NZ to get unlimited broadband. When?

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AidanS

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#83862 22-May-2011 21:29

Hey everyone I am sort of new here (I have been viewing many topics around here but not posting) and was curious if this topic hasn't already been covered, but when will New Zealand see the day of un-capped data usage? Obviously no one will know for sure but with all this new fibre cabling being installed and of course the Pacific Fibre project, will these new infrastructues increase our speeds AND bring unlimited data do you reckon?

Personally I think it seems stupid to have super fast broadband with only a 60gb per month (or whatever) data cap. I would rather have say capped speed at 3-4mps and have unlimeted data then have 100/50 mbps but have a small data cap. Just curious on your gestimations about rough time frames (if ever) of when we will have unlimited data caps.

Also if the plans specified here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10714414 are accurate what sort of data caps are we looking at?

PS: If this topic has already been covered could someone please provide a link, thanks :)

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#472633 22-May-2011 21:34

Its been tried and kinda failed, Telecom have tried twice and looks like Slingshot isn't having much luck either from feedback seen in the Slingshot Forum

When that new cable goes down between NZ and the USA I'd expect to see some difference.

AidanS

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#472643 22-May-2011 21:42

yea I had a few friends on the latest telcom unlimeted pack they said it was great while it lasted. I hope we see some change with all this new cabling.

kyhwana2

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#472645 22-May-2011 21:44

The prices listed for UFB don't include any data at all. It'll be up to ISPs to figure out what size data caps (if any and where to/from) to apply. (That is, how much extra to charge for what data caps or if to just charge per MB that you use, like xnet do)

freitasm

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#472652 22-May-2011 21:52

The trend around the world is to move away from "unlimited". Canada's gone that way, and in the US the cable companies, and now Verizon, have gone that way.

New Zealand has been on the "cap" side of broadband for years. I don't think the local telcos will move to "unlimited" now or ever again.

Any "unlimited" you see around are either very expensive for consumer, or heavily managed.

NonprayingMantis

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#472653 22-May-2011 21:53

doubtful it will ever happen IMO.
caps will get bigger. much bigger but I don't think truly unlimited will ever happen.

many ISPs in other countries that previously offered unlimited are moving away from it now e.g. AT&T, Comcast etc etc

AidanS

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#472654 22-May-2011 21:54

Very interesting thoughts, just to be clear when you say 'cap' do you mean data or speed or both?

Zeon

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#472657 22-May-2011 21:57

You can get it now if you're prepared to pay for it. E.g. we pay around $1500 a month for 10mbps/50mbps fibre with unlimited national and up to 5mbps international. The cost of the fibre to our supplier is probably something like $400-$500 a month out of that much so doing the maths to figure out how much the bandwidth costs.....

With UFB and Pacific fibre what you are probably more likely to see is free data to the local peering exchange (and probably CDN content) and then pay for national/international data. As has been mentioned a few times in other threads its also just as tricky to show people whether the content they are getting is national or international.

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freitasm

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#472659 22-May-2011 22:01

CoolAs101: Very interesting thoughts, just to be clear when you say 'cap' do you mean data or speed or both?

Data caps. If you find an ISP with a speed cap, stay away from it.

johnr

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#472660 22-May-2011 22:05

Dialup

AidanS

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#472661 22-May-2011 22:06

freitasm:
CoolAs101: Very interesting thoughts, just to be clear when you say 'cap' do you mean data or speed or both?

Data caps. If you find an ISP with a speed cap, stay away from it.

Yea I wouldn't go for a speed cap. However I have yet to find a major ISP in the USA that has a data cap.

l43a2

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#472683 22-May-2011 22:44

freitasm: The trend around the world is to move away from "unlimited". Canada's gone that way, and in the US the cable companies, and now Verizon, have gone that way.

New Zealand has been on the "cap" side of broadband for years. I don't think the local telcos will move to "unlimited" now or ever again.

Any "unlimited" you see around are either very expensive for consumer, or heavily managed.

Verizon Wireless, or the FIOS/ADSL services?

NonprayingMantis

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#472687 22-May-2011 23:07

CoolAs101:
freitasm:
CoolAs101: Very interesting thoughts, just to be clear when you say 'cap' do you mean data or speed or both?

Data caps. If you find an ISP with a speed cap, stay away from it.

Yea I wouldn't go for a speed cap. However I have yet to find a major ISP in the USA that has a data cap.

you mean apart from AT&T and Comcast? the 2 biggest ISPs in the US

raytaylor

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#472699 23-May-2011 01:05

NZ and Mexico? were the two countries that started the cap trend. It was something like 1994 with the original nasa subsidised connection to nz from the USA where we had data caps imposed by our local internet pioneers and the trend is slowly spreading as providers in countries like the USA find limitations in their networks. I see reports latley that netflix alone has added about 20% to most onpeak bandwidth needs in the last 12 months.

Netflix had a major increase in market penetration last black friday when a number of major tv and console manufacturers started offering netflix support like the tvnz ondemmand playstation application, built into many devices right out of the box. I believe with UFB, we will see more of the Ozone style or Free Content features like isky partners currently do and telecom/tivo relationships.

Slingshot have done a great job with their unlimited big time style trial, and despite all the crap comments in their forums about it, i personally think if they can sort out the slow youtube, then it is still a great service that I am happy to pay $80 a month for - knowing my uncached torrents will only go 30kB/s most of the time. But hey, caching and CDN networks are awesome and we will be relying on them for many years to come.

We are however lucky in NZ. Our ISP's in general try to provide us the fastest speed they can, unlike the USA where you often have to choose a speed tier, with many not knowing the difference between 380k and 1mbit except one is cheaper than the other and therefore its the better deal.

Yes the downside in NZ is the caps. The rest of the world is going towards caps. Though they may be large (200gb+ for many large ISP's implementing them) we will only see increases in our cap sizes. The telecom base plan may go from 3gb to 10gb or the 10gb everyday plan may go up to 100gb with assorted (non tivo competing) ozone style freebies.

Ray Taylor
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sbiddle

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#472704 23-May-2011 06:17

CoolAs101:
freitasm:
CoolAs101: Very interesting thoughts, just to be clear when you say 'cap' do you mean data or speed or both?

Data caps. If you find an ISP with a speed cap, stay away from it.

Yea I wouldn't go for a speed cap. However I have yet to find a major ISP in the USA that has a data cap.

In which case you haven't looked very hard.

Even mobile carriers are all removing their unlimited plans.

AidanS

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#472719 23-May-2011 07:52

Thank you for all your replies I have since found many other post around the web and sadly looks like we will always have data caps :( And yes I knew that mobile carriers were removing their unlimited plans. Lets hope we see some of those 100gb+ plans come in to play soon and at a reasonable price.

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