Advice for UFB in Tauranga, and since there seems to be no naked UBF, phone plan?

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Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Advice for UFB in Tauranga, and since there seems to be no naked UBF, phone plan?

Baboon

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

#146815 29-May-2014 20:14

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G'day Geekzone.

What is a good option for UFB in Tauranga that either has phone I can ignore (I currently use Skype and my mobile), or phone that might even be useful compared to Skype (it would have to be accessible on the go from other locations, have voicemail, and generally not be crappy)?

I'm currently with Trustpower for power, so they're one option. I know Orcon has UBF here and even has a mobile app called OrconGo (with some terrible reviews on the app store!) allowing access to their phone service on the go.

My current ISP, who I like just fine, excepting their ongoing lack of UBF here, is WorldNet.

TIA,
Jamie Kahn Genet

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

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nitrotech

1285 posts

Uber Geek

#1056217 29-May-2014 20:28

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there's a list here

http://www.ultrafastfibre.co.nz/about/fibre-retailers

but trustpower could be an option - I recommend that you use a different sip provider for your phone that way it can be easily configured for different connections/providers - www.2talk.conz have very good pricing

Behodar

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#1056218 29-May-2014 20:35

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TrustPower requires that you have phone service too:

Please note, our Ultra Fast Broadband plans are only available in conjunction with a phone plan.

Their basic phone service is $53/month, making the whole package horrendously expensive once you add that on top of the $69 basic UFB plan.

Edit: It seems that this isn't correct; see below.

nitrotech

1285 posts

Uber Geek

#1056224 29-May-2014 20:46

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They don't on business plans - maybe give them a ring and say how stupid the requirement is for residential.

Lazarui

136 posts

Master Geek

#1056365 30-May-2014 09:26

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Behodar: TrustPower requires that you have phone service too:

Please note, our Ultra Fast Broadband plans are only available in conjunction with a phone plan.

Their basic phone service is $53/month, making the whole package horrendously expensive once you add that on top of the $69 basic UFB plan.

$69 is inclusive with the phone. not $69.00+$53.00 because that would be stupid.

myfullflavour

896 posts

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Full Flavour

#1056399 30-May-2014 10:33

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Hey Jamie,

Have you considered Full Flavour?

https://www.facebook.com/fullflavour.co.nz

http://fullflavour.co.nz/ultra-fast-broadband/tauranga

While we bundle a phone in our service, you're not obligated to use it.

Without paying for an upgrade, it effectively is a "plain old line" that does nothing special. This is similar to Orcon.

Our strong point is our fibre broadband.

We have one plan for residential which is $99 / month, speeds of up to 50Mbps download / 20Mbps upload and this plan comes with an unmetered data policy.

Residential users can pay an additional $20 / month to double speeds.

I run a Geekzone special for those who sign-up via PM'ing me (not going via our sales team) which is:

- Standard unmetered residential plan
- 1 month free
- Free Roku Streaming Stick for 12 months, which include a geo-unblocking services

Interestingly enough there is a ridiculous amount of Trustpower employees who use our service! Maybe it's the life-time contract where you have to pay $297 in exit fees if you ever leave them that puts them off.

Self promoting post over.

Behodar

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#1056468 30-May-2014 12:15

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Lazarui: $69 is inclusive with the phone. not $69.00+$53.00 because that would be stupid.

Well in that case it's stupid for TP to state that you need a phone plan if you don't. So, stupidity either way :)

Lazarui

136 posts

Master Geek

#1056504 30-May-2014 13:18

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Behodar:
Lazarui: $69 is inclusive with the phone. not $69.00+$53.00 because that would be stupid.

Well in that case it's stupid for TP to state that you need a phone plan if you don't. So, stupidity either way :)

Fair point it is badly worded.

" Our Ultra Fast Broadband options are shown below. Please note, our Ultra Fast Broadband plans are only available in conjunction with a phone plan. "

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Behodar

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#1056516 30-May-2014 13:37

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Yup, badly worded; I showed it to another guy at work and he interpreted it the same way.

Anyway... at the new lower price (

) it could be an acceptable deal. I'd keep an eye on the terms and conditions though; when I joined TrustPower for electricity there was a plan with a $95 (IIRC) exit fee, but there was also an open term option at a slightly higher price (but still cheaper than the competition).

Lazarui

136 posts

Master Geek

#1056546 30-May-2014 14:11

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I beilieve it's 5%, and its that contract that Full flavour is talking about.

Would make the $69.00 plan something like $72.45

myfullflavour

896 posts

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Full Flavour

#1056585 30-May-2014 15:10

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Lazarui: I beilieve it's 5%, and its that contract that Full flavour is talking about.

Would make the $69.00 plan something like $72.45

Watch out for the multi-service bundle TP offer. $99 exit fee per service (usually power / phone / internet bundled for the 5% discount).

As I understand it (from paying new customers termination fees when they churn from TP to Full Flavour!) you pay an exit fee per service for breaking just one of the bundled services.

