30 Years of Internet in New Zealand

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freitasm

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#248936 16-Apr-2019 17:42

As seen on the NZNOG, today (16 April 2019) marks the 30th anniversary of the Internet in New Zealand, thanks to John Houlker connecting the University of Waikato to the University of Hawaii.

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#2219423 16-Apr-2019 20:13

For those interested in more detail:

https://www.nethistory.co.nz/Internet_in_New_Zealand_Timeline/

Scroll through to 1989 to connect with the thread story.

--

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Lias

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#2219754 17-Apr-2019 11:09

I've been an active user of the internet in NZ since 1993, kind of amazing that was only 4 years after it became available in NZ.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

outdoorsnz

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#2219763 17-Apr-2019 11:25

When I was at school, around 1993 there was no internet, but I was allowed to bring my own modem to connect the apple IIs up to local BBS and randomly dial into phone numbers of modems you heard of in local area! Exciting times when ISP's started up a few years later. Back then it was 300 bit modem, but that quickly changed. 1200, 2400 and 96k!

DarthKermit

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#2219836 17-Apr-2019 13:01

I didn't jump on the internet bandwagon until late 1998. Been addicted, I mean connected, ever since.

wellygary

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#2219844 17-Apr-2019 13:32

Although back "in the day" Mail, Usenet and remote access (telnet/FTP) was pretty much the entire "internet"

It really wasn't until Gopher and then Mosaic that the "web" started to really come together in the in a form similar to today...

But if you scratch hard enough and know where to look can still see the original bones still working after all this time,...

Salami

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#2220260 17-Apr-2019 23:06

I remember using dial up in 1993 on a 28k modem follow by 56k modem in 1998

While I was delighted that broadband became unbundle during my uni years I thought prices would drop down by a significant margain in a few years. Perhaps I was too optimistic in 2006 I thought that when fibre finally came along we would only be paying around $50 for unlimited broadband.

I didn't expect NZ would one day get gigabit fibre but I knew from the bottom of my heart Chorus would eventually play games with ISP around pricing.

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bigalow

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#2220273 18-Apr-2019 00:25

saw this a few weeks ago nz first router

14.4 kbps was nz only international bandwidth and upgraded to 64kbps in 1991

http://www.don.nz.net/wordpress/nzs-oldest-internet-router/

bigalow

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#2220275 18-Apr-2019 00:36

Salami:

I remember using dial up in 1993 on a 28k modem follow by 56k modem in 1998

While I was delighted that broadband became unbundle during my uni years I thought prices would drop down by a significant margain in a few years. Perhaps I was too optimistic in 2006 I thought that when fibre finally came along we would only be paying around $50 for unlimited broadband.

I didn't expect NZ would one day get gigabit fibre but I knew from the bottom of my heart Chorus would eventually play games with ISP around pricing.

i remember Telecom's Theresa Gattung ripping of kiwis and now she has a New Zealand Order of Merit for it

Aredwood

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#2220280 18-Apr-2019 02:02

Salami:
I remember using dial up in 1993 on a 28k modem follow by 56k modem in 1998

While I was delighted that broadband became unbundle during my uni years I thought prices would drop down by a significant margain in a few years. Perhaps I was too optimistic in 2006 I thought that when fibre finally came along we would only be paying around $50 for unlimited broadband.

I didn't expect NZ would one day get gigabit fibre but I knew from the bottom of my heart Chorus would eventually play games with ISP around pricing.

I remember paying around $64 per month for 128K/128K ADSL old jetstart plan. In the early 2000s. $99 install fee and BYO modem. Which Telecom was later forced to increase the download speed to 256K after someone realized that 128K didnt meet the OECD definition of Broadband. At least it had Unlimited data through.

Today, you can get 30/10 UFB for $60 per month. No contract, $99 install fee, BYO modem. And my original $64 per month cost, after adjusting for inflation is similar to what gigabit UFB costs today.

