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Thread ID: 69323 2006-05-29 03:44:00 Study Finds What We Already Knew - Broadband Burnzee (6950) PC World Chat
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458730 2006-05-29 03:44:00 Did you read the article published today in The Dominion Post, (Page C1), titled NZ GETTING LESS FOR THE BUCK ON BROADBAND by Adrian Bathgate.

According to the above article,

* We are paying reasonable prices but getting less for our money.
* Local plans performing reasonably on cost but restrictive data caps limit the effectiveness of high speed Internet.
* If comparison was made before recent upgrades to Xtra's plans, New Zealand would have undoubtedly languished in last place!!
* New Zealand's position can be described as not paying much and not getting much in return.

Further comments were made about data caps but there's another post on that.

The study was commissioned by InternetNZ.

BURNZEE
Burnzee (6950)
458731 2006-05-29 06:08:00 The study was commissioned by InternetNZ.


Right-wing commissioned report concludes that Labour is bad.

'nuff said.
DangerousDave (697)
458732 2006-05-29 06:19:00 Heard enough complaining. Just want something done. Period jermsie (6820)
458733 2006-05-29 06:41:00 Heard enough complaining. Just want something done. Period

I agree with jermsie here
stu161204 (123)
458734 2006-05-31 03:03:00 farrr too many articles, what the heck are they going to do?.
nothing..
gum digger (6100)
458735 2006-05-31 16:51:00 Did you read the article published today in The Dominion Post, (Page C1), titled NZ GETTING LESS FOR THE BUCK ON BROADBAND by Adrian Bathgate .

According to the above article,

* We are paying reasonable prices but getting less for our money .
* Local plans performing reasonably on cost but restrictive data caps limit the effectiveness of high speed Internet .
* If comparison was made before recent upgrades to Xtra's plans, New Zealand would have undoubtedly languished in last place!!
* New Zealand's position can be described as not paying much and not getting much in return .

Further comments were made about data caps but there's another post on that .

The study was commissioned by InternetNZ .

BURNZEE


I totally disagree with the points of that article .

1) * We are paying reasonable prices but getting less for our money .

Your prices are higher than I would even pay . . . . and you are getting far less than I would put up with . Example US Verizon DSL fees (package deal with phone) = unlimited access, no caps, 4M speeds . Free MSN Premium package with Messenger and other freebees .

2) * If comparison was made before recent upgrades to Xtra's plans, New Zealand would have undoubtedly languished in last place!!

. . . right behind a caveman sending messages whilst beating on a drum in the jungle . . . how do youse guys put up with this treatment?

3) * New Zealand's position can be described as not paying much and not getting much in return .

This is 1/2 right . . . you pay too much is a given, but the part about "not getting much in return" is totally wrong . . . you get NOTHING in return .

Verizon (US phone mega-giant) sells me unlimited local and long distance phone service (I can call anywhere a US flag is flying as a territory, possession or state ie, Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Midway Is (ok, that one is not a big perk!), Aleutian Is, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda Is, Jamaica, and New York, free caller identification, call blocking (selective numbers set up by me or dialing #86 after a rude or telemarketing caller), call waiting, caller waiting identification, 3-way calling, 8 voice-mail boxes, answering service with personal outgoing message, and . . . . . . . . .

DSL with free filters for other phone devices, DSL modem (Westell WireSpeed), Cat5e cables, 4M speeds, no caps/no limits, 24/7/365 tech service with people who speak the Queen's English (ok, at least it's not some mud hut in Pakistan or Upper Berloaswaziunterland where English is a far third language choice), and all for . . . get this . . . . . . $49 . 95/mo . US coin of the realm .
(PS, I get a senior discount for having gotten to the age at which I find myself) .

