Poor Slingshot Broadband Speeds

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jarlaxe

23 posts

Geek

# 67884 10-Sep-2010 01:17

Hello,

Posting this to warn other users away from Slingshot. I moved from Telecom about a week ago and my broadband speeds have dropped drastically.

I know for certain this is not a problem with my line, and I know my line can manage fast speeds of up to 1.7 megabytes per second (since these are speeds I had with Telecom).

Web browsing is slower. Youtube is slower. HTTP downloading is significantly slower.

In fact, broadband download speeds in the later afternoon / evening only reach about 100kbps. Download speeds between 2am and 8am (when downloading does not count towards your quota) are even slower.

About 30 hours ago I sent an email regarding this and as of yet have had no response.

If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this I would appreciate it. Although I have read other threads on Slingshot broadband where people have similar problems with no fix from Slingshot...

Edit: I am on the 25GB plan BTW.

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22528 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 378432 10-Sep-2010 01:40

fixes:

1 - change ISP to one that has better performance

2 - accept that you are paying bottom dollar for a connection on the arse end of the world where the only connectivity is by a monopoly that have been screwing the country for years so inorder to be cheap, ISPs have to suck and put up with it till that new cable comes along to make international affordable

3 - move country.

IMO 3 is the best option if you have no ties to NZ.

Richard rich.ms

scuwp

3209 posts

Uber Geek

# 378453 10-Sep-2010 07:49

Ever since joining Geekzone I have read virtually nothing but bad things about Slingshot. It amazes me they still have any business but I guess they have enough satisfied customers to keep the $$$ rolling in.

People seem to like bashing Telecom just because they are Telecom. But personally I have had nothing but reliable service from them. The grass in not always greener.

Given what I have read I wouldn't expect much of a resolution, other than changing ISP's.

Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, then always be the Batman

wuzy

18 posts

Geek

# 378461 10-Sep-2010 08:19

3 - move country.

IMO 3 is the best option if you have no ties to NZ.

I'm doing exactly that. Actually I had already considered it since early last year, but the continued appalling state of our broadband just solidifies it. Being in the media and IT infrastructure industry meant I require vast Internet (international) bandwidth with a very high data cap for both residential and business which New Zealand can not provide me at a reasonable price.

So you want to know why there's a brain-drain in NZ? In my case you can blame solely on Telecom NZ for that.

Northland

111 posts

Master Geek

# 378488 10-Sep-2010 09:48

scuwp: Ever since joining Geekzone I have read virtually nothing but bad things about Slingshot. It amazes me they still have any business but I guess they have enough satisfied customers to keep the $$$ rolling in.

People seem to like bashing Telecom just because they are Telecom. But personally I have had nothing but reliable service from them. The grass in not always greener.

Given what I have read I wouldn't expect much of a resolution, other than changing ISP's.

Indeed i said the same thing a week later after signing up with slingshot from telecom
altho they are more costly CUSTOMER SERVICE from telecom is outstanding
compared to the *&$*# from slingshot.. speeds with them were of course faster as well

cant complain too much anymore they're cheaper which is way i moved
but there is there 'other' company that are cheaper than both these for homeline and broadband
which I am dying to sign up with hopefully next year!

p.s cheap is not best in this case! (;

dalboy

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

# 378539 10-Sep-2010 12:12

I didn't know how appalling the Slingshot speeds are until I talked to a neighbor and seen he was downloading at over 9000 kbs on Telecom , I can only manage 220 average and have seen a maximum of 310. I emailed and after no reply after a couple of weeks rang and finally got through after waiting 23 minutes. He said to do an insulation test because I should achieve more. I had to disconnect all my equipment so he could test the line. He said he couldn't ring my mobile as he was only a trainee and I had to ring back on my Mobile. No answer after 15 minutes I was ready to explode. When I finally got through on another day I got that guy from Egypt or somewhere and he told me the speeds I seen at my end were incorrect and from his end they could do no better. The fault must be at my end. This is full speed and I live 600 metres from the only exchange in town. Skype and Youtube are dubious at best.

