Some browsing around these forums while trying to find a new ISP lead me to the following conclusions:

• Slingshot's plans have terrible international speeds


• Customer feedback on nznet is mixed

 

While searching for other plans I stumbled across "Carrier Grade Bandwidth" plans from Hosting Direct.  The only affordable plan for me on their list is the first one:

 

1Mbps Carrier Grade    1:1 CIR     $99 per month(exc gst)

http://www.hd.net.nz/carrier-grade-bandwidth

 

At first glance 1Mbps seems quite slow.  However, I'm more concerned with the total amount of international data I can pull down in a month, not a high speed plan that rips through it's low data cap within a couple days.  Assuming 1Mbps consistent international down for 30 days that works out to roughly:

60*60*24*30 = 2,592,000 Seconds in 30 days

2592000*(1Mb/8)/1024 = 316GB

I realise its overly optimistic to expect to achieve 1Mbps all the time so the actual amount downloaded will probably be less.  Feel free to correct my math if I've messed up :)  90% of my traffic will be between a single server in Europe, which I manage, in the form of FTP.

 

My questions are as follows:

• 
  Are these plans available to residential customers?  I realise they're suited to businesses/ISPs but does that also means they're unavailable to general public?


• Being that its "Carrier Grade" does that mean it's guaranteed 1Mbps even internationally?

• Again, given the naming scheme, does that also mean the line will be completely untouched and not subject to any shaping/throttling?


• Does a plan like this one require a homephone line?

 

If I've missed something obvious that makes this plan completely unworkable, then feel free to suggest alternatives, other then Slingshot and nznet, which could provide me with >100GB a month.

 

P.S. Sorry for the edits, first time poster struggling with formatting.