I've just moved to the UK and set myself up, so I thought I'd send my 2 cents over to NZ as a comparison. I thought some of you may appreciate my first impressions of the UK vs. NZ.
The first thing I would say is my hatred for Telecom continues long after I have left NZ...
I pay £8 a month for 8mbs ADSL over here. At current exchange rate thats around NZ$20/month, and compared to other cost of living things, it feels more like NZ$15...
Do I get the full 8mbs - not really, as the cabling over here is aging, but I get fast enough to blow our old Telecom connection out of the water. The connection is constant regardless of when I log on - peak time after work and its still going strong!
We had to sign up to a 12 month contract, but as part of this they sent us a free Wireless router (not a special, its just what they do) which also included 3 free phone filters.
The call centre is impossible to get anyone who knows what they are doing, but that sounds like home.
Really the overall package was a good reminder of how far behind NZ really is...
We tried Video Skype to a number of people at home last week - it was all done our evening, so hardly peak time in NZ. The calls we made to people on Telstra Fiber were fantastic. Smooth video, in sync with the sound. All of the calls we made to Telecom ADSL were unusable... video was jumpy and up to 10sec out of sync with the sound.
It really has been an enlightening reminder of how much Telecom has held NZ braodband to ransom! It will be interesting to see what difference local loop unbundling will make and whether competition will improve the situation, or whether years of underinvestment have just made to much damage to recover in the short term???
Thoughts? Impressions?