Broadband plans

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DanDotNet

76 posts

Master Geek

#7070 16-Mar-2006 12:48

So what are people's favourite plans and broadband providers?

Do you think the new plans offered by the various providers are good? Just a couple of questions to kickstart this forum.

It seems to me that while most providers are starting to offer reasonable downstream speeds, not all have good upstream speeds so I guess this is something to look for when looking at the plans, also, data caps are another big issue...

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BDFL - Memuneh
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Geekzone

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#30842 16-Mar-2006 13:02

I am using a TelstraClear 10Mbps/2Mbps account, with 20GB allowance/month.

The speed is nice, and we don't use more than 12GB/month in general, so it fits ok - except that this plan is NZ$200/month - it could be half of that I think.

coolvibes

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#30844 16-Mar-2006 13:32

Hi I am with Ihug they are the best for my use I get 2mb 10+10gig downstream and 128k upstream unlimited. the cost is $49.95 a month, as I have my national calls with them (at no extra cost).
PS I get 240k bytes constant from newsgroup servers with virtually no contention as well. :-)
The only differentiator is the data allowance. The first providor that offers a nice 8mb unlimited plan for $40 (including line rental). I will be there yes please.
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cokemaster

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#30845 16-Mar-2006 13:48

I was (still am for the time being) on the Orcon 256kbps flatrate for $49.95. Relatively good performance considering the hammering we put it through, 10gb in a matter of days.

Latency is a bit high, but I blame that on the ADSL set up here mostly. Over in China it wasn't uncommon to get 10ms pings to national CS servers... here you are lucky if you get 80ms.

Since they have released these new plans, the flatrate is more expensive and they are shifting me over to the 40gb @ 256kbps plan for $49.95 a month. I probably would have looked at other providers but the free modem + free connection deal has that one year lock-in so I don't really want to fork out $150 to break it.

At the same time, I detest paying much more than $49.95 a month because I'm already forking out for a landline which quite frankly is barely used by me (only really for companies and government departments that block cellphones on 0800 numbers... maybe to the cost of having them on hold for 1/2-1 hour at a time!). I know its not the internet providers fault though.
As a student it does add up and having flatmates who know how to drain the internet dry, a 10gb plan is simply not enough.

I actually liked the connection I had last year. 256kbps up and down over fiber (the building I was staying at was wired up)... best of all no landline required. Prices were around $30 for 10gb which was the second smallest plan.

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skykissme

219 posts

Master Geek

#30848 16-Mar-2006 14:08

I'm using Woosh 3GB plan at @$49.95 per month, but performance so far is very sad :(

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Jama

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#30851 16-Mar-2006 14:31

Fat pipe in the office - free, DSL at home - free, not paying for broadband - priceless!

sbiddle

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#30856 16-Mar-2006 15:03

Is there anybody in NZ who has created a broadband comparison site so users can see all the plans available from all ISP's? The consumer attempted it but that mainly focussed on dialup rates.

cokemaster

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#30861 16-Mar-2006 15:16

Actually quite a good idea for a site.

I'd probably do it if I had the time.

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jpwise

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#30863 16-Mar-2006 15:25

There was someone on the NZADSL list that had made up a spreadsheet comparing all the options at the time ranging from IHUG Satellite through to the Cable & DSL plans, don't know if he's still doing it tho.

Now as for the link I came here to post:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3604938a1863,00.html

Jp.

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geekiegeek

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#30864 16-Mar-2006 15:28

in my time I have gone from my first connection - Jetstream full speed 2mb with a 600mb cap - yes 600mb - and I think it was about 90-100 $$$ pmth. Then the lovely folks at T'com up'ed it to a 1gb cap for no extra charge - how nice :-)

From there i tried Saturn/telstra for a while - good deals with TV and phone included but still those damn caps - 5gb this time.

Then I got taken over by T'com at work so back to jetstream but with a 10GB cap this time and free!, but this is about when I discovered bittorrent in a big way so 10GB was going going gone in 60 seconds! and with 2 PC's in the house 64k is not fun.

Left that job and discovered ihug - 10+10 (20GB a month) for $49 - I havent seen anything better yet.

Personally I would pay another $20 if I could get unlimited, cant say that upload speed is a huge issue that I worry about but it would be nice to have say a 1meg upload.

my 2 cents worth anyways.

geekiegeek

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#30866 16-Mar-2006 15:29

how about this one jpwise,

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3603363a2660,00.html

skykissme

219 posts

Master Geek

#30867 16-Mar-2006 15:30

www.consumer.co.nz has a comparison page up for both price and performance. But you have to be a paid member to view it :(

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DanDotNet

76 posts

Master Geek

#30868 16-Mar-2006 15:48

I am currently using Telecom and while generally happy with their service, I hate their current plan structure and the new plans will improve this slightly.

I cant afford paying more than $50 a month for broadband at present and therefore I am stuck with 3 not so great plans to choose from.

1: the 256k with 1Gig cap $39/mo
2: the 1M with 1Gig cap $45/Mo
3: the 256k with 3Gig cap $50/Mo

now here's the annoying part the 256k plan with 3Gig is just not fast enough, IMO 256k doesnt make you feel you're on broadband. And I just dont get whythey had that 3rd plan with a 256k speed.

I ended up deciding to go for plan 2 to have a high speed connection and had to learn to limit my downloads - yet I did get punished with dialup speed a few times :( . If only that 3rd plan had a higher speed, I would have felt it's worthwile choosing.

This should change with the new plans as the 3rd one above will be 3.5M with 5Gig cap and that sounds pretty reasonable to my usage and I think is the way I intend to go from next month.

JAMMAN2110

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#30875 16-Mar-2006 17:44

Trademe did an ISP test:

"We recently ran a survey asking members what they thought of their Internet Service Provider. We also measured the connection speed of those members to Trade Me."
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Community/SurveyResults.aspx

It shows us Reliability, Customer support and Value for money rankings ... Gosh we love xtra dont we. Personally I'm on the "Xtra Broadband GO" plan for $39.95 a month with 1 GB limit. Upload speed kills, downloads going up to 2 meg soon tho :D

nairda

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Master Geek

#30898 16-Mar-2006 22:58

maybe geekzone should do that too....

jesseycy

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#30903 17-Mar-2006 00:21

THE ISP for heavy downloaders and users is.. Actrix.

Really, for $55, you get 1Mbps (quite a decent speed IMO), and 700mb/day. Equivalent to 21gb.... Try finding a plan for that price, with quite a decent cap. A close comparison would be Ihug's 2Mbps, $50 for 10+10gb, or $70 for 20gb+20gb...

Oh, one thing to note about this ISP, is that during peak times, speeds slow down to about 30-50KB/s. Just after midnight, when all the caps reset at the same time, but as long as you get the hang of things, you can really push Actrix plans to the max...

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