unlimited broadband heaven...

[brownbox]

just on the news tonight, telecoms new plans to have full speed unlimited broadband for $50 a month!!

Cant wait...

[creator2003]

well never liking telecom and having a unlimited slingshot bband account 256k
i think this would change me over unless and most proberly all the rest do this deal like telecom,,i guess this is where telecom will have the strings again they mite not give this privlage to the rest ?

[gokanru]

Hmmmmm,
telecom have the monoply now what's going to really change.telecom cant supply to the rual areas now because the exchanges are overloaded and are out dated.What we need is competition to telecom and give us some real choices.What we need in addition to high speed broadband,is some highspeed upgrades to the existing system.If Australia can download 3GB in 4 minutes and it takes 1 an a half hours here to download the same ammount,what does that tell you.

[ZK-MAT]

The unlimited $50 a month is unlimited download speed but with only 128k upload ... with traffic shaping (aka as throttling the speed )... which sucks for gamers where the lag is more dependant on the upload and download being similar, or when uploading pics and vids to the net... I will be going for the max down and up 15 gig plan I think at $80

New Plan Table

[Zöltuger]

The unlimited $50 a month is unlimited download speed but with only 128k upload ... with traffic shaping (aka as throttling the speed )...

yes, caveat emptor- it might say unlimited, but you can't download more than 700MB between 4pm and midnight... if you do, you could be put into a pool of other leachers who have to share limited bandwidth

and apparantly, with a 128k upload, the maximum practical download speed will actually be around 4.5Mbit. and that assumes your modem will even connect at that speed, which depends on how far away from your phone exchange.

and traffic shaping means that file sharing programs will be restricted between 4pm and midnight- some have even suggested that they'll be shaped outside this time too. and it could apply to VOIP and game traffic...

so it might sound good, but i'm going to give it a month before signing up- to see what others think.

[Charl]

It's a standard business practice - create a blizzard of confusion so the consumers can't pin you down against the competition.
The email I enjoyed most of all was from Xtra who advised that, yes, the 3.5MB/s plan I was on was somewhat misleading as they'd tested my line and it couldn't physically manage more than 2.
They then offered me a dialup option if I chose...

[SUBS17]

Hmmmmm,
telecom have the monoply now what's going to really change.telecom cant supply to the rual areas now because the exchanges are overloaded and are out dated.What we need is competition to telecom and give us some real choices.What we need in addition to high speed broadband,is some highspeed upgrades to the existing system.If Australia can download 3GB in 4 minutes and it takes 1 an a half hours here to download the same ammount,what does that tell you.

Australias network was upgraded last year which is why its much faster.

[gokanru]

I rest my case then.Telecom need to upgrade the networks before making an offer or offers that they know they cant make good on, to everyone,not just those that are 6k's from the exchange.Until they do that I will stay on dial-up.An option for telecom would be,If they can't supply the stated download/upload speed,then give their customers a rebate on what they couldn't supply(YEAH RIGHT).Telecom know what Australia has done,the question is,why arn't they doing it.

[SUBS17]

I think they are in the process of upgrading at the moment, they did mention that the upgrade would affect internet speed at night.

[Zöltuger]

i think this upgrade you're talking about is the ADSL2+, with a maximum speed of 24Mbps. this technology has been around the world for a number of years now, but only now is telecom bothering to install it. these speeds are only any good if you're within 1 km of your DSLAM- so it could be at least 2 years before you see it available to the mass public.
realistically, telecom only respond to the threat of regulation, investing just enough to prevent it. hopefully the government will take stronger action and really sink their regulatory teeth into telecom, now that LLU is a reality.

[SUBS17]

I've heard that 1gig Mbs internet is getting developed overseas which is probably good enough for live tv etc.

[gokanru]

There is no doubt,we are at the moment at telecoms mercy,and so are the other isp's.therefore our choices are very simple,1:bring in some competition. 2:move overseas,3:put up with telecoms crap. They cannot deliver to the general public what they say they can do.We need to have compition so that they have their ideas woken up,after all if it wasn't for the govt,as a business,telecom would have been broke ages ago.

[Alex]

...as a business,telecom would have been broke ages ago.

Almost, as a business they probably would have actually tried.

Alex