adsl plans

[Ines Winz]

Hi,
We are currently on an Xtra Jet Stream Starter plan. We are reasonably
happy with this, $30/month and 4Gb limit with a fair speed. Now we got a
slightly dodgy, rather unprofessional letter from Xtra, telling us that
they are withdrawing the Jet Stream Starter, that they didn't charge us
the full amount of $65/month as they should have, and that they want to
move us to a $50/month broadband explorer plan. Now we only have a week
left until they change the plan.

Is there any way we can keep our old plan? We don't want a small
increase in speed for a large increase in price and think this is quite
a rip off.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers, Ines + Robert.

[Mark Foster]

Post by Ines Winz
Hi,
We are currently on an Xtra Jet Stream Starter plan. We are reasonably
happy with this, $30/month and 4Gb limit with a fair speed. Now we got a
slightly dodgy, rather unprofessional letter from Xtra, telling us that
they are withdrawing the Jet Stream Starter, that they didn't charge us
the full amount of $65/month as they should have, and that they want to
move us to a $50/month broadband explorer plan. Now we only have a week
left until they change the plan.
Is there any way we can keep our old plan? We don't want a small
increase in speed for a large increase in price and think this is quite
a rip off.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers, Ines + Robert.

Short answer... probably not.
The announcement around the withdrawl of the Jetstream Starter product was
made more than a year ago, so you've had plenty of time to weigh your
alternatives.

My reccomendation is that you look at the current plan list and choose the
one that has the best cost v benefit ratio for you.

Welcome to the world of Broadband as we know it :)

Mark.

[Ines Winz]

Thanks Mark.
This is the first official letter we have ever received from Xtra about the
withdrawal and we usually don't keep track of what product range companies
have and how the change.
If we were to change to a cheaper dial-up plan, can we keep our technical
set-up with router and filters? Does the dial-up still enable us to listen
to internet radio or would the connection be too slow?
Cheers again!

[Mark Foster]

Post by Ines Winz
Thanks Mark.
This is the first official letter we have ever received from Xtra about the
withdrawal and we usually don't keep track of what product range companies
have and how the change.
If we were to change to a cheaper dial-up plan, can we keep our technical
set-up with router and filters? Does the dial-up still enable us to listen
to internet radio or would the connection be too slow?
Cheers again!

Think about your set up a little.

If you're using a router etc then you have a stand-alone device that
connects to ADSL, and your computers address this over a computer network
(ethernet.. through a hub or something).

When you were on dialup you likely had a modem plugged straight into the
back of one of your computers, or more likely actually physically inside
your computer, right?

So first thing you notice is that when on dialup, only one of your
computers goes online. The others can't talk to the internet at all,
right?


Next thing... did you need filters for your dialup connection?
Theyre _ADSL_ Filters, right?

So they have no involvement in a Dialup Connection.


Next thing... bandwidth. Your Modem connects and you get a report that
says youre connected at "48kbps" or some number similar (typically from 44
to 52k).

Your Jetstream line is probably a 256kbps line. Thats what, 5 or 6 times
faster?

Therefore if your Internet Radio stuff will work at approximately 1/6th of
the speed you currently use.. then less it will work...

(Its possible to get audio streams that will work at below 56k, but theyre
not particularly good quality.)

In terms of the Jetstream Starter withdrawl, heres the press release as of
26 July 2004:

http://www.telecom-media.co.nz/releases_detail.asp?id=3068&page=1&pagesize=10&filtertext=Jetstream+Starter&m1=1&y1=1996&m2=9&y2=2005&filter=filter

My suggestion to you would be to look at your average monthly bandwidth
usage (Check the Xtra Jetstream usage meter found at
http://xtra.co.nz/myaccount) and pick the plan with the top-limit that
best suits you.

Unfortunately to have DSL and actually make reasonable use of it you need
to be budgeting for at least $70/month + phone rental. IMHO.

Mark.

[Paul Quinlan]

Mark is correct that this was announced a good year ago, and then was
delayed by Telecom. I myself moved off Jetstart, or as it became known,
Jetstream Starter, late last year, and went to a 2mb/10gb plan late last
year. This was a joint ISP/Telecom plan, using what was known as Jetstream
Partnering (JPP) - now this too is being withdrawn, and I have had to go to
a UBS plan with my ISP.

I am now getting 2mb/10gb (and the 10gb is on International Traffic only)
for $64.95 (JPP was $69.95 and the 10gb was all traffic).

Now sure what your letter about the "full amount of $65/month as they should
have" is about, as Jetstart (128/128) was always around $30!

I suggest you check out all Xtra's plans at
http://www.telecom.co.nz/chm/0,5123,203071-202469,00.html, or check out
another ISP, which may deliver better options.

Rgds

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-***@unixathome.org [mailto:owner-***@unixathome.org] On Behalf
Of Mark Foster
Sent: Sunday, 11 September 2005 1:28 p.m.
To: Ines Winz
Cc: ***@lists.unixathome.org
Subject: Re: adsl plans

Post by Ines Winz
Hi,
We are currently on an Xtra Jet Stream Starter plan. We are reasonably
happy with this, $30/month and 4Gb limit with a fair speed. Now we got
a slightly dodgy, rather unprofessional letter from Xtra, telling us
that they are withdrawing the Jet Stream Starter, that they didn't
charge us the full amount of $65/month as they should have, and that
they want to move us to a $50/month broadband explorer plan. Now we
only have a week left until they change the plan.
Is there any way we can keep our old plan? We don't want a small
increase in speed for a large increase in price and think this is
quite a rip off.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers, Ines + Robert.

Short answer... probably not.
The announcement around the withdrawl of the Jetstream Starter product was
made more than a year ago, so you've had plenty of time to weigh your
alternatives.

My reccomendation is that you look at the current plan list and choose the
one that has the best cost v benefit ratio for you.

Welcome to the world of Broadband as we know it :)

Mark.
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[Tracy Briscoe]

Post by Paul Quinlan
Now sure what your letter about the "full amount of $65/month as they
should have" is about, as Jetstart (128/128) was always around $30!

I'm just moving off Jetstart at the moment with Paradise. We were paying
about $30 to the ISP (paradise) for the account, then Telecom would also
charge about $30 on the phone account to have Jetstart enabled. This seams
to be the norm from the quick google search that I did. Ines was lucky
Telecom stuffed up in its billing.

-Tracy B
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[Paul Quinlan]

I think the same confusion has arisen as happened a couple of months ago.

Jetstart/Jetstream Starter only referred to the 128/128 plan, and this was a
c.$30.00 fee all up from the ISP. The other plans you (and Alastair) refer
to are the JPP (Jetstream Partnering Plan) fees, which have just (or are
just about to) stopped. They were for faster download plans (up to 2mb)
than Jetstart, and depending on when started, were either 192kb or 128kb
download.

So, either Ines wasn't on Jetstart, but actually one of the JPP plans, or
Telecom/Xtra have stuffed it up in the letter. If he was on JPP and Telecom
had't been charging their component, then Ines, you have been very lucky.

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-***@unixathome.org [mