Real World usage is it worth paying more for the Fibre + 950 MBit plans or is a 100 MBit (200 MBit in CHCH) good enough

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Real World usage is it worth paying more for the Fibre + 950 MBit plans or is a 100 MBit (200 MBit in CHCH) good enough

DeepBlueSky

437 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 258665 15-Oct-2019 17:20

I know we are as a Country are rolling out some good speed internet connections, but I also know that international connections have historically been slow. My question to you guys is it worth the extra cost when used in a real world situation.

I will be looking to move from Cable to Fibre before Enable stops the free installs at the end of the year, just which horse to choose.

Situation Heavy Users - Family of 4 all use the Internet to some degree, but all heavy users of video Youtube / Netflix etc.

Any guidance is gratefully accepted, and may help other families making the change.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

75 posts

Master Geek

# 2337552 15-Oct-2019 17:24

Bigpipe 100/100 for $89 per month has kept me happy for a household of 3 all heavy streamers i get about 90ish mbps to the US/UK at peak times

others will disagree with me but my personal view is max/max is a waste of time

deadlyllama

960 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 2337554 15-Oct-2019 17:26

2 people support this post

Yeah but when you can get Max/Max for the same or a lower price (e.g. current promotions with Stuff and Orcon) why would you settle for 100/100?

nzkc

717 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 2337557 15-Oct-2019 17:30

3 people support this post

If streaming is your heavy usage then 100mb/sec is plenty fine. More than enough for multiple streams.

Reasons to go higher:
* Torrents
* pushing large media around (eg you do video editing and upload it somewhere...eg YouTube)
* You serve some websites (though it's probably better to pay for hosting)
* You want to rub your mates noses in your speed test results

Disclaimer: I have gigabit from 2d because they had a good offer a couple of months ago.

Gurezaemon

241 posts

Master Geek

Lifetime subscriber

# 2337560 15-Oct-2019 17:39

I ended up switching from Spark's 100/20 to Stuff's 900/500 (in actual usage, 600/500), not mainly because of the download speeds, but because of the upload speeds, which I need for work.

The only times I EVER get 600 down are when I'm downloading from my Seedbox in Europe (and that is using the "Internet Download Manager" software), or downloads from Google, Apple, or Microsoft.

SirHumphreyAppleby

1019 posts

Uber Geek

# 2337561 15-Oct-2019 17:41

One person supports this post

Not everyone uses their connection the same way, so only you can really answer that question. IMO, it's not worth paying extra for. There are very few situations where I would benefit from a full speed connection and even fewer where it actually matters.

That said, I am currently on a max speed connection, uploading at 150-200Mbs^-1. For my immediate use, I do consider it worthwhile paying more. Next month when I've finished with my backups, it'll go back to 200/20. I really wish Voyager would offer at least 100Mbs^-1 upstream on their residential plans, or reduce the price of their gigabit plans to be more competitive so I don't have to keep switching. Having the extra capacity sitting there doing nothing or leaving $30 in the bank... easy choice I think.

coffeebaron

5557 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 2337655 15-Oct-2019 18:39

6 people support this post

Do you bit for the country and go with max speed to show the Aussies up :) For most people, 100/20 is plenty though unless you have a use case for more. I have an office at a friend's place and installed gigabit fibre. Comes in handy for computer repairs when downloading Windows updates etc or migrating customer data into the cloud.

Chorus has spent $1.4 billion on making their xDSL broadband network faster and even more now as they are upgrading their rural Conklins. If your still stuck on ADSL or VDSL, why not spend $195 on a master filter install to make sure you are getting the most out of your connection?
I install - Naked DSL, DSL Master Splitters, VoIP, data cabling and general computer support for home and small business.
Rural Broadband RBI installer for Ultimate Broadband and Full Flavour

Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com

richms

22603 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 2337656 15-Oct-2019 18:43

Its worth it for steam and Xbox downloads. PlayStation is still slow and trash because Sony cant CDN properly.

Also I can have files coming down from my seedbox at 10MB/s each file and have no effect on my usage other than my crap unifi routers DNS slowing down. Whereas on a low speed 100/20 plan it maxes out the connection and things get quite laggy to use. Dont want to QOS because the crap router limits to about 80 with that on.

Richard rich.ms

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
11174 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Spark

Subscriber

# 2337659 15-Oct-2019 18:54

One person supports this post

richms:

Its worth it for steam and Xbox downloads. PlayStation is still slow and trash because Sony cant CDN properly.

