Best VDSL Broadband Deals at the moment

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mattwnz

20173 posts

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#141125 1-Mar-2014 23:22

Currently reviewing my broadband options for home, as my contract with my current ISP is over, and I can get better deals now with other ISPs. Also want to make the jump from ADSL to VDSL. So though I would share what I have found after a bit of research. Would also welcome any other ISP suggestions.
Currently I have found that Vodafones offering at the moment looks to be unparallelled with free VDSL upgrade and is the same price as ADSL for 12 months, and I wonder what I am missing. With Vodafone I can get

For $85 per month
- I get first month free, so over 12 months, that makes it about $78 per month
- VDSL Connection
- 80GB data/per month
- Free VDSL modem and VDSL install, which they only give to new customers.
- Free calling from landline to selected mobile phones with bestmate (this looks like a great feature)
- Free local calling

This is what I am currently getting for $75 with my current ISP, which is pretty average these days.

- ADSL Connection. They want $10 per month for an VDSL connection, plus have to pay $95 to be upgraded to VDSL.
- 40GB of data/ month
- Free local calling

I have looked at other ISPs offerings, and none appear to come close to vodafones for new customers. Some ISPs plans look really out of step, which some not appearing to offer VDSL.
What I don't really understand is that these ISPs will offer these great deals for new customers, but not for existing ones, which leaves no option for people, but to switch providers, and this doesn't help with remaining loyal to a company. Ironically I am in a telstra cable area, but not a UFB area, so potentially could get vodafones / telstras own fibre cable service, but that doesn't look to qualify for the UFB plans.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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#997354 1-Mar-2014 23:39

The reason they offer great deals for new customers only is because it works. They can make the offers richer than if they had to offer them to everyone. If customers switch to get these deals, then they will keep doing them to pick up more customers.

By switching to Vodafone because their offer for new customers is so good, you are enabling this behavior as they are the worst for this sort of thing IMHO

If you want to take a stand against it, switch to an ISP who only gives token offer to new customers, or who make the same offer to new customers as existing.

The vodafone deal is pretty good, but you will need to be careful about what happens at the end of 12 months as the price *will* go up if you do nothing about it. 80GB is also not very much when it comes to vdsl.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the market is improving all the time. So you might sign with Vf but then better plans come out in 3 months and you are locked in. Lots of people in that situation stuck on old plans with Vf right now, just read this forum to see several.

One final thing to consider is that Vf and telecom both offer extra discounts if you have a postpaid mobile with them. Might be worth staying or switching depending on who your mobile is with.

Eta: if you are in cable areas, I don't think Vf will put you on vdsl. They would rather get you on cable. Not 100% sure on that though.

mattwnz

20173 posts

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#997359 1-Mar-2014 23:51

NonprayingMantis:

One final thing to consider is that Vf and telecom both offer extra discounts if you have a postpaid mobile with them. Might be worth staying or switching depending on who your mobile is with.

Thanks for your comments, all very good points. I am with VF already for my mobile, so it could help sweeten the deal a bit if I look at what my needs are for that.
I am mainly only interested in VDSL for the upload speeds, as I do quite abit of uploading, and I think I use less than 50Gb per month at the moment. I could always upgrade to VF higher plans at a later date if I do need more data, as I would expect them to allow that. I may actaully go for their higher plan anyway. It does say the price will go up $10 at the end of the 12 month term, but at that stage I have to either change ISP again, or negotiate a better deal with them to stay.

My current provider does actually upgrade peoples plans during the contract term, eg They may increase the bandwidth from 30GB to 40GB, without any price increase. I am not sure how VF do things, as I haven't observed how they upgrade their plans over time.

I would doubt they will force me onto cable, as it would mean that they would need to trench my garden. Also I don't think their cable prices are competitive, so I wouldn't go with them. Infact I can't find any details on their website of the Wellington cable plans anymore since they took over telstra. I am guessing they are different to their UFB plans. I do have telstra saturn fibre and a box outside my house on the footpath, and UFB isn't going to be installed till after 2016. I am guessing I will end up with two lots of cable outside my house eventually

Edit: I think I have found their cable plans, but the 80GB plan looks to be the highest plan they do on it so probably not an option I would go for.

myfullflavour

896 posts

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Full Flavour

#997382 2-Mar-2014 01:53

mattwnz: I have looked at other ISPs offerings, and none appear to come close to vodafones for new customers. Some ISPs plans look really out of step, which some not appearing to offer VDSL.
What I don't really understand is that these ISPs will offer these great deals for new customers, but not for existing ones, which leaves no option for people, but to switch providers, and this doesn't help with remaining loyal to a company.

