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Just some quick off topic rambling. In my part of Canada (and I imagine most parts except Toronto or Vancouver), we're pretty limited in terms of service providers. Either the slow DSL with the worse service ever or the fast but expensive cable. Not only are we charged for the speed but for each we are limited to how much we can download and upload per month (not the case in the US I believe).

The only one that gives you an unlimited amount of bandwidth is the pricy cable. Since I'll be headed to school soon I figured that I should downgrade the service plan to save some bucks. When the lady from the cable company checked my bandwidth logs she couldn't believe this was a residential account. Said it looked more like an office building. I felt some weird satisfaction from that .

No way I'm downgrading my plan now, since it seems that if I let it go I might never get it back again without restrictions or an inflated price. That's what I figure anyway, I should have been warned but it's never happened. Not taking any chances, this is the only game in town.

They're gonna have a hard time if they pull a fast one though. If you're gonna state in big bold letters "unlimited internet" you damn well better provide it, no take backs.

Let's see... couldn't be worse than down this part of the world...

256/128kbps here, 3GB monthly traffic limit (after which speed is throttled to 64/64kbps or charged at $1/1000MB, your choice). Limit is set to your preferences or budget too. Most ISPs aren't anywhere near this flexible.

Telecom NZ recently sold their Yellow Pages to some Canadian teacher investment setup for about $NZ2.2 billion. Which they promptly decide to invest in interests in Australia. God forbid they spend some actual money in keeping their network infrastructure up to scratch. Most people who have the so-called "full speed" (7.6Mbps) plans, can't get the speed they should be able to get.

There is always cable. If you're rich. And live in Wellington, Kapiti or Christchurch. Well, that's only 25% of the population. But at least you get the expected 10Mbps

<rant mode off>

You got in before me Barry. Here in Christchurch you do get some alternative choices via cable, but only if you're in an area of Chch that has been cabled. In my case, the cable option stops one suburb away from me, or about 1.5km away, so unfortunately ADSL is my only option.

The plan I'm on is a supposed Max down, 128k up, but the fastest I get is around 3.6Mbps download, which is to be expected with a 128k upwards limit. Data cap is 25gigs after which it is $5 for 3gigs or $10 for 10gigs more data. All this for the rock bottom price of NZ$49.95 per month. (About US$40) You can choose not to extend your data cap, in which case you're down to a 64k connection speed.

Roll on the LLU changes that the government has been promising..... and at some point we may even see more exchanges with support for ADSL II modems....... yeah right!

You're lucky that you can actually get 3.6Mbps. I've heard many horror stories about "full speed" being slower than dialup.

Of relevance:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6900697.stm




AL

Yeah, Telecom NZ has been testing out ADSL2+ for a couple of years now. They keep pushing back when it'll be publicly available.

Actually they've done at least 1 Chch exchange in "public test" mode...... unfortunately not mine as far as I know.... but then I'd expect the exchanges they would choose would be in the Cabled areas of Chch or Wellington..... since that is where they have the most competition...... it's also why line rental charges are cheaper in Chch than elsewhere....

Oh for some real and open competition in the Telco market in NZ....

So the cable company just woke up to the reality of bittorent. No more unlimited internet, max is 100gigs combined up/down, 1.50 per extra gig. The dsl company is still crap compared to this.

Bastards, no competition sucks. I looked at the higher price cable option just for fun and it was 20down/10up but with 20mbps download instead of 10mbps. How in the hell is that better than the plan one notch down? You'll eat through 20 gigs in no time at that speed. Not only that but it's 7.95$ (!!!!!!) per extra gig. WTF.

Welcome to the high def internet, now that the content is here the bandwidth is being cut. It's basically cheaper for me to buy a 100gig hard disk, have some guy pack it with content and then mail it to me. Yet another reason to move to japan, they take internet seriously.