The main issue I can see it radio spectrum usage - 3g just isn't that effective hence why LTE is a big change as it is far more efficient and will allow greater data caps over the same radio spectrum.

Maybe with colo on the towers some of the WISPS can at least service some customers (maybe with a relay going) with point to point solutions that will be much cheaper/faster/bigger caps.

Yes 1Gbps gear is cheap, and yes LTE would improve things.

But if VF has 900 towers, all with 1+Gbps connections, thats a lot of capacity to handle. (very expensive). And I'm sure VF would still lease a main trunking/backhaul line up and down the country rather than build their own too. That costs money.

Thinking about it more, maybe each 3G site cannot handle anymore than 100-200Mbps total due to wireless limitations like you mentioned above, then yes, 1Gbps speeds are not the problem.

The mind boggles. It would be interesting to know how the VF behind the scenes works.

insane

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#585453 23-Feb-2012 02:13

I'll play the role of the residential JAFA and say those prices (excluding the $30/GB overage) are reasonable for the amount of effort and length of time needed to gain a return on infrastructure investment.

Enterprise grade equipment doesn't come cheap, and when a tower is only servicing a few customers it's a completely different story to a $300K cabinet hosting 300 fixed line users.

Also don't forget that living out in the country is a lifestyle choice, along with that choice comes sacrifices, just as I sacrifice not having a lifestyle plot in an urban area.

Can't please some people :P

matisyahu

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#585460 23-Feb-2012 03:01

Devils advocate but long term wouldn't it have been better had Telecom deployed LTE on the old CDMA 800Mhz frequency? given the more efficient way LTE works it should have been possible to drive down the cost rather than the outrageous prices they're charging as noted in the article.

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Tinshed

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Ultimate Geek

#585497 23-Feb-2012 08:03

freitasm: According to this wholesale is $1.50/GB and yet retail is $30/GB...

Yay for gouging...

Speaking of gouging, the hotel I am currently staying in central Auckland charges $10 per 100MB (per 24 hour period) and thereafter 10c per megabyte. If my maths is correct that works out at $100/GB. That's on top on paying an advertised room rate of around $250 or more. Let alone that you need a separate reservation code to access wireless from your room.... I think that's appalling and systematic of the state of broadband in New Zealand.

Tinshed
Wellington, New Zealand

NonprayingMantis

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Uber Geek

#585502 23-Feb-2012 08:11

Tinshed:
freitasm: According to this wholesale is $1.50/GB and yet retail is $30/GB...

Yay for gouging...

Speaking of gouging, the hotel I am currently staying in central Auckland charges $10 per 100MB (per 24 hour period) and thereafter 10c per megabyte. If my maths is correct that works out at $100/GB. That's on top on paying an advertised room rate of around $250 or more. Let alone that you need a separate reservation code to access wireless from your room.... I think that's appalling and systematic of the state of broadband in New Zealand.

not really considering that is pretty much standard practice for nice hotels around the world.

cheap hotels tend to have free wifi, expensive ones tend to have very expensive wifi - same whereever you go around the world. Nothing to do with NZ

it's a very well documented phenomenon

djrm

191 posts

Master Geek

#585558 23-Feb-2012 10:01

"Yes thats expensive, but we are talking about people in the middle of nowhere... "

Actually some of these areas are very close to Auckland CBD - less than 25kms from the CBD. They are not in the middle of nowhere but have suffered from years of neglect by in large Telecom and Chorus.

The point is not that this is mobile 3G and therefore its expensive, the point is that the RBI said that the prices had to be comparable with urban which they are clearly not!

Interesting Q&A from the MED site. Also indicates that Vodafone are recieving public grants as I said before.

http://www.med.govt.nz/sectors-industries/technology-communication/pdf-docs-library/broadband-policy/RBI-Q-and-A-for-Industry.pdf

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tdgeek

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#585565 23-Feb-2012 10:08

djrm: "Yes thats expensive, but we are talking about people in the middle of nowhere... "

Actually some of these areas are very close to Auckland CBD - less than 25kms from the CBD. They are not in the middle of nowhere but have suffered from years of neglect by in large Telecom and Chorus.

The point is not that this is mobile 3G and therefore its expensive, the point is that the RBI said that the prices had to be comparable with urban which they are clearly not!

Interesting Q&A from the MED site. Also indicates that Vodafone are recieving public grants as I said before.

http://www.med.govt.nz/sectors-industries/technology-communication/pdf-docs-library/broadband-policy/RBI-Q-and-A-for-Industry.pdf

The $90 for 10Gb is not dissimilar to current BB plans. There is an added cost to create RBI, so not surprising it is more expensive. The key issue is that there are few users to recover costs, in comparison to a land based BB expansion.

djrm

191 posts

Master Geek

#585590 23-Feb-2012 10:32

tdgeek:
djrm: "Yes thats expensive, but we are talking about people in the middle of nowhere... "

Actually some of these areas are very close to Auckland CBD - less than 25kms from the CBD. They are not in the middle of nowhere but have suffered from years of neglect by in large Telecom and Chorus.