DG

n4

956 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 378562 10-Sep-2010 13:04

My speeds/experience have got noticeably worse since Slingshot introduced thier all you can eat plans. I just have a middle of the road 15GB plan with usage less than this. I have been a customer for several years and I'm about to leave as soon as I get round to comparing some options... suggestions for a good price with reasonable performance? Don't care about blazing fast speeds (to a point!) or huge download caps particularly.

Huawei Mate 7, on 2degrees

SteveON

1917 posts

Uber Geek

# 378565 10-Sep-2010 13:19

wuzy:
3 - move country.

IMO 3 is the best option if you have no ties to NZ.

I'm doing exactly that. Actually I had already considered it since early last year, but the continued appalling state of our broadband just solidifies it. Being in the media and IT infrastructure industry meant I require vast Internet (international) bandwidth with a very high data cap for both residential and business which New Zealand can not provide me at a reasonable price.

So you want to know why there's a brain-drain in NZ? In my case you can blame solely on Telecom NZ for that.

So are you leaving based on the internet services? Sorry but that's a really sad reason to move. Businesses do have great options, for $400 with HP (I forget their actual name) You can get 10-100MB wireless fibre with unlimited bandwidth.

BTW - As the saying goes: You get what you pay for.
Look at Telecom Mobile and wired, its pretty much the best you'll get.
The less you pay (not naming others because GZ will have a fit) the worse your going to get.

Handsomedan

2225 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

# 378567 10-Sep-2010 13:35

I've been with Slingshot for years and to be honest, it's always been mediocre.

I stay because I am not a heavy user of broadband and it's fine the way it is for me.

Handsome Dan Has Spoken.

robbyp

1163 posts

Uber Geek

# 378614 10-Sep-2010 16:23

jarlaxe: Hello,

Posting this to warn other users away from Slingshot. I moved from Telecom about a week ago and my broadband speeds have dropped drastically.

I know for certain this is not a problem with my line, and I know my line can manage fast speeds of up to 1.7 megabytes per second (since these are speeds I had with Telecom).

Web browsing is slower. Youtube is slower. HTTP downloading is significantly slower.

In fact, broadband download speeds in the later afternoon / evening only reach about 100kbps. Download speeds between 2am and 8am (when downloading does not count towards your quota) are even slower.

About 30 hours ago I sent an email regarding this and as of yet have had no response.

If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this I would appreciate it. Although I have read other threads on Slingshot broadband where people have similar problems with no fix from Slingshot...

Edit: I am on the 25GB plan BTW.

If you had read other peoples experiences in the past, you will find the same issues. 30 hours of waiting for an email, I emailed them over 2 years ago, and never heard anything.

wuzy

18 posts

Geek

# 378713 11-Sep-2010 02:28

SteveON:
wuzy:
3 - move country.

IMO 3 is the best option if you have no ties to NZ.

I'm doing exactly that. Actually I had already considered it since early last year, but the continued appalling state of our broadband just solidifies it. Being in the media and IT infrastructure industry meant I require vast Internet (international) bandwidth with a very high data cap for both residential and business which New Zealand can not provide me at a reasonable price.

So you want to know why there's a brain-drain in NZ? In my case you can blame solely on Telecom NZ for that.

So are you leaving based on the internet services? Sorry but that's a really sad reason to move. Businesses do have great options, for $400 with HP (I forget their actual name) You can get 10-100MB wireless fibre with unlimited bandwidth.

BTW - As the saying goes: You get what you pay for.
Look at Telecom Mobile and wired, its pretty much the best you'll get.
The less you pay (not naming others because GZ will have a fit) the worse your going to get.

It's mentality like those that drags whatever-aaS hosted in New Zealand well behind other OECD countries. You're simply not thinking big enough. Living environment in major cities of NZ is perfect, as are for building super energy efficient datacenters (see 'The Colocation Company' in CHC). Price for local fibre loop connecting cities is decent also. But the lack of competitive international bandwidth and tiny data cap on last mile totally kills all that, and both problems point at one group causing it.