Chorus pricing is excellent value for money in comparison to what the old Telecom used to offer. And the service that I have had from Chorus has also been far better than what Telecom offered. Approx 3 months, at least 10 tech visits, and lots of repeated calls and frustration to get a copper line fault repaired. (surely Telecom wouldn't give lower priority to fixing faults on unbundled lines, Vs lines used by their retail customers?) While Chorus UFB took exactly 1 week between ordering, and fully installed and working.

No way do I ever want to go back to the BC (Before Chorus) era.

BarTender

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#2220292 18-Apr-2019 06:37

biggal:
Salami:

I remember using dial up in 1993 on a 28k modem follow by 56k modem in 1998

While I was delighted that broadband became unbundle during my uni years I thought prices would drop down by a significant margain in a few years. Perhaps I was too optimistic in 2006 I thought that when fibre finally came along we would only be paying around $50 for unlimited broadband.

I didn't expect NZ would one day get gigabit fibre but I knew from the bottom of my heart Chorus would eventually play games with ISP around pricing.

i remember Telecom's Theresa Gattung ripping of kiwis and now she has a New Zealand Order of Merit for it

Without Telecom we wouldn't have had the SCCN cable as the business case didn't stack up for NZ to have it's own cable and it was the insistent badgering of one Telecom Wholesale staffer who managed to get it to happen that is why it's a figure 8 from AU coming via NZ.
So ... Without the SCCN I can say hand on my heart it would have been at LEAST 10+ Years or more before anyone had the money to even think about spending the millions to put in a cable. And it would probably have only gone to AU.
Without the SCCN the Lord of the rings would have been a much harder sell as everything would have needed to be flown.

So much NZ business depends on SCCN and a non Telecom/Spark cable Hawaki only happened a few years ago. Think about that for a minute.........

Goosey

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#2220295 18-Apr-2019 06:49

14.4k baud connection to compuserve from June 1994 (prior to this was a dabble in BBS).

I think I upgraded to a 28k connection about 1998 then onto a 56k connection and stayed on this until 2006 when I got ADSL !

fast forward to 2018 and I got fibre.

ahh Compuserve....."welcome to wincim".

great chat function!

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LennonNZ

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#2220309 18-Apr-2019 07:38

This may interest people.

https://www.nethistory.co.nz/

Some facts and timelines may be a little off .. but it gives a general idea how things went in the early days of the internet.

Behodar

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#2220315 18-Apr-2019 08:06

I first used the Web at school; either 1994 or 95 with an early version of Netscape (big blue N in the top-right that would go "in and out" as it loaded the page, if that helps to track down the version/year).

At home, we joined Voyager in late 1995 and used it for about two hours the first month, at a cost of $10/hour if I recall correctly. The following month we switched to Wave (now Vodafone) which I think was $30 for 30 hours. Both of these were at 14.4. Eventually upgraded to 33.6, but didn't make the jump to the so-called "56k" until we replaced a PC and it came with a new modem (there were some compatibility issues in the early days so we didn't want to go on the "wrong" side).

Signed up to "Jetstream Starter" (128) as soon as it became available in Whakatane (2001). The rest of my story is probably the same as everyone else's :)

wellygary

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#2220389 18-Apr-2019 09:26

BarTender: Without Telecom we wouldn't have had the SCCN cable as the business case didn't stack up for NZ to have it's own cable and it was the insistent badgering of one Telecom Wholesale staffer who managed to get it to happen that is why it's a figure 8 from AU coming via NZ.

Yeah, but Telecom were also responsible for the entire "0867" dial up prefix episode, that killed off free dial up internet in NZ

(mainly because Telecom were having to pay for it through interconnect termination agreements that had originally been written with only voice traffic in mind)

freitasm

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#2220399 18-Apr-2019 09:32

wellygary:

BarTender: Without Telecom we wouldn't have had the SCCN cable as the business case didn't stack up for NZ to have it's own cable and it was the insistent badgering of one Telecom Wholesale staffer who managed to get it to happen that is why it's a figure 8 from AU coming via NZ.

Yeah, but Telecom were also responsible for the entire "0867" dial up prefix episode, that killed off free dial up internet in NZ

(mainly because Telecom were having to pay for it through interconnect termination agreements that had originally been written with only voice traffic in mind)

The original "peering" policy it seems...

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