Best unlimited broadband provider

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# 968011 16-Jan-2014 10:23

boland: Compared by size, is Orcon much bigger than Slingshot?
In my opinion a smaller company should not be worse than a big company. Big companies tend to have multiple departments where each department points another department as the problem. At least, that's my opinion with telco's in NL. Calling about a problem could result being switched between several departments.
Slingshot has the option to downgrade VDSL to ADSL+ if the speed isn't high enough. That option isn't offered by Orcon, at least not explicit. And, termantion costs of Slingshot are NZD 149,- compared to NZD 199,- of Orcon.

Orcon are about half the size of slingshot by number of customers.

Quality of service depends on many factors. Smaller companies have it better for some things (flexibility, competitive desire etc) big companies have it better for other things (economies of scale, resiliency etc) so you can't really say a small company will be better than a big company or vice versa.

Buzz Bumble

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# 968153 16-Jan-2014 13:40

boland:
In my opinion a smaller company should not be worse than a big company.

I'm not sure about Slingshot, but many of the smaller providers do not have their own equipment in exchanges, etc. and simply sub-lease plans from the big companies, which can add an extra layer of difficulty and buck-passing when there's a problem.

In terms of at least trying to help, the smaller company is usually better since they can less afford to lose one customer.

michaelmurfy

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# 968173 16-Jan-2014 14:06

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Bigpipe are pretty legit, you should give them a go and if you don't like them, just change!

Else I'd recommend Snap and Telecom - sure they're not unlimited but Telecom have big caps, Snap have big caps and free off-peak but they're both pretty fast.

Personally, I wouldn't touch Slingshot or Orcon with a 10ft pole, but that's just me, some people appear to like them.

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boland

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# 968228 16-Jan-2014 15:09

I need my own modem for Bigpipe, that's my problem with them.

Data cap really is no option.

NonprayingMantis

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# 968236 16-Jan-2014 15:25

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boland: I need my own modem for Bigpipe, that's my problem with them.

Data cap really is no option.

You can get one off trademe for less than $50 I reckon. Bigpipe is free until end of March which more than offsets that anyway.

Chrizvi

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# 968262 16-Jan-2014 15:56

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here's my experience:

slingshot - was on adsl getting 18/1 (up/down) - on naked unlimited and it was pretty good! can even watch netflix in superHD
then moved to telecom vdsl - no longer able to watch netflix in superhd and lots of buffering - confirm other users having this issue as well. my latency with international is a bit high too.

then moved to BigPipe VDSL - can now watch netflix on superHD again and my international latency went down. really impressed with this provider. and quick service too!

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# 968305 16-Jan-2014 16:26

boland: I need my own modem for Bigpipe, that's my problem with them.

Another problem for you with BigPipe - they don't do fresh installs/wiring - the trial is intended for people who are already connected to ADSL, and who don't want POTS or VoIP.
I think that the BigPipe "no frills naked VDSL" concept is excellent, but it may not suit you.

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JimmyH

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# 968312 16-Jan-2014 16:40

boland: I need my own modem for Bigpipe, that's my problem with them.

Data cap really is no option.

I use my own modem anyway.

The freebie ones that the ISPs supply are, in my experience, pretty awful. For instance, the one that Telecom supplied me was pretty bottom of the range and, when I went to change a setting using the manufacturer's instructions, I found out Telecom had installed it's own (buggy) firmware that removed the setting option (port forwarding) that I was trying to change. Similar issues with setups for relatives - after many hassles in all cases they eventually see the light and agree to dump the ISP-supplied unit.

Modems are cheap(ish) and if you supply your own you can pick the price/features you need, and sidestep ISP silliness.

BigPipeNZ

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# 968313 16-Jan-2014 16:41

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Sideface:
boland: I need my own modem for Bigpipe, that's my problem with them.

Another problem for you with BigPipe - they don't do fresh installs/wiring - the trial is intended for people who are already connected to ADSL, and who don't want POTS or VoIP.
I think that the BigPipe "no frills naked VDSL" concept is excellent, but it may not suit you.

Kind of correct.

We are naked only (but of course you can have voip with any one of many providers if you like)

We started out by only doing transitions (moving from one ISP to us) but recently we have started doing 'new connections'.

That means that you may not have broadband at that address right now, but the house has a copper line in place that is capable of getting broadband.

At the moment, we only really exclude connections where there is no copper line in place at all. So that means things like new builds, or maybe some houses in Wellington/ChCh where the only previous connection was TCL cable (so now copper) are out of scope.

So the vast majority of houses/apartments in NZ will be able to get BigPipe.

bigpipe.co.nz
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https://twitter.com/BigPipeNZ

boland

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# 969259 18-Jan-2014 09:53

Allright, I registered for Bigpipe in the end! The current owner has VDSL from Vodafone, so all wiring should be okay.

NonprayingMantis

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# 969262 18-Jan-2014 09:59

boland: Allright, I registered for Bigpipe in the end! The current owner has VDSL from Vodafone, so all wiring should be okay.

Are you sure he has vdsl from Vodafone? They don't sell vdsl yet, so he would only have it if he was a staff triallist or something.

boland

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# 969263 18-Jan-2014 10:01

NonprayingMantis:
boland: Allright, I registered for Bigpipe in the end! The current owner has VDSL from Vodafone, so all wiring should be okay.

Are you sure he has vdsl from Vodafone? They don't sell vdsl yet, so he would only have it if he was a staff triallist or something.

Hmm, not 100% sure, but I thought he said that. I'll just give it a try and see if VDSL is working, otherwise will try ADSL.

sidefx

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# 969265 18-Jan-2014 10:06

boland: Data cap really is no option.

How are you downloading the TV shows from the Netherlands and how much streaming\skyping\etc are you doing? Some of the ISPs offer 500GB plans - that's a pretty large amount of streaming\skyping ;-) (and then on top of that somewhere like snap has the 1am-7am)

If on the other had you're torrentting a lot (linux isos?) have you considered a seedbox...? some of them even offer servers in the netherlands, and if your uploads are large it cuts that right out.

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# 969275 18-Jan-2014 10:24

boland: Allright, I registered for Bigpipe in the end! The current owner has VDSL from Vodafone, so all wiring should be okay.

Two points:
1. Vodafone do not yet sell VDSl in NZ - but they are trialling it.
2. Do NOT assume that the home wiring is "OK" just because someone is using VDSL

Good luck with BigPipe - please tell us how you get on :)

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boland

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# 969278 18-Jan-2014 10:36

@sidefx : I have a NAS with Sickbeard installed and will download with either Usenet or torrents.

I saw 500 gb plans indeed, I think that will be enough, but I just don't want a cap to worry about. So no "sorry baby, we can't watch TV shows until next week".

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