Change from Telecom to?

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Tsurugi

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#113325 13-Jan-2013 21:45

I'm thinking of changing my broadband to something else next month which while it's not that close yet, still want to think about it early. I'm currently on Telecom off contract. While there have been several disconnects within my time with telecom (which is roughly a year), I really haven't had much problem with it. The biggest problem with sticking with Telecom is pretty much the price for the amount of bandwidth. I'm currently paying $125(I think) for only 163GB and phone which isn't enough.

What I pretty much do with the bandwidth is

a) share it with 5 other people (family of 6)
b) Download a lot of games and updates (which are pretty bad that can go up to 4-5 GB).
c) Stream a lot of stuff in HD (not sure if it's just the players or Telecom but it really doesn't load as good as I thought it would)
d) Download films in HD.
e) Play of a lot of games which take up at least 2 GB for online play and requires a lot of good connection for both play and communication (such as Skype or Ingame VOIP).
f) Browsing websites and tonnes of images.

My first option was actually looking at Snap given it's great reputation among a lot of users. It's got 500GB for $125 with the phone. The thing about contract is I'm not sure if 500GB is sufficient enough and if not, not sure if it's possible to upgrade to 1 TB.

My second option was Orcon Unlimited which I think goes for 100. Personally never used it before, though I have a friend who didn't particularly have the best experience. This plan would mean that I would never have to worry about bandwidth (hopefully) but really uncertain about the performance.

Any other plans I'm willing to listen to. Don't have UFB in my area (which is howick/botany) so don’t need to worry about those plans.

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#744282 13-Jan-2013 22:00

You do know that there is the $119 plan from Telecom that gives you 500gb?

And that Telecom does have one of the best reputation for good speeds.

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sidefx

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#744287 13-Jan-2013 22:08

Have you looked at going naked and going with VOIP? Might save a bit more that you can put towards additional data. Works well for me. (Snap + 2Talk)

I just looked on my snap account management data page and there is a data addon of 1TB for $70. Keep in mind that if you have a snap data add-on, all data from 1am-7am is zero-rated\free. Awesome for larger downloads and means you may need less than you think!

(I'd also highly recommend considering VDSL if available in your area! :) )

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boby55

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#744288 13-Jan-2013 22:09

plambrechtsen: You do know that there is the $119 plan from Telecom that gives you 500gb?

And that Telecom does have one of the best reputation for good speeds.

+1, By the sounds of things you're on one of the old plans and should look at Telecoms New plans, as mentioned above $119 for 500GB.

You just have to look at this forum to see Telecom is one of the few ISP's who doesn't seem to have the "Peak time Slowdown".

AKLWestie

641 posts

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#744293 13-Jan-2013 22:14

plambrechtsen: You do know that there is the $119 plan from Telecom that gives you 500gb?

And that Telecom does have one of the best reputation for good speeds.

+1

I am not a gamer but the speed (national and international) with Telecom is good and consistent. I was watching some HD content from youtube yesterday and speed was good.

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#744296 13-Jan-2013 22:20

As suggested you have to check new plans. As with any ISP plans change every now and then and since you aren't on a contract then you should move between plans with no problems.

If you have disconnect problems then you should have your home wiring checked. You can even post your modem stats here for some ideas.

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plambrechtsen

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#744298 13-Jan-2013 22:26

freitasm: As suggested you have to check new plans. As with any ISP plans change every now and then and since you aren't on a contract then you should move between plans with no problems.

If you have disconnect problems then you should have your home wiring checked. You can even post your modem stats here for some ideas.

And the OP could even pm me his phone number and I could send him some pretty graphs showing why a master filter would be a good idea.

Tsurugi

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#744304 13-Jan-2013 22:49

Ok Thanks. I didn't even know they had a price change and must of missed it when I was browsing the site.

Glad I even asked about this.

boby55:
plambrechtsen: You do know that there is the $119 plan from Telecom that gives you 500gb?

And that Telecom does have one of the best reputation for good speeds.

+1, By the sounds of things you're on one of the old plans and should look at Telecoms New plans, as mentioned above $119 for 500GB.

You just have to look at this forum to see Telecom is one of the few ISP's who doesn't seem to have the "Peak time Slowdown".

Agreed. Which is why I'm was a little reluctant to change but now that there's a 500 GB, I might stick with it a little longer till PS4 releases and download sizes get ridiculous (which we've already seen). The ISP I had before Telecom was terrible so when I upgraded to Telecom, it felt like broadband heaven.

chevrolux

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#744319 13-Jan-2013 23:00

Have a look at Truenet's speed test results. You will see Snap constantly either topping or coming in the top 3 for throughput.

Snap is awesome. Ring their call center and you will be talking to someone sub 5 minutes. Can say that for Telecom unless it is 126 you are ringing.

plambrechtsen

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#744336 14-Jan-2013 06:51

chevrolux: Have a look at Truenet's speed test results. You will see Snap constantly either topping or coming in the top 3 for throughput.

Snap is awesome. Ring their call center and you will be talking to someone sub 5 minutes. Can say that for Telecom unless it is 126 you are ringing.

While I don't want to put down John's great work he does for TrueNet there are a number of things he doesn't test as they are really hard to test without being embedded within the ISP that get completely missed with his testing.

Taking my obvious bias out. Telecom do work very hard to provide good interwebs service. And from reading complaints in other ISP forums on here slowdown or other over subscribed issues don't tend to occur on Telecom.

If I had to recommend another isp apart from Telecom it probably would be snap since they do a pretty good job at servicing their customers from what I have read on here.. but I would still recommend Telecom even if I didn't work for them as the excellent internet experience isn't by accident it is from investment in a lot of gear and international capacity to run over 600k punters...

chevrolux

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#744340 14-Jan-2013 07:30

Telecom is a great provider. They are still probably the quickest to get stuff to happen in terms of provisioning and faults. I work for a Telecom dealer so it is who we recommend for our clients. I just think alot of people assume that if you aren't one of the big players then they must be a rubbish provider. It just simply is not true though. These 'smaller' providers do an outstanding job.

trig42

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#744375 14-Jan-2013 09:40

I'm with Telecom, off contract, but have no desire to change. Speed is good, support is good (not that I have any cause to use it, but when I had a fault it was sorted the next day) and their plans are good.

Snap would be my second choice if I needed VDSL or UFB or lots of datas.

macuser

2120 posts

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#744382 14-Jan-2013 10:02

The only trouble I have with telecom is their unwillingness to sell data packs, this isn't a problem if you're consistently under your data allowance, but when you do go over it, you either have to wait 48 hrs to change plans, or pay quite a large amount in overage (or reduce to dial-up).

Jaxson

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#744383 14-Jan-2013 10:03

I just changed both parent/inlaws from xnet to Telecom and am quite jealous of their speed, given what I'm am getting presently.

I jumped early to Telstraclear (who were the first major player to offer a $75 deal) and am stuck with them until my 12month term is up.

Before Telstraclear I was with Vodafone, who were excellent as well, just comparatively pricey at the time.

NonprayingMantis

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#744402 14-Jan-2013 10:48

macuser: The only trouble I have with telecom is their unwillingness to sell data packs, this isn't a problem if you're consistently under your data allowance, but when you do go over it, you either have to wait 48 hrs to change plans, or pay quite a large amount in overage (or reduce to dial-up).

the top two packages (150Gb and 500GB) have overage rates of only 50c/GB, which is prety reasonable.

freitasm

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#744409 14-Jan-2013 10:59

Considering I am paying $1.50/GB on TelstraClear if I go over, the $0.50/GB on Telecom sounds good.

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