Will true unlimited broadband plans ever be possible in NZ?

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Will true unlimited broadband plans ever be possible in NZ?

worm9100

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Topic # 86632 10-Jul-2011 19:52

Im curious to know if sometime in the near future will data caps eventually vanish? With the introduction of UFB will the likely hood of "true unlimited broadband" Increase or will we be stuck with caps for ever until another pipe is installed coming out of New Zealand?

billgates

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Reply # 491743 10-Jul-2011 19:55

Much bigger data caps? sure

Unlimited plan with great speeds? nope

Do whatever you want to do man.

sbiddle

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Reply # 491753 10-Jul-2011 20:30

Why do caps need to vanish? What sort of cap do you want and what uses to do you have for 200MB + of data per month?

Caps plans are becoming the norm in many countries incl the USA where many "unlimited" plans are now capped at 250GB.

While we will continue to see caps get bigger here IMHO we'll never see large scale unlimited plans because the market is so small it doesn't make a lot of sence. What we will see IMHO is a greater move towards zero rated data from local CDN's. This will allow flat rate access to content such as legal video and content such as iTunes, and cloud based backup services.

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muppet

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Reply # 491765 10-Jul-2011 21:03

Fast, Unlimited, Cheap.

Pick any two.

(Or if you're the average Geekzone user, pick any one and bitterly complain about the other two

)

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NonprayingMantis

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Reply # 491773 10-Jul-2011 21:44

unlimted? - nope.

large caps (200GB+) - quite likely in the next couple of years I reckon

free localy hosted content such as itunes, TVNZOndemand, Steam, iSky etc? quite likely

kyhwana2

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Reply # 491775 10-Jul-2011 21:52

sbiddle: Why do caps need to vanish? What sort of cap do you want and what uses to do you have for 200MB + of data per month?

! 200MB is nothing, watch a few youtube videos and bam, that's gone.
I'm averaging about 10GB a month or so, not including TV series/etc.
(That 10GB includes steam downloads/patches/etc)

johnr

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Reply # 491777 10-Jul-2011 21:55

I am sure Steve meant 200GB

Cymro

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Reply # 491858 11-Jul-2011 08:43

I think we need to take a step back and look at it from a commercial point of view rather than a purely technical one.

If ISP's currently offer 10GB/20GB/40GB plans, they are able to charge 3 price points which make sense to customers who use lower amounts of data and think they are "saving" money by being on the lower plan.

If you change those plans to say 50GB/100GB/200GB and keep the same price points then 95% of your customers will be able to sit on the bottom 50GB plan and have more than they need (plus they are now using more data just because it's there, which is added cost for the ISP, and there is practically no margin on BB anyway). So overall the ISP loses revenue it currently has.

The only way to change this would be a new entrant taking the 2degree's approach and driving the overall market down in a bid to grab some market share in the process, the problem with this is that DSL services tend to carry more overheads than mobile, with more helpdesk matters to resolve and monthly wholesale charges per customer and overall capacity etc. to manage and pay for.

Of course, lower Wholesale and national transit costs across the board would be a big help to start with...

Behodar

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Reply # 491862 11-Jul-2011 08:56

I wonder how much of the problem is actually due to Telecom. An ISP here in Whakatane with its own network has no data caps, and that's for $90/month including phone ($75 without phone). On the other hand, when you have a smaller customer base there would be less likelihood of running into a "hardcore P2Per" or similar, so it might have nothing to do with Telecom at all. I'm just babbling... :)

Gigs

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Reply # 491891 11-Jul-2011 10:01

It has nothing to do with Telecom. Wholesale don't sell the plans with a data cap on them, that's up to the ISP to impose.

wreck90

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Reply # 491900 11-Jul-2011 10:23

Yes

Ragnor

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Reply # 491915 11-Jul-2011 10:45

Gigs: It has nothing to do with Telecom. Wholesale don't sell the plans with a data cap on them, that's up to the ISP to impose.

Actually they did effectively cap usage (pre EUBA and ethernet handover) with backhaul and handover link dimensioning. Typically any ISP that had average user usage over 10GB would see congestion, ISP's needed a lot of 1-5GB users to balance out 40GB users.

Ask Xnet, Orcon, Maxnet etc how bad that system is....

They haven't applied any hard dimensioning to ethernet handover links (not yet anyway) and most cabinets and exchanges have ethernet backhaul now (rather than ATM) so you are sort of correct going forward. There are still a heck of a lot of people who's ADSL is provided via BUBA, UBS etc currently.

They still don't openly peer and force all ISP's and hosting/content providers to effectively need pay for interconnection with Telecom (or Telstraclear - Telecom and Telstra have a interconnection agreement where no money changes hands) which is like a tax on domestic traffic.

Of course one of the main resellers of international transit via SXC is Global Gateway (aka Telecom) and Telecom have a 50% shareholding in the Southern Cross Cable (SXC).

So really they have a big effect on the current pricing.