Xtra new broadband plans from 26 October.

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freitasm

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#9510 23-Sep-2006 19:37

As discussed from this reply, please comment about the new Xtra broadband plans in this thread.

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#46698 23-Sep-2006 19:38

The most interesting plan is the "unlimited" but "managed" Cabriolet. The article says:

... aimed at extremely high volume users, who will be put into a pool of IP addresses, with a managed amount of bandwidth shared among all the users in that group.

You know what? It means that yes, it's full rate from your modem to the Exchange and from there to the world is going to be in the slow lane, with all those heavy downloaders. This and the fact that it's only 128Kbps upload.

Full Speed?

10layers

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#46706 24-Sep-2006 00:07

We have had this covered at 10layers.com for a while now.

The issue going forward will be the contention ratios on Telecom's aging ATM backhaul network. Used to be 24Kbps per subscriber average, now 30Kbps. Still, this will mean a contention ratio well in excess of 100:1.

Will also be interesting if any ISPs will actually offer an interleaving off feature. Great for people close cto the exchange. (Not so great for the rest!)

antoniosk

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#46748 24-Sep-2006 20:27

freitasm: The most interesting plan is the "unlimited" but "managed" Cabriolet. The article says:

... aimed at extremely high volume users, who will be put into a pool of IP addresses, with a managed amount of bandwidth shared among all the users in that group.

You know what? It means that yes, it's full rate from your modem to the Exchange and from there to the world is going to be in the slow lane, with all those heavy downloaders. This and the fact that it's only 128Kbps upload.

Full Speed?

TNZL is putting in an abstraction layer that will allow it adaptive rate shaping by customer type. So all those Unlimited customers will be limited by the gatekeeper :-)

Meaning that the customers on limited plans will actually get better service IN THE BUSY HOUR. I think reality is that Telecom's network is only congested in the evening, and that during the day it can get quite idle (I get 2.5mbps in the morning, and 500kbps in the evening) meaning great service.

Fair use will apply as well - it's a sad reality but like everything in this country, most of 'our stuff' comes from overseas..... content, technology etc....

Ben

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#46779 25-Sep-2006 11:16

OMG I'm so glad I'm not alone. I thought I was going insane with my crappy 500kbps speed tests in the evenings (5pm - 10pm ish).

The sad thing is that it won't get better when I move house. I was hoping that our shift from St Heliers to Te Atatu would mean faster broadband (because incomes are lower in Te Atatu, so less broadband updtake, so less congested exchanges), but you're saying it's a backbone issue? Bummer.

Ben

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#46780 25-Sep-2006 11:23

And wtf are the 'Zone1' and 'Zone2' columns referring to in the pricing in the article?

cyril7

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#46781 25-Sep-2006 11:25

And wtf are the 'Zone1' and 'Zone2' columns referring to in the pricing in the article?

I think that refers to if your tolls are with Telecom or not.

Cyril

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#46782 25-Sep-2006 11:26

A colleage of mine on Xtra has reported this morning speeds of 7662 d/l and 6069 up.
He thinks pending the announcements of the new plans tomorrow??

http://forums.gps.org.nz/viewtopic.php?p=20465#20465

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cyril7

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#46787 25-Sep-2006 12:28

I somehow suspect that your friends speed test was not via an adsl circuit as adsl as deployed by TNZ has a theoretical maximum of 1Mb/s and an implemented maximum of 512kb/s upload. It is technically impossible to exceed that.

Cyril

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#46788 25-Sep-2006 12:38

heh, 6069 upload... tell him to clear his internet cache

LennonNZ

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#46803 25-Sep-2006 18:27

As the owner of the site which he did the test on I am 100% sure the IP Address the connection was done from is NOT a UBS or Jetstream Connection!

Thanks
Craig Whitmore
http://www.nzdsl.co.nz
Use http://www.nzdsl.co.nz/speedtest :-)

antoniosk

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#46810 25-Sep-2006 19:22

Ben: OMG I'm so glad I'm not alone. I thought I was going insane with my crappy 500kbps speed tests in the evenings (5pm - 10pm ish).