The exit fee is regardless of the minimum contract term which maybe 12 or 24 months. If you left TP in 5 years time, you still pay the exit fees.

If someone can correct me if I'm wrong, fine - but the above has been a pretty consistent story over the past 12 months.

Baboon

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1057163 31-May-2014 17:37

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myfullflavour: Hey Jamie,

Have you considered Full Flavour?

https://www.facebook.com/fullflavour.co.nz

http://fullflavour.co.nz/ultra-fast-broadband/tauranga

While we bundle a phone in our service, you're not obligated to use it.

Without paying for an upgrade, it effectively is a "plain old line" that does nothing special. This is similar to Orcon.

Our strong point is our fibre broadband.

We have one plan for residential which is $99 / month, speeds of up to 50Mbps download / 20Mbps upload and this plan comes with an unmetered data policy.

Residential users can pay an additional $20 / month to double speeds.

I run a Geekzone special for those who sign-up via PM'ing me (not going via our sales team) which is:

- Standard unmetered residential plan
- 1 month free
- Free Roku Streaming Stick for 12 months, which include a geo-unblocking services

Interestingly enough there is a ridiculous amount of Trustpower employees who use our service! Maybe it's the life-time contract where you have to pay $297 in exit fees if you ever leave them that puts them off.

Self promoting post over.

G'day... err, Mr or Miss Flavour ;-)

So what polices affect the unmetered access? I use BitTorrent quite a bit, for example, and watch streaming video with UStream, YouTube and the like.

I'm not familiar with the 'Roku Streaming Stick'. A mini media centre? What happens after 12 months?

Cheers for your info and have good weekend :-)

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

Baboon

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1057167 31-May-2014 17:59

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Behodar: Yup, badly worded; I showed it to another guy at work and he interpreted it the same way.

Anyway... at the new lower price () it could be an acceptable deal. I'd keep an eye on the terms and conditions though; when I joined TrustPower for electricity there was a plan with a $95 (IIRC) exit fee, but there was also an open term option at a slightly higher price (but still cheaper than the competition).

Well I'm already a Tauranga Trustpower power customer, with no plans to switch power from them. Though they are dearer, in Tauranga I get the yearly TECT cheque which ends up making them on par with the cheapest, at least last I did the math.

I like the look of the Orcon plans because their phone service would not be useless, as they've a VoIP app of their own for iOS. But their rep on the phone seemed not to know if I could also access my voicemail on the go with that app, and the reviews of OrconGo (the aforementioned app) on the iOS App store paint a terrible picture. The rep said it worked well and she'd never had any complains... but she would say that, wouldn't she? :-D

I am a previous Orcon customer, and left them due to lacklustre DSL plans and mediocre customer service, but would not be totally adverse to returning for the right deal.

Still, as regards phone - I'm still not sure anything will be better than Skype, given I need national and international access to my NZ phone number and voicemail, and have got very used to Skype's low low rates and all you can eat plans. Plus - as crap as Skype/MS support is, and though they've added new useful features at a glacial rate (Skype today is essentially the same feature-wise - so far as I'm concerned - as Skype from ten years ago!), in the the final analysis nothing else compares for a worldwide cross platform VoIP solution that just works 99.9% of the time, even on really low bandwidth connections. IME anyway :-)

As naked broadband never really seemed to get off the ground (I have naked DSL with WorldNet, but ISPs don't seemed interested in offering it with UBF - all about money making off a bundled phone, I guess), I'll accept phone service. In a way plain old copper landline might be best (as opposed to VoIP phone service like Orcon bundles), as it would be nice to not have to make expensive cell calls when the power is out. Still, that's twice a year on average, so maybe not worth caring about anyway.

I am temped to just go with Trustpower for everything, unless some other company makes me a compelling offer. Or frankly to just stick with DSL, as the metered UBF plans are all way more expensive to get the 150GB per month I'm used to for under $80 on DSL (so Flavour's offer of unmetered is appealing, if the restrictions and polices are not too onerous). So perhaps just wait for UBF to grow and better plans to arrive, as eventually happened with DSL. I dunno.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

michaelt

425 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1057168 31-May-2014 18:02

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Vodafone possibly? http://www.vodafone.co.nz/broadband/naked-ultra-fast-fibre/

Baboon

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1057172 31-May-2014 18:09

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michaelt: Vodafone possibly? http://www.vodafone.co.nz/broadband/naked-ultra-fast-fibre/

Hmm... they used to have a terrible reputation - even tried to stop users running Skype on their mobile network. Getting through to them on behalf of others to troubleshoot internet issues was always hell.

What are Vodafone like nowadays as an ISP?

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

Lorenceo

904 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#1057174 31-May-2014 18:15

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Go with Snap if you can IMO.
All their UFB plans include a VOIP phone, but you don't have to use it if you don't want to. In order to use their VOIP you apparently need to use their router.
Any router that supports VLAN tagging on its WAN port will work for internet, though.

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