Broadband cost 'too high'

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Broadband cost 'too high' - survey

DarthKermit

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#114068 7-Feb-2013 08:25

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10863862

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

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#756788 7-Feb-2013 08:29

Ask anyone if they think they are paying too much for " insert anything in here " they will say yes

Kyanar

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#756797 7-Feb-2013 08:52

If we were talking about Mobile Broadband, I could agree - that's way too expensive. But with no less than three ISPs now offering unmetered data, one offering rollover data, and nearly all ISPs now offering 250GB+ caps for around the $100-$150 mark, broadband in NZ is cheaper than ever. I can see a case for offering even larger caps (I don't see a case for removing small caps - a grandmother using 5GB a month shouldn't have to pay for 100GB a month to subsidise heavier users) but I'm not really sure that price is really the problem anymore.

If anything though, ISPs should be looking more at business plans. I struggle to find a business plan that offers more than 50GB of bandwidth a month (with the almost mandatory $2/GB after that of course).

NonprayingMantis

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#756805 7-Feb-2013 09:08

These kind of survey results are always dumb, especially with the extremely leading question shown in the article.

In terms of value for money, broadband is one of the best things you will ever spend money on in my opinion. For around 80 to 100 bucks you get access to basically the entirety of information known to man, accessing exactly what you want, when you want it. How can that not be good value for money? Trillions of words, billions of videos and audio clips, games, news, education resources, not to mention funny pictures of cats, all available at the click of a button within a few seconds.

DarthKermit

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#756817 7-Feb-2013 09:31

johnr: Ask anyone if they think they are paying too much for " insert anything in here " they will say yes

Yes you're right; ask a loaded question like that and you'll get the answers you expect to get.

This is what passes for journalism nowadays.

*waits for front page article in tonight's paper: Tiddles the cat being rescued from huge tree*

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

freitasm

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#756822 7-Feb-2013 09:51

DarthKermit:
johnr: Ask anyone if they think they are paying too much for " insert anything in here " they will say yes

This is what passes for journalism nowadays.

This and the accompanying photo and caption in that article. Completely relevant to broadband cost in New Zealand:

On the note of the survey, ask what people want and most will say "all you can eat broadband for $19.95"

Behodar

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#756827 7-Feb-2013 10:03

When broadband first became available here I (well, technically my dad) was paying $60 for 128 kb/s with a 10 GB cap. Now I get 12 Mb/s and 99 GB for the same price. Would I like more for my money? Yes. Do I think that I'm paying too much? No. The price is only going to get cheaper as time goes on and that'll be a nice bonus. When fibre or VDSL finally hit my area then it'll get faster. The future is looking good!

Jaxar

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#756831 7-Feb-2013 10:09

At least the survey they are reporting on has a listed sample size and margin of error this time. Still not exactly news is it.

Please note: I have a professional bias towards Vodafone.

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Bee

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#756833 7-Feb-2013 10:10

johnr: Ask anyone if they think they are paying too much for " insert anything in here " they will say yes

For once, I completely agree with you John.

If you think you are paying too much for Broadband then change ISPs!

In the last 2 years, I have increased our data cap by 600% and pay $10 per month less... Very happy with the pricing on Broadband at the moment...

Mobile broadband could be lower and a package that included both would be good too e.g. 40GB per month to be shared by my home broadband or mobile phone... <dream mode off>

Doing your best is much more important than being the best.

RunningMan

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#756909 7-Feb-2013 13:07

johnr: Ask anyone if they think they are paying too much for " insert anything in here " they will say yes

+1.

It's a loaded question, of course people will say yes.

sbiddle

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#756910 7-Feb-2013 13:17

It's interesting to see InternetNZ saying fibre is more expensive than copper. Existing P2P (or UFB P2P) yes, but UFB GPON pricing isn't.

reven

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#756912 7-Feb-2013 13:18

$100 for home phone and internet with a large data cap, i think is a fair price.

mobile bandwidth, err i dont know if its an unfair price, i have no idea how much it costs the telcos to provide that data, but I believe that its too expensive currently to maximize use (streaming music 40 hours a week to my mobile etc from rdio/xbox/whatever). but not saying we're being ripped off.

i only use about 100-120MB a month on my phone, but in an ideal world that would shoot up to a few GBs or more, once we get to the point where I don't need to worry about going over my cap if I stream music.

NonprayingMantis

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#756922 7-Feb-2013 13:33

sbiddle: It's interesting to see InternetNZ saying fibre is more expensive than copper. Existing P2P (or UFB P2P) yes, but UFB GPON pricing isn't.

UFB wholesale price for 30Mbps is $37.50

that is less than copper costs ISPs if they don't unbundle (i.e. they purchase wholesale PSTN + UBA), but if they have unbundled and are serving the customer directly from the exchage (rather than via a cabinet) then the marginal cost of a copper connection is less than $25 in urban areas since they only have to purchase a UCLL connection

antoniosk

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#756932 7-Feb-2013 13:51

NonprayingMantis:
sbiddle: It's interesting to see InternetNZ saying fibre is more expensive than copper. Existing P2P (or UFB P2P) yes, but UFB GPON pricing isn't.

UFB wholesale price for 30Mbps is $37.50

that is less than copper costs ISPs if they don't unbundle (i.e. they purchase wholesale PSTN + UBA), but if they have unbundled and are serving the customer directly from the exchage (rather than via a cabinet) then the marginal cost of a copper connection is less than $25 in urban areas since they only have to purchase a UCLL connection

Yep. But WSA+UBA is widely available and the hurdle to getting it as a wholesaler isn't that high. UCLL requires a LOT more money and network for it to be a good investment with fast payback - so not widely available.

I wonder who the biggest unbundlers are?

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mattwnz

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#756933 7-Feb-2013 13:51

I think broadband is a fair price these days. The thing people forget is that that also covers staffing costs. If the price goes down, then they have to cut costs somewhere, and they often then leads to sending those jobs offshore, and then you get people complaining again about that..

surfisup1000

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#756944 7-Feb-2013 14:11

RunningMan:
johnr: Ask anyone if they think they are paying too much for " insert anything in here " they will say yes

+1.

It's a loaded question, of course people will say yes.

Not all people would say that. I'd have thought most people would recognise companies need to turn a profit.

On a relative basis I'm happy with the BB pricing and the direction it is going.

On a comparative basis I'm a little unhappy that our prices are higher than some other countries. But, lots of things are more expensive in NZ. Our exchange rate is at record highs so we look expensive for pretty much everything.

It's a difficult question and ultimately you need to ask if the ISP's are earning excessive returns on capital over and above average returns for this industry.

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