Slingshot is like the 3nd or 4th biggest ISP in NZ, yet their marketshare is minuscule compared to Telecom NZ. Something is seriously wrong there. As mentioned above there are two problems:
Problem#1, Last mile; the majority of DSL has to be wholesaled from Telecom NZ. LLU came way too late to solve that.
Problem#2, International bandwidth; Telecom NZ owns 50% share in SXC and is currently the one and only undersea cable that feeds us.

cokemaster

Nate wants an iphone
3906 posts

Uber Geek

Mod Emeritus

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Lifetime subscriber

# 378724 11-Sep-2010 07:31

Problem#1, Last mile; the majority of DSL has to be wholesaled from Telecom NZ. LLU came way too late to solve that.

You mean from Telecom Wholesale, who also sells service to Telecom Retail. Look up operational separation. :)

Problem#2, International bandwidth; Telecom NZ owns 50% share in SXC and is currently the one and only undersea cable that feeds us.

You might want to read interesting articles like this.

You'll read interesting things like how the pricing between NZ-US is the same as AU-US, and how the board is made up (each company has a third of the board seats).

webhosting |New Zealand connections | geekzone IRC chat
Loose lips may sink ships - Be smart - Don't post internal/commercially sensitive or confidential information!

Talkiet

4201 posts

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# 378756 11-Sep-2010 11:31

richms: fixes:

1 - change ISP to one that has better performance

2 - accept that you are paying bottom dollar for a connection on the arse end of the world where the only connectivity is by a monopoly that have been screwing the country for years so inorder to be cheap, ISPs have to suck and put up with it till that new cable comes along to make international affordable

3 - move country.

IMO 3 is the best option if you have no ties to NZ.

Really? Shifting to a different country is a better option than paying a bit more for a much better connection? You are aware that there are several ISPs out there providing excellent performance right? (Yes, I'm afraid they all cost more than Slingshot or Worldnet)

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are the product of my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

ecd

12 posts

Geek

# 378794 11-Sep-2010 15:54

I agree with OP, I got connected yesterday. The tech support service was abysmal. They don't talk when you ask them questions, it's really idle and lousy.

The speed of the net is like 56k, everything is slow. youtube, facebook, anything that requires loading up takes ages! O yeah, I got suckered into Slingshot because I was a telecom big time user, they offerering offpeak downloads free. I had ten tasks open and it combined for a maximum of 31kb. A major major major step down from Telecom's avg of 400-500KB.

BLAST YOU SLINGSHOT!!!!

Talkiet

4201 posts

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Trusted

# 378802 11-Sep-2010 16:52

ecd: I agree with OP, I got connected yesterday. The tech support service was abysmal. They don't talk when you ask them questions, it's really idle and lousy.

The speed of the net is like 56k, everything is slow. youtube, facebook, anything that requires loading up takes ages! O yeah, I got suckered into Slingshot because I was a telecom big time user, they offerering offpeak downloads free. I had ten tasks open and it combined for a maximum of 31kb. A major major major step down from Telecom's avg of 400-500KB.

BLAST YOU SLINGSHOT!!!!

Do you really mean your combined speed was a max of 31 kilobits/second (about 4.5KiloBytes/sec) compared to Telecom average of 400-500KiloBytes/sec (about 3.2-4Megabits/sec)?

Are you aware that 56k (dialup) only gave speeds of about 45Kilobit/sec on a good day - or about 5KiloByte/sec?

If in fact you are getting 31 KiloBytes/sec (and not the 4.5 Kilobytes/sec you claim) then you're getting about 6 times faster speeds than a really good dialup connection.

....

If on the other hand you're only able to get 31 kilobits/sec then that's pretty shocking - although I can understand the economic drivers forcing pretty harsh shaping.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are the product of my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Delorean

152 posts

Master Geek

Lifetime subscriber

# 378804 11-Sep-2010 17:38

It seems you get what you pay for!

Personally, I am with Telecom and am happy with service / speeds etc There is no reason I would change, but i was interested in how the slingshot offering would be like.

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