Also I can have files coming down from my seedbox at 10MB/s each file and have no effect on my usage other than my crap unifi routers DNS slowing down. Whereas on a low speed 100/20 plan it maxes out the connection and things get quite laggy to use. Dont want to QOS because the crap router limits to about 80 with that on.

That sounds like a choice of hardware issue...

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

richms

22603 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 2337661 15-Oct-2019 18:59

7 or 8 files at 10MB/s is good enough, I dont need that extra 150 down to be usable, and putting the ISP dns on the PC I am browsing on makes it good and fast again. If ubiquity would fix the 50% CPU used all the time problem on the USG it would probably be better. Im not spending 1000s to get that last little extra bit out of a gigabit connection.

Richard rich.ms

xpd

Chief Trash Bandit
10092 posts

Uber Geek

Mod Emeritus

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 2337701 15-Oct-2019 20:41

deadlyllama: Yeah but when you can get Max/Max for the same or a lower price (e.g. current promotions with Stuff and Orcon) why would you settle for 100/100?

Because service/quality may play into it and altho on a "full speed" connection, have issues all the time ;) Thats worse case though ;)

XPD / Gavin / DemiseNZ

Server : i5-3470s @ 3.50GHz 16GB RAM Win 10 Pro Workstation : i5-3570K @ 3.40GHz 20GB RAM RX580 4GB Win 10 Pro Console : Xbox One

https://www.xpd.co.nz - Games, emulation, geekery, and my attempts at photography. Now on BigPipe 100/100 and 2Talk

http://storm.xpd.co.nz - NZ Rock at its finest (WIP)

Add me on Steam

Sideface

5457 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 2337704 15-Oct-2019 20:45

I have a gigabit [VF HFC cable] connection, because I am a geek and I wanted to try it out. I am a heavy user, but there is only one of me.

My connection is monitored by Sam Knows, and I get good speeds 24/7 on testing with the desktop OOKLA app. (eg 950 Mbps from Melbourne to Wellington)

The problem with a gigabit connection is that 99% of websites / servers work at much lower speeds than this.

I would get real-world download speeds of 200Mbps about once a month, typically when downloading multiple large files simultaneously.

More often, less than 100Mbps, which is still pretty fast.

As soon as my 12 month contract has expired, I intend to downgrade to 200Mbps - and I probably won't notice the difference.

In my opinion, gigabit is fine for a business with lots of users, but total overkill for domestic use.

Sideface

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
11174 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Spark

Subscriber

# 2337723 15-Oct-2019 21:13

One person supports this post

Sideface:

In my opinion, gigabit is fine for a business with lots of users, but total overkill for domestic use.

If you ask chorus, gbit is the plan for families!

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

Sideface

5457 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 2337727 15-Oct-2019 21:24

hio77:

Sideface:

In my opinion, gigabit is fine for a business with lots of users, but total overkill for domestic use.

If you ask chorus, gbit is the plan for families!

Are they preparing us for 10 gigabit at $1,000 per month?

Chorus supercharges New Zealand’s broadband with 10Gbps trial (04 Feb 2019)

Sideface

mentalinc

1759 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 2337745 15-Oct-2019 21:29

5 people support this post

I'd expect it to be much cheaper than $1000 per month.

I'm on gbit, mainly as i feel a duty given my years of complaining how slow internet was.

33.3k, 56k, 128k, 256k, 4mbit, 8mbps, 14mbit, 27mbit, 56mbit, 70mbit, 1000mbit.... what a journey over circa 20 years!

and to think 10000mbit is not that far away per the above.

CPU: Intel 3770k| RAM: F3-2400C10D-16GTX G.Skill Trident X |MB: Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H-WB | GFX: GV-N660OC-2GD gv-n660oc-2gd GeForce GTX 660 | Monitor: Qnix 27" 2560x1440

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
11174 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Spark

Subscriber

# 2337746 15-Oct-2019 21:30

Sideface:

hio77:

Sideface:

In my opinion, gigabit is fine for a business with lots of users, but total overkill for domestic use.

If you ask chorus, gbit is the plan for families!

Are they just preparing us for 10 gigabit at $1,000 per month?

Chorus supercharges New Zealand’s broadband with 10Gbps trial (04 Feb 2019)

to be fair as far as i'm aware no price has been quoted. and that is purely a trial for XGPON.

There have been a few posts with information from public trials, and there are far more providers doing private trials.

Personally, the biggest thing here is, Look at the issues with 1G. you move that to 10G and it gets about 1000x times worse..

At this stage nobody quite knows what will happen with XGPON, i personally doubt it will be used enforce to sell 10G. more likely probably a 2G/5G service or something like that...

You can also bet providers will price it accordingly Given the support, network, systems costs etc.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4