The point is not that this is mobile 3G and therefore its expensive, the point is that the RBI said that the prices had to be comparable with urban which they are clearly not!

Interesting Q&A from the MED site. Also indicates that Vodafone are recieving public grants as I said before.

http://www.med.govt.nz/sectors-industries/technology-communication/pdf-docs-library/broadband-policy/RBI-Q-and-A-for-Industry.pdf

The $90 for 10Gb is not dissimilar to current BB plans. There is an added cost to create RBI, so not surprising it is more expensive. The key issue is that there are few users to recover costs, in comparison to a land based BB expansion.

Not dissimilar??? For $90 dollars urban fixed line broadband get a whopping 20Gb, thats double, how in the world is that similar? Also add in that they have an install for$100 butt in many cases free and a fixed phone line that will still work when there is a power cut. Face it Vodafone are taking rural users for a ride and also taking the NZ tax payers for a ride when accepting the grants.

johnmo

113 posts

Master Geek

#585599 23-Feb-2012 10:54

Trying to keep some heat going in this thread.

<windup>

Can someone please explain why

City and most rural schools and hospitals are being paid by government (all taxpayers) for Fibre to take the country up a magnitude on Internet speeds yet

Country is getting RBI with speeds less than current VDSL

plus

RBI data charges are not even remotely in line with current DSL charges.

Please remember the aim of the expercise is to get more out of the economy with faster internet.
It is not about Wireless Broadband (RBI is not Wireless broadband even if that is the technology used)
It is not about user pays.

It is about the productive sector getting faster broadband at lower costs to grow the economy.

RBI as advertised yesterday does nothing for this.
</windup>

tdgeek

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#585603 23-Feb-2012 11:03

djrm:
tdgeek:
djrm: "Yes thats expensive, but we are talking about people in the middle of nowhere... "

Actually some of these areas are very close to Auckland CBD - less than 25kms from the CBD. They are not in the middle of nowhere but have suffered from years of neglect by in large Telecom and Chorus.

The point is not that this is mobile 3G and therefore its expensive, the point is that the RBI said that the prices had to be comparable with urban which they are clearly not!

Interesting Q&A from the MED site. Also indicates that Vodafone are recieving public grants as I said before.

http://www.med.govt.nz/sectors-industries/technology-communication/pdf-docs-library/broadband-policy/RBI-Q-and-A-for-Industry.pdf

The $90 for 10Gb is not dissimilar to current BB plans. There is an added cost to create RBI, so not surprising it is more expensive. The key issue is that there are few users to recover costs, in comparison to a land based BB expansion.

Not dissimilar??? For $90 dollars urban fixed line broadband get a whopping 20Gb, thats double, how in the world is that similar? Also add in that they have an install for$100 butt in many cases free and a fixed phone line that will still work when there is a power cut. Face it Vodafone are taking rural users for a ride and also taking the NZ tax payers for a ride when accepting the grants.

Geez. Its only 10Gb more. Don't play the numbers game. You get many variations between providers and plans, this is just another within a similar range.

This is a 3G connection, that is now available rurally after a large spend. The number of users is very limited, as off course where a new or modified tower is, with a new land fibre connerction to it, it won't have 20,000 farners nearby. So, high cost, low revenue. If this was a case of user pays, it would be a very very large real cost I imagine. So the rural user gets a real product at a artificially lower cost, so pretty good I'd say.

If you wanted to play the numbers game, compare these prices to Mobile Broadband as that is what this is, and even then, after spending money to provide service a low customer number.

freitasm

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#585617 23-Feb-2012 11:21

tdgeek: Geez. Its only 10Gb more. Don't play the numbers game.

Wanna play "the number game"? People discussing broadband at this level should differentiate between 10 GB and 10 Gb - it's an eight times difference. Not small.

PotatoClock

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Wannabe Geek

#585618 23-Feb-2012 11:21

I'm very glad I don't have to rely on this RBI for my broadband.
Inspire.net will be my ISP in a months time after they build a microwave tower in my area.

Local ISP's companies should of been the focus of the RBI instead of this crap idea of having Telecom and Vodafone, who have done nothing for Rural Communities before, in the building of these glorified 3G Towers.
Why turn your back on companies who have already been building towers to get broadband to Rural people?

Microwave towers may be limited by having to have line-of-sight but at least we can sidestep the price gouging.

You can get 40GB instead of 10 for $90 and have a $10/5GB Overage.

This isn't including a phoneline however, but I'm certain VOIP is just round the corner and naked broadband isn't so bad.

Shoes2468

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Ultimate Geek

#585619 23-Feb-2012 11:22

My 2c

I think the $90 phone and 10gb broadband is fair(not great but reasonable), but the $30/gb overage is outrageous. If the overage is so high they should at least offer a larger data cap plan.

freitasm

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#585621 23-Feb-2012 11:24

Please read my post in previous pages - apparently there's a $20/5 GB pack option to add if you go over the cap.

I was told by Vodafone the option exists but haven't seen it on the site yet.

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