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Thread ID: 40710 2003-12-15 11:13:00 Why do NZ & OZ have bandwidth caps? Mark Veldhuizen (2570) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
200836 2003-12-15 23:54:00 It's because underwater cables running for thousands of miles cost an enormous amount to install . The running costs have to allow for replacement . Look at a map of the world . Look at the populations at the end of the cables to NZ and Australia . Look at the distances inside Australia .

Agreed, the internal costs are high . We've got 4 million population spread along 1000 miles (with 25 miles of water between the islands) . Foolish "deregulation", and criminal asset stripping don't help .

Of course , a single city of 4 million or 10 million can run optical fibre economically . And if it's on a densly populated continent, the cables between the cities and countries are much cheaper than underwater cables . If you've got 600 million on a continent, cables to another continent with a similar number have the demand and potential competition to get the prices down . But multi thousand mile cables to a continent with 20 odd million and a couple of island with 4 million . . . :_|

But you don't know when you are well off . ;-) I can remember when the whole Internet connection for NZ was 56kbps . I can remember ftping to one of the sites in Finland, and seeing their request that people use the mirrors --- because that was Finland's bandwidth too . ;-) And it cost them more because all their traffic went through the US, even when it was directed to Europe .
Graham L (2)
200837 2003-12-16 01:09:00 25 Miles between islands????
Which islands we talking about here Graham L
dumdum (4965)
200838 2003-12-16 02:19:00 I'm picking he's meaning North Island - South Island and possibly fitting in Stewart Island as well. My google skills seem to be lacking today but that distance sounds about right.... I think. -=JM=- (16)
200839 2003-12-16 02:57:00 Apparently 56k is free in Taiwan. MMM lucky... hazza (2704)
200840 2003-12-16 03:45:00 Well when uncapped 512k connection plus the equivalent of Sky Digital is less than what we pay for Dialup here.... then who would want 56k dialup? somebody (208)
200841 2003-12-16 04:29:00 The sad thing is there's not a lot that can be done.. :-(

There was that petition a while back, and apparently they were _going_ to re-think their plans, but nothing has happened as of yet :-(
Chilling_Silently (228)
200842 2003-12-16 23:59:00 A petition won't influence anyone. Money might. If you make it clear you are prepared to pay the full cost, there might be more bandwidth provided. You won't like the cost. Graham L (2)
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