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Thread ID: 126560 2012-09-04 21:55:00 Telecom vs Orcon Greg (193) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1298935 2012-09-05 05:50:00 Can't say I like the concept, at least not as a total replacement for a real landline. Agent_24 (57)
1298936 2012-09-05 06:06:00 Any reason why? Chilling_Silence (9)
1298937 2012-09-05 06:07:00 If you can get fiber, Orcon may still be offering free BB till end of this year if you sign a contract.

It could be guess if you are really into the geek stuff. While fiber connections are free as I understand. To get our phones working we probably need to fork out $250 for a telecomm/electrician to loop back the lines into the genius box so the telephones in the house can still work. Yeah and the no power issue, you could get a UPS for the Genius and as I understand the telephone exchange are protected as well. For us it's that it's working now, why change and we're not exactly a high usage household and if we leave the folks don't use the Internet so it needs to be converted back to copper wire.

And even if it was just ADSL Genius, Orcon don't deal with customers with just the phone and should we leave the folks want the phone only, they may need to rejoin Telecom and pay a connection fee again ... And pricewise, it's not too much difference between Genius monthly plans and ADSL (with landline) deals when they have promotions.
Nomad (952)
1298938 2012-09-05 06:29:00 Any reason why?

Standard phone on copper wire is a simpler technology that can get itself into less trouble.

VoIP is useful, sure, but for the most part overcomplicated.
Agent_24 (57)
1298939 2012-09-05 07:22:00 If you are 'very happy' with Telecom at the moment, think twice before switching to another provider - who knows what will you get!

I would suggest you stay where you are.

I'm with Telecom and have no complains.
bk T (215)
1298940 2012-09-05 12:30:00 I had a bad time with Orcon Genius. The Broadband was Ok but the phone was unreliable and they could never get it right. I changed to Hosting Direct Naked broadband with 2talk for the phone. Never had any problems, and when I send them an Email I always get a reply same day. Great service. mzee (3324)
1298941 2012-09-06 05:26:00 Standard phone on copper wire is a simpler technology that can get itself into less trouble.

VoIP is useful, sure, but for the most part overcomplicated.

If you can access Linked In there's an interesting discussion on POTs vs VOIP

preview.tinyurl.com
paulw (1826)
1298942 2012-09-06 10:54:00 ^^ a whole lot of non-industry people commenting on it though, many either slightly mis-guided or talking about things that don't really seem to be relevant in our country here ;)

Having worked in the industry, I can see both sides. Funnily enough the majority of the "quality" issues that I see are actually from POTS / ISDN, not from VoIP lines.
Chilling_Silence (9)
1298943 2012-09-06 11:49:00 Telecom seems to have improved imo over the last few months. I'm actually getting 14mbps down and 0.95mbps up, which is actually kind of close to what I assume that speed cap is (15mbps down and 2mbps up is standard right? I couldn't actually find anything about speed on the telecom site). Would be nice to see uploads that are over 1mbps without having to go onto one of the 100mbps down plans like the ones tesltra offers and then you get 10mbps down right? Yet to see this anywhere in Tauranga. icow (15313)
1298944 2012-09-06 13:35:00 Funnily enough the majority of the "quality" issues that I see are actually from POTS / ISDN, not from VoIP lines.

Define quality? A crackly\noisy line will still be usable for a normal phone fairly well, while ADSL will drop out continuously and your VoIP will be useless.

From the same point of view, analogue TV can have bad reception but still watch-able with a grainy picture, while digital with bad reception stops and starts and you get green squares and white blocks and audio that drops out.

Also, copper is much easier for anyone to work with, than fibre. If I accidentally chopped my copper phone cable in half I could easily reconnect it with simple tools in 5 minutes or so.

Maybe just me, but I prefer to own\use things that are easier to fix.
Agent_24 (57)
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