We live in the dark ages

[kiwibarguy]

Found this being advertised by Telecom on the yahoo page.


Broadband from Dial-Up prices
If you are a Telecom home calling customer you can sign up to our Basic Broadband plan now and it will only cost you $16.95 per month for the first six months. That's the same price as our most popular Dial-Up plan!

If you sign up to any other Telecom Broadband Plan or you don't have your home calling with us you will still receive $13 off your Broadband monthly plan charges for the first six months.

Landline monthly charges apply.
After the first six months standard monthly plan charges apply.
Basic plan includes a 200MB monthly data allowance. Excess usage is charged at 2 cents per MB.

Now that we have the trains back maybe we can buy back our telecommunications and forests!!!. I'm tired of spending all my cash just to ride the little pony at the carnival. What a joke telecom. 200Mb a month!!!!! tell'em the're dreaming!!! not that the others are much better. my friend in Aussie gets unlimited downloading at 25mbps for around $35. Think about that for a second!

GRRRRRRRR!!!!

p.s apologies to my 2 mates who are currently employed with Telecom, nothing personal, it just gets my goat!

[ronindanbo]

I worked for Telecom and my main responsibility was to rate the broadband plans and build them into the backend systems, the problem Telecom faces is the fact that the network was starting to break a wee while ago and the government in its infinit wisdom allowed the competition to drive thier traffic onto the same network for next to nothing.

The pricing is stupid but the reasoning behind it is sound, the more expensive it is the less people will use it... sad but true this is the only way they know of in the interim to actually control the traffic on the network as throttling back is not nearly enough to maintain it.

Telecom is ramping up a project to replace its copper with fibre optic (well not replace as they want to just cut the copper network loose and thier competition has played in their hands on that by lobying the government to seperate the network out) which will mean a steadier better service However until they move away from being a marketing oriented company and back into being a Telecommunications provider (which they are not now they outsource thier technology which also reflects in thier pricing) they will continue to have a bad high cost service in the broadband and wired telecom field.

[Peppermint]

This is why we moved from Telecom to Telstra a while back, not long after they cut that plan they had, unlimited usage and unlimited speed. We didn't want of it, 3 days after we said we'd stay on it, all of a sudden the net would just cut off every 30 seconds - 2 minutes. Now we're with Telstra, much better, the speed's slower, but for the same price as the plan we were on with telecom it's much better. If we go over the limit, we get another 10gb for $10.

Anyway, why has it taken so long to replace the copper with fibre? Why don't they start replacing the copper instead of making so many of those stupid tv adverts? I think I read somewhere that NZ internet is about 4 years behind most of the world.

[Q300]

Im on Telecom BB and get 3GB or 'unlimited' as Telecom called it
The speed is'nt bad between 400-600kbps ...

[kiwibarguy]

Thanks for that Ronindanbo, at least i can now see the situation that they face is not an easy one.

[benwynn]

Just for the record- Australia doesnt Unlimited Downloads and 25mbps for $35

For $60 over here, you can get about 40GB Downloads (Including Offpeak Data) and around 20mbps

It seems odd you guys dont get the same- Isnt the Broadband line for Pacific Oceania owned by Telstra, Telecom and Verizon or something? Dont ask me Im not an expert..

[ronindanbo]

QUOTE (benwynn @ May 23 2008, 01:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just for the record- Australia doesnt Unlimited Downloads and 25mbps for $35

For $60 over here, you can get about 40GB Downloads (Including Offpeak Data) and around 20mbps

It seems odd you guys dont get the same- Isnt the Broadband line for Pacific Oceania owned by Telstra, Telecom and Verizon or something? Dont ask me Im not an expert..

The international cable is majority owned by Telecom, Telstra uses its satelites for most traffic, yes I knew we got a better package grouping than Aus, Telecom is positioning to go fully to all you can eat broadband where you will get different speeds/bandwidth depending on what you pay which is good. I also understand our copper network is in somewhat better shape than the Aussie one as I remember seeing alot of data about the reliability of BB in Aus it looked pretty alarming especially in suburbia and in the country.

[pois0n]

QUOTE (ronindanbo @ May 23 2008, 03:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Telstra uses its satelites for most traffic

They most certainly do not use satellites

[Q300]

QUOTE (pois0n @ May 23 2008, 04:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They most certainly do not use satellites

I dont know anything about how broadband works But seeing Dan used to work for Telecom he might have a bit of an idea of whats what

[ronindanbo]

from NZ to international link yes they do but they do also use a small percentage of the international cable.

[Alex]

Yea, some of our family friends were/are in Telecom management - it's definitely more complicated than "Why don't they make it faster?".

Alex

[pois0n]

QUOTE (ronindanbo @ May 23 2008, 06:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

from NZ to international link yes they do but they do also use a small percentage of the international cable.

No traffic from residential TelstraClear connections in NZ will go through a satellite. Because..

a) You'd have 2-3000ms latency to the US (try ping google.com and see what you get )
b) Satellite isn't cheap at all

iirc they use reach for international connectivity, who get their capacity wholesale from southern cross

http://reach.com/network/overview.php

QUOTE (Q300 @ May 23 2008, 04:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But seeing Dan used to work for Telecom he might have a bit of an idea of whats what

Doesn't matter where he worked, they don't use satellites for most traffic.