Now, I know that this is gonna get me some flames, but I just cannot understand why your "officials" can say something like this . I'd be screaming loud and long at them . . . . multiple times a day . :angry :angry :angry :angry :angry
SurferJoe46 (51)
458736 2006-05-31 21:57:00 Now, I know that this is gonna get me some flames, but I just cannot understand why your "officials" can say something like this. I'd be screaming loud and long at them....multiple times a day.
The officials (if you mean government) have finally run out of patience and have virtually "ordered" Telecom to do something to improve the situation. However, I believe that company has made some bad stategic decisions in the last year or two and a well known investor might be poised to take them over (well, according to this mornings paper anyway). So it should be interesting :confused:
I know what you mean about the North American telecommunications set up though; I was staying with my sister in Victoria B.C. last year. She has cable, it's so ubiquitous, I think the word is, it just works and very well at that, for an affordable price too.
As regards our present situation here, it doesn't get any better, for now anyway. Another outage last night and yesterday I heard about a visiting businessman who needed a fax set up immediately, was told by Telecom they couldn't do anything until 7 June, by which time he'd be back in the US again; lost opportunity for the NZ economy perhaps, due to the ineptitude of our Telecom company ?
jcr1 (893)
458737 2006-05-31 22:14:00 Another outage last night and yesterday I heard about a visiting businessman who needed a fax set up immediately, was told by Telecom they couldn't do anything until 7 June, by which time he'd be back in the US again; lost opportunity for the NZ economy perhaps, due to the ineptitude of our Telecom company ?

Where was this "businessman" staying? If he wanted a line separate from any in the house,hotel he was staying perhaps HE should have planned ahead. I doubt that he would get immediate service even in the US.

Another internet problem here last night
"You are likely to experience major international congestion of your
service until this problem is resolved.

A cable fault has been identified in the USA near San Francisco.
Currently, we are have no expected time for restoration."

Maybe Verison owned the cable and can't afford to look after it because it's discounting heavily to get customers :)
PaulD (232)
458738 2006-05-31 22:49:00 Where was this "businessman" staying? If he wanted a line separate from any in the house,hotel he was staying perhaps HE should have planned ahead . I doubt that he would get immediate service even in the US .

Another internet problem here last night
"You are likely to experience major international congestion of your
service until this problem is resolved .

A cable fault has been identified in the USA near San Francisco .
Currently, we are have no expected time for restoration . "

Maybe Verison owned the cable and can't afford to look after it because it's discounting heavily to get customers :)

The businessman, if he travels in the US has free internet wifi or DSL (at LEAST a dial-up connex anyway!) in every hotel/motel room built after 1999, and most have been retrofitted that were built before that time .

Many areas now have very good coverage for laptops with wifi . . . they can cruise down the freeways and be online at the same time . . . I know, it's kinda limited to the heavy user's areas yet, but it is a beginning to total wifi all over the US .

I NEVER got an interrupt in service last night, and I use Verizon exclusively . I DID notice it took F1 a little longer to load up last night, but everything else was working up to speed . Running a speed test ( . verizon . net/speedtest/speedtest500k . asp" target="_blank">infospeed . verizon . net) last night gave me some really low speeds to NZ (2350 . 2/293 . 8), but to Europe and Canada and Northwestern states here in the US, all was well .

As to the deep discounts . . they aren't really discounts, just normal costs . . . there WERE some advertised specials that help the price of $14 . 95US/mo for new sign-ups, and now after the time period ran out, they are up to $19 . 95US/mo . However, their "service" is slightly slower than 1M, so it's not a good plan, at least not for me .

The "whole package" plan is the best, as I have posted gets me 4M and good phone useage too .

BTW: just ran the speed test (see link above) and got 4899dn/588 . 7up . . . . . not too bad for a guaranteed 2M link .
SurferJoe46 (51)
458739 2006-06-01 00:25:00 Where was this "businessman" staying? If he wanted a line separate from any in the house,hotel he was staying perhaps HE should have planned ahead. I doubt that he would get immediate service even in the US.
:)

I know, big ask perhaps. But the NZ economy is so very tiny that really any opportunity should be taken to enhance productivity i.e. NZ incorporated. All a matter of the right attitude. And telecommunications is a huge part of this.
The businessman was actually Australian, working out of US. People like that could open doors for us if treated right.
jcr1 (893)
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