When Telecom and Vodafone entered the VDSL market, it became a race to the bottom especially with these two giants offering approx $30 discount for any existing mobile plan customers.

We withdrew from VDSL completely as $55-$69 is an unsustainable price to be offering 80-150GB VDSL plans at, especially as a pure play ISP.

The numbers work for us with UFB in regions where we have our own handover equipment (Tauranga / Waikato).

Sideface

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#997401 2-Mar-2014 06:26

mattwnz: I don't think their cable prices are competitive, so I wouldn't go with them [VF] ...

Edit: I think I have found their cable plans, but the 80GB plan looks to be the highest plan they do on it so probably not an option I would go for.

VF Entertain Ultra Fast cable now has two speed options – 50/2Mbps and 130/10Mbps (I’ve used both) - and three data cap options – 80 GB, 150GB and 500GB (new!).
Go to: http://www.vodafone.co.nz/broadband/high-speed-cable/ and look for "Ultra Fast with home phone - Cable"

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Cbfd

307 posts

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#997413 2-Mar-2014 07:47

Big pipe has unlimited adsl and vdsl (79 + 99) as naked broadband (who needs a landline anymore) and highly recommend them

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#997427 2-Mar-2014 08:45

mattwnz: Ironically I am in a telstra cable area, but not a UFB area ...

Remember that VF/TelstraClear cable is above ground in Wellington - no trenches required.

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sbiddle

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#997431 2-Mar-2014 09:05

Cbfd: Big pipe has unlimited adsl and vdsl (79 + 99) as naked broadband (who needs a landline anymore) and highly recommend them

But you will need to investigate your own options for a master filter or rewiring your house since Big Pipe will not install one (Chorus will install one for every other ISP VDSL2 install). The cost of this clearly needs to be factored in.

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Jaxson

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#997457 2-Mar-2014 09:40

The plans are definitely more attractive if you can connect with an on account mobile.

The issue after that becomes how consistent will the service be once connected, will there be any strange issues like not being able to buffer from overseas sites like youtube that we had with TelstraClear, will their service options be reachable when you need them, and will you and the service centre be able to understand each other when you get connected etc?

I know there are issues with these, but they make for a good quick overview of performance I notice Vodafone don't feature on the VDSL checks yet, but their ADSL results are interesting.

BigPipeNZ

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#997466 2-Mar-2014 09:54

sbiddle:
Cbfd: Big pipe has unlimited adsl and vdsl (79 + 99) as naked broadband (who needs a landline anymore) and highly recommend them

But you will need to investigate your own options for a master filter or rewiring your house since Big Pipe will not install one (Chorus will install one for every other ISP VDSL2 install). The cost of this clearly needs to be factored in.

Correct, assuming you don't already have one, which you might do if your house has/had a monitored alarm installed in the last couple of years, or if you complained on geekzone about broadband speeds and was told by sbiddle/johnr et al to get one.

Also you will need to BYO modem (cheapest vdsl modem is around $150)

Main benefit of us is that we don't lock you into a contract, so you can always be on the lookout for a better deal. (I believe it also keeps us on our toes when it comes to service too, knowing that you could leave at any time)

we have no data cap too, so, for example, backing up your entire hard drive to the cloud suddenly becomes a thing you can do with vdsl. I would highly recommend investigating a cap larger than 80GB for VDSL.

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

zincj

19 posts

Geek

#997542 2-Mar-2014 13:47

I am in the same position as our contract term is up.
Agreed, Voda seem to be a clear winner with the current offer. I guess the only other add on I would want is unlimited national calling, but with the capped calling rate of $2.50 (2 hours) and five best mate numbers it's not a deal breaker.

mattwnz

20173 posts

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#997573 2-Mar-2014 14:37

zincj: I am in the same position as our contract term is up.
Agreed, Voda seem to be a clear winner with the current offer. I guess the only other add on I would want is unlimited national calling, but with the capped calling rate of $2.50 (2 hours) and five best mate numbers it's not a deal breaker.

With callzero you can get free national calling.

mattwnz

20173 posts

Uber Geek

#997576 2-Mar-2014 14:40

Sideface:
mattwnz: Ironically I am in a telstra cable area, but not a UFB area ...

Remember that VF/TelstraClear cable is above ground in Wellington - no trenches required.

They are underground in my area, in fact there are no power poles at all in my street. So the only way they could get the cable would be to trench, and I am quite a distance from the road too.