The sad thing is that it won't get better when I move house. I was hoping that our shift from St Heliers to Te Atatu would mean faster broadband (because incomes are lower in Te Atatu, so less broadband updtake, so less congested exchanges), but you're saying it's a backbone issue? Bummer.

Hi Ben

There's heaps of articles on Telecom's transmission around the country. Most people work with the assumption that the DSL network is dimensioned to offer a minimum 24kbps/user at peak (that's half dial-up speed). Telecom are a little bit smarter than that crude measure, but the practical impact is that when the network loads up, the average real throughput drops like a lead balloon. So from 3pm onwards (when kids are home from school) till about 10pm, performance is generally poor. TelstraClear's cable service in Wellington is pretty shocking - all those schoolkids on holiday are clogging things up - so it's not just a Telecom thing.

Note that no ISP - not even TelstraClear, which has it's own HFC, ADSL copper and fibre networks - make statements about the performance of their network (and why would you? this is a fairly technical discussion well beyond most people), and everyone has a go at Telecom.

Standard backhaul is 2mbps, with 8mbps in the cities, and up to 16mb in Auckland Central - and that is for a network that has bursts of sporadic activity, which is what email and browsing is about.

Unfortunately, that was the Internet circa 1997. In 2006 we're all flinging multi-MB video clips at each other, and are tying up the network for longer sending larger files ;-)

I'd say your choice of wholesale or retail provider in Te Atatu is Telcom, Telecom, or even Telecom.

antoniosk

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#46812 25-Sep-2006 19:28

LennonNZ: As the owner of the site which he did the test on I am 100% sure the IP Address the connection was done from is NOT a UBS or Jetstream Connection!

Thanks
Craig Whitmore
http://www.nzdsl.co.nz
Use http://www.nzdsl.co.nz/speedtest :-)

I like your speedtester - nifty.

If it's not a DSL based connection, then it's Ethernet over Fibre. Even VDSL2+ tops out at about 3mbps/upload when you're 10m from the exchange.

Mmmm, uncontended fibre speed.We're discussing about the backhaul for Telecom's DSL based network, itself an upgrade over the patchwork put in for 56kbps dial-up modems.

Imaging the backhaul required if all homes in NZ could do SYNCRONOUS 50mbps, services common in Japan and South Korea. Now THAT's a challenge worthy of metro ethernet solutions....

nzbnw

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#46821 25-Sep-2006 21:00

cyril7:
And wtf are the 'Zone1' and 'Zone2' columns referring to in the pricing in the article?

I think that refers to if your tolls are with Telecom or not.

Cyril

With Telecom's Anytime Homeline pricing, Zone 1 and 2 actually refer to your area... I.E. Auckland and I am guessing it is the same here...

cyril7

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#46837 26-Sep-2006 08:50

Actually just dawned on me, as this is a leaked internal pricing (I guess) then the Zone1,2 refers to zones that have a significant competitor, ie TCL in Kapiti, parts of Wellington and ChCh, etc.

Cyril

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#46848 26-Sep-2006 09:47

antoniosk:
LennonNZ: As the owner of the site which he did the test on I am 100% sure the IP Address the connection was done from is NOT a UBS or Jetstream Connection!

Thanks
Craig Whitmore
http://www.nzdsl.co.nz
Use http://www.nzdsl.co.nz/speedtest :-)

I like your speedtester - nifty.

If it's not a DSL based connection, then it's Ethernet over Fibre. Even VDSL2+ tops out at about 3mbps/upload when you're 10m from the exchange.

Mmmm, uncontended fibre speed.We're discussing about the backhaul for Telecom's DSL based network, itself an upgrade over the patchwork put in for 56kbps dial-up modems.

Imaging the backhaul required if all homes in NZ could do SYNCRONOUS 50mbps, services common in Japan and South Korea. Now THAT's a challenge worthy of metro ethernet solutions....

Thoses speeds look like the ones I get when I run speedtest from work, which IS Telecom, at Airdale street, and it always gives those massive upload speeds, perhaps the friend works at Xtra?

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