Are unlimited broadband plans worth it?

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DaveC84

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#128727 21-Aug-2013 15:50

Hey everyone - New to this and after some advice around unlimited broadband plans in NZ.

Quite simply, just want to know if they're worth it or if getting a broadband plan with a high data cap is just as good?

We are a household with 4 people who are constantly using the internet for downloading, streaming and a bit of gaming, but our usage is always in flux. Sometimes we hit the cap, sometimes we are miles off.

Any advice around unlimited would be great. I'm pretty keen to know from those who are on an unlimited plan how it's changed your internet usage?

Cheers,

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#882243 21-Aug-2013 15:57

It really depends on your uses and the restrictions on the ISP you choose. Most (all?) of the unlimited plans involve some sort of traffic shaping of P2P traffic. If that doesn't bother you, maybe it's a good option. Personally, I go for a larger cap, on a plan that doesn't do any throttling (of course, there are still bandwidth bottlenecks in play depending what you're doing). We had an unlimited plan for a while, but to be honest, unlimited, or any 500GB+ plan, makes no difference to me.

mattwnz

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#882244 21-Aug-2013 15:59

How much data do you currently use? Those that are advertised as unlimited mayuse traffic shaping of some sort, or under another name.

DaveC84

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#882246 21-Aug-2013 16:03

It can vary anything between 60GB - over 150GB..

Inphinity

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#882249 21-Aug-2013 16:09

That's still pretty low usage - usually when people are worried about needing an unlimited plan I expect to hear they're using 500GB+ a month ;)

I think every major ISP offers a 250GB plan or higher. So I'd make my decision more on which ISP offers me what I want - be it naked ADSL, VDSL & home line, whatever - for a good price & has a good reputation for service level. Telecom, Snap, whoever.

DaveC84

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#882254 21-Aug-2013 16:15

Cheers mate, typo there, 250GB was the max we've hit. As I said, pretty variable from month to month! Perhaps this is still pretty low compared those using double that though. Just keen to get a gage from those who have unlimited if it's changing their internet usage or staying relatively the same (albeit pretty high).. The thing we're not keen on with capped plans is just having to take into account there being a cap at all.

Cheers for the reply.

semigeek

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#882270 21-Aug-2013 16:35

We have unlimited here, it has changed how we use the Web as we no longer have to worry about going over a cap. Generally though with streaming etc we only use about 80 Gigabytes a month, but being on unlimited and having VOIP, we save about $30 a month than we did with Telecom.

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#882329 21-Aug-2013 18:04

I went to an unlimited data plan when a friend of ours who had come to stay was using far more than the normal amount we had set aside in the 40Gb pack. Yes, our traffic is shaped, but that actually didn't worry me. Put bluntly, about 20 months ago, no ISP was offering 100Gb for anywhere near reasonable prices, but Slingshot offered All You Can Eat. Naturally we took it up. One month, all of us pumped up the data to 421Gb used. I was astonished, as was my friend. Slingshot are trying to talk me back down to a datapack given our recent issues but I'm not budging. I don't want to get caught out again.

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BinaryLimited

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#882333 21-Aug-2013 18:07

"unlimited"

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raytaylor

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#882336 21-Aug-2013 18:13

At home we have the slingshot AYCE unlimited plan - I think now they have two levels of flatrate so it would be the upper level.

Anyhow its great for the p2p - full line speed torrents.

Because I am living with flatmates, its great to simply not worry about the bill each month and not have arguments over who used the gigabytes.

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BinaryLimited

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#882347 21-Aug-2013 18:33

raytaylor: At home we have the slingshot AYCE unlimited plan - I think now they have two levels of flatrate so it would be the upper level.

Anyhow its great for the p2p - full line speed torrents.

Because I am living with flatmates, its great to simply not worry about the bill each month and not have arguments over who used the gigabytes.

Whats the most/average data you use each month?

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insane

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#882350 21-Aug-2013 18:45

As said above, not all unlimited plans are equal. Some are completely fine and work perfectly for what 95% of users want and need the internet to do.

Given I work for an ISP who's unlimited plan doesn't suck, I got a connection for my flatmates and we used that without any issues.

When I moved out they changed to another providers unlimited plan and things went south real fast.

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BinaryLimited

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#882354 21-Aug-2013 18:50

insane: As said above, not all unlimited plans are equal. Some are completely fine and work perfectly for what 95% of users want and need the internet to do.

Given I work for an ISP who's unlimited plan doesn't suck, I got a connection for my flatmates and we used that without any issues.

When I moved out they changed to another providers unlimited plan and things went south real fast.

what isp do you work for?

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michaelmurfy

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#882365 21-Aug-2013 19:27

I'd recommend either Snap or Telecom for high usage IMO.

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driller2000

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#882448 21-Aug-2013 21:43

really depends on how much data you use

i have been on ayce for nearly 2 years now and can dl sh&tloads some months - and using filehosts it is pretty much full speed for my line (line = 13 mb/s / dl = 1.6MB/s)

no issues with streaming and saves worrying about caps

so yeah i'm happy - but ymmv..

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#882844 22-Aug-2013 15:52

Personally I think you'll get better peak time performance on a 500GB plan from Snap or Telecom than an unlimited from Orcon or Slingshot.

If you use around 150GB on heavy months, 500GB is practically unlimited for you anyway.

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