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Thread ID: 60932	2005-08-18 11:36:00	Advancements in broadband	manicminer (4219)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
382104	2005-08-18 11:36:00	Every few months or so I surf around to see if Telecom (or any of the wireless/cable providers) have come up with anything new and exciting in the world of broadband with respect to pricing/speeds/plans etc etc. Now, I've been on Orcon's UBS bitstream since it started about a year ago and, as far I can see, not alot has been going on. If anything, things have gone backwards. 1) Most of the UBS plans look the same with regard to pricing, capping, speeds. From what I've read and heard, services are anything but consistent and reliable and suffer from network congestion. Recently, Orcon has begun to "de-prioritise" P2P traffic and I suspect other ISPs may follow. 2) In the wireless world, Wired Country were looking very promising a year ago with their new services that were favourable to ADSL in terms of pricing, speeds, capping and service. The other day I looked and I was horrified. The prices had been jacked up and restrictive caps put in place. The services are now "business grade". Shame really, as they were looking to be a promising competitor to Telecom in the broadband market but I guess time will tell as hopefully, they will be able to expand their networks and cope with demand. 3) Last time I looked, Cable speeds were looking better (although I can't get cable), but the prices certainly weren't and neither were the caps. 4) Telecom getting rid of Jetstream? 5) ADSL2 coming along next year apparently but if current broadband plans, prices and usage caps are anything to go by, I wouldn't be getting too excited about it. Speeds may be great, but what's the use when it's costing you $150 a month (my guess) for a max of 10GB that you could probably use up in a couple of hours at some ridiculous speed. So...what's happening in the broadband market? How far are Telecom getting along with their 250000 customers by the end of the year? Will they be counting the sub-broadband users in this total (256k isn't broadband by international standards)? Where will we be by the end of the year? In 2 years time? In 5 years time? Will the Govt continue with lame threats of regulation with Telecom laughing in the background (apparently T.Gattung was chortling about proposed regulations at a recent conference)? Or will unbundling finally happen as it almost did a couple of years ago? :badpc:	manicminer (4219)
382105	2005-08-18 11:48:00	as per wikipedia..... The International Telecommunication Union Standardization Sector (ITU-T) recommendation I.113 has defined broadband as a transmission capacity that is faster than primary rate ISDN, at 1.5 to 2 Mbit/s. However speeds of 256 kbit/s and greater are commonly marketed as "broadband" and this convention is held to by policy makers and ISPs alike.	robsonde (120)
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