Data caps and spikes

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Data caps and spikes

OldGeek

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#138645 12-Jan-2014 10:16

There must be quite a few households like mine - hosting children/grandchildren from time to time (such as school holidays) and getting hit with 'data spikes' because said visitors consume much more data than we normally do. We have a data cap of 60 gigs and most months we would not use more than 25 gigs. But when grandchildren turn up it can spike to 10 gigs a day. We have to monitor daily to keep data use reasonable at these times. Its galling to have to pay for an extra 10 gigs on the bill when the previous month we used only 30 gigs or so.

Has Orcon considered allowing customers to 'carry over' unused data from one month to the next? If not how about talking to 2 Degrees about their 'carryover minutes' concept with a view to doing much the same with data?

nakedmolerat

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#965348 12-Jan-2014 10:19

Get unlimited orcon

Sideface

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#965353 12-Jan-2014 10:29

nakedmolerat: Get unlimited orcon

... or upgrade to 80GB/month - it only costs $10 more than 30GB, and is a much more useful data cap.
I have marauding grandchildren too :)

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OldGeek

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#965357 12-Jan-2014 10:40

A 60 gig cap is vastly more than I use most months. I don't want to pay more, just spread my data cap over more than 1 month.

NonprayingMantis

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#965377 12-Jan-2014 11:50

How much are you paying? There are probably ISPs out there who can give you more data for the same, or maybe even less.

ajw

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#965383 12-Jan-2014 12:07

My son is not allowed on my computer, he prefers to use his old laptop via wifi.

OldGeek

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#965384 12-Jan-2014 12:10

Again - I don't want more data - just the ability to spread (or average) what I do use over more than one month.

While I have looked at other plans (both Orcon and non-Orcon) all involve increased cost.

Coil

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#965388 12-Jan-2014 12:18

OldGeek: Again - I don't want more data - just the ability to spread (or average) what I do use over more than one month.

While I have looked at other plans (both Orcon and non-Orcon) all involve increased cost.

I am guessing your on a legacy plan, Unless switching to Unlimited or such you cant do much. I think the only company that does roll-over data is 2Deg.

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ajw

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#965389 12-Jan-2014 12:21

Slingshot offers roll over data.

http://www.slingshot.co.nz/products/homeline-and-broadband/

NonprayingMantis

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#965396 12-Jan-2014 12:41

Flip also do roll over data.

The 60GB plan with orcon was $85 I believe, so unless you tell us otherwise I assume that is what you are paying.

If you want a landline, flip will do you unlimited with a landline and free national calling for $85
If you don't want a landline, BigPipe do unlimited naked broadband for $79

eXDee

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#965402 12-Jan-2014 12:43

No one has said it yet, but I feel 10gb per day is excessive for people visiting someone elses house. I'd be teaching the kids to limit their usage when appropriate and having them learn to respect other peoples resources. It sounds like they are streaming 1080p youtube all day as well as downloading.

If you won't change ISP or plan, then my solution would be utilising a router with built in bandwidth metering per device. Tomato custom firmware is an example of this. This way you know whos using what amount of data and can talk to them accordingly.

OldGeek

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#965426 12-Jan-2014 13:05

eXDee: No one has said it yet, but I feel 10gb per day is excessive for people visiting someone elses house. I'd be teaching the kids to limit their usage when appropriate and having them learn to respect other peoples resources. It sounds like they are streaming 1080p youtube all day as well as downloading.

If you won't change ISP or plan, then my solution would be utilising a router with built in bandwidth metering per device. Tomato custom firmware is an example of this. This way you know whos using what amount of data and can talk to them accordingly.

The 10 gigs per day is total household use (including mine). Most of the grandkids come from homes on an unlimited or high-cap plans where data management need not be practiced and they therefore know nothing about the data they use. Yes they do get micro-managed here but it means that when they stay with us they cant do what they normally do and this renders a stay with us to have a price to pay 8-(

I am on the 60 gig plan offered by Orcon around 12 months ago - includes Genuis and national calling, voicemail etc. The latest plans unbundle national calling and voicemail (so they are therefore extra) and although the data cap is higher so is the overall price even if I don't have national calling. I like the VOIP that Genius offers - that allowed me to take out the permanent filter I had and for whatever reason ADSL speeds went up from 6 to 11 Mbits. Moving to another ISP is not justified because of the logistics and disruption that is totally inevitable.

So - as per my original post, 'carryover data' remains the perfect solution 8-)

However I do monitor other ISPs offerings. For some (such as Atrix) VOIP is only available to non-ADSL users (ie VDSL or UFB). UFB is net yet scheduled for my area.

Sideface

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#965440 12-Jan-2014 13:25

OldGeek: So - as per my original post, 'carryover data' remains the perfect solution

I can think of 3 possible reasons why most ISPs would be reluctant to adopt this 'carryover' model:

1. The majority of users only use a fraction of the data that they pay for. This contributes to the ISPs profit margin.
2. Users like to see large data caps when they sign up - but with the new model, data caps would have to be kept static, or even reduced, for the ISP to break even.
3. It may be technically difficult to administer

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tkr001

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#965454 12-Jan-2014 13:38

ISPs have to provision in case you meet your capped amount. If you could carry over they would theoretically have to provision more. The algorithms they use to calculate bandwidth needs would need to be different. They don't get carry over data!

FireEngine

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#965574 12-Jan-2014 17:29

We have prioritized our product development over the last few years towards Genius, Unlimited and now VDSL. We currently have no plans to develop carry-over data - and it would require substantial development in our data accounting systems, it isn't trivial by any means.

But PM me and I'll have a look at your account and see if there is anything I can suggest ;-)

Regards FireEngine

Nebbie

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#965968 13-Jan-2014 10:40

TimA: I think the only company that does roll-over data is 2Deg.

Slingshot Do...
I use Slingshot have 250gb per month With Phone for $102 per month (Plan no longer exists), This month I have 479.56GB witch is great because I need to upload a large chunk of family pictures/Videos to Mega.

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