It wouldn't surprise me if we start to see no contract terms disappear. All LFCs have term contracts with RSPs, with all but Chorus enforcing these - Chorus have chosen not to enforce them. There has been some speculation that this could change, meaning a RSP would be taking a big risk not enforcing these on their customers.
If the disconnection fee is only $99 are we all that poor we cannot absorb such a cost? If someone approached me and offered to install fibre into my house I would gladly signup for $99 with no hesitation!
Kind of reminds me of those cheapskates that won't fork out ~$150-199 for a full master splitter install with xDSL...
alexj: If the disconnection fee is only $99 are we all that poor we cannot absorb such a cost? If someone approached me and offered to install fibre into my house I would gladly signup for $99 with no hesitation!
Kind of reminds me of those cheapskates that won't fork out ~$150-199 for a full master splitter install with xDSL...
My thoughts exactly. In my more prolific Master Filter days last year out of 200+ tests I had about 5 or 6 who demanded that we pick up the tab for improving their broadband. I used the analogy of would you expect your local council to fix an internal leak on your property.
With the Internet of things people still expect everything for free. When there is basically no money in it at all. I expect a few smaller players who have priced themselves near 0 to hit the wall in the next few years.
My view is just sign the contract. It's only 12 months and for a ~$8000 install the LFC is sinking for the install it's pretty good value.
plambrechtsen: My view is just sign the contract. It's only 12 months and for a ~$8000 install the LFC is sinking for the install it's pretty good value.
agreed, now where do you get this ~$8000 install cost from ?
yes LFC sinking but subsidized by the govt right ?
plambrechtsen: My view is just sign the contract. It's only 12 months and for a ~$8000 install the LFC is sinking for the install it's pretty good value.
agreed, now where do you get this ~$8000 install cost from ?
yes LFC sinking but subsidized by the govt right ?
CFH are effectively giving the LFCs an interest free loan to build the network.
The $8000 was the upper end of the per-premsis past and install cost.
Chorus's FY14 Results: $2,948 per house passed + $1,680 install costs = $4,628.
My bad, but still it's a non-trivial cost to get UFB deployed, so people wanting no contract or ETC fee. Seems a bit unreasonable IMHO.
plambrechtsen: My view is just sign the contract. It's only 12 months and for a ~$8000 install the LFC is sinking for the install it's pretty good value.
agreed, now where do you get this ~$8000 install cost from ?
yes LFC sinking but subsidized by the govt right ?
Plus if the person ditches their current isp and moves to a different isp, guess what happens. The lfc still gets paid exactly the same. Or if the person moves out and a new person moves in, chances are they will also get UFB and, again, the lfc gets paid exactly the same.
Basically the contractsfrom the lfcs are pointless. The only time they might be needed would be for the very small percentage of houses who are empty, or for the minuscule number of people who move into a house with ufb, but decide to take adsl. The downside, of course, is that any tenancy less than 12 months means the tennant is unlikely to be signing up to ufb. IMHO they are shooting themselves int he foot since it means that students and younger people in flitting situations aren't going to sign up to ufb due to contracts, and they are the market where demand for ufb is likely to be highest (multi user houses, higher users of video and gaming etc)
plambrechtsen: My view is just sign the contract. It's only 12 months and for a ~$8000 install the LFC is sinking for the install it's pretty good value.
agreed, now where do you get this ~$8000 install cost from ?
yes LFC sinking but subsidized by the govt right ?
Plus if the person ditches their current isp and moves to a different isp, guess what happens. The lfc still gets paid exactly the same. Or if the person moves out and a new person moves in, chances are they will also get UFB and, again, the lfc gets paid exactly the same.
Basically the contractsfrom the lfcs are pointless. The only time they might be needed would be for the very small percentage of houses who are empty, or for the minuscule number of people who move into a house with ufb, but decide to take adsl. The downside, of course, is that any tenancy less than 12 months means the tennant is unlikely to be signing up to ufb. IMHO they are shooting themselves int he foot since it means that students and younger people in flitting situations aren't going to sign up to ufb due to contracts, and they are the market where demand for ufb is likely to be highest (multi user houses, higher users of video and gaming etc)
Ok so if you were to move into a flat with 3 others you cannot afford ~$25 per head at the end of the (not quite) year for a disconnection fee? Oh give me a break!
plambrechtsen: My view is just sign the contract. It's only 12 months and for a ~$8000 install the LFC is sinking for the install it's pretty good value.
agreed, now where do you get this ~$8000 install cost from ?
yes LFC sinking but subsidized by the govt right ?
Plus if the person ditches their current isp and moves to a different isp, guess what happens. The lfc still gets paid exactly the same. Or if the person moves out and a new person moves in, chances are they will also get UFB and, again, the lfc gets paid exactly the same.
Basically the contractsfrom the lfcs are pointless. The only time they might be needed would be for the very small percentage of houses who are empty, or for the minuscule number of people who move into a house with ufb, but decide to take adsl. The downside, of course, is that any tenancy less than 12 months means the tennant is unlikely to be signing up to ufb. IMHO they are shooting themselves int he foot since it means that students and younger people in flitting situations aren't going to sign up to ufb due to contracts, and they are the market where demand for ufb is likely to be highest (multi user houses, higher users of video and gaming etc)
Ok so if you were to move into a flat with 3 others you cannot afford ~$25 per head at the end of the (not quite) year for a disconnection fee? Oh give me a break!
Most ISPs are not charging contract break fees anything like that low. Typically the fee is to pay out the lplan charges for the life of the contract. Are you referencing one ISp in particular?
Snap, referenced above, charge $199 for the etf, not $99.
I thought the original post was about RSP contracts not whatever contracts the RSPs have in place with the LFCs
Personally I prefer no contract too but I suspect many don't want to be caught paying more if the market prices drops as so often occurs with mobile, that said it seems that of late at least 3 RSPs will to put their prices up !
Maybe this is a reflection of a a small margin highly competitive market where RSP's want certainty of income especially the smaller ones and the larger ones who have shareholders...
What I am surprised about is the lack of incentives for contracts as is done in mobile i.e. lower monthly cost or more value but that maybe because it is regulated ?
Mobile is a completely different beast from fixed line.
One with mobile the operator owns the complete stack. The fixed contract subsidises the purchase of the phone. If the customer doesn't want a contract they can walk away with only minor cost incurred from supplying the sim card.
Fixed no one owns the physical network apart from Vodafone and the ex-TelstraClearSaturn cable network in Wellington and Christchurch. So there are real costs the ISP pays to the wholesaler and contracts they sign for a fixed term to get it connected.
plambrechtsen: The fixed contract subsidises the purchase of the phone.
Same could be said about fibre, where the fixed costs subsidises the router.
Precisely. Hence why most ISPs require customers to sign up to a 12 month contract that subsidies both the connection cost with the LFC and the router.
I'm still personally quite surprised considering the true cost of installing fibre thay anyone would expect to not be on contract.
Edit: And Bigpipe have always been BYOD so that means you don't need to test, stock and have logistics around the devices which helps to cut down on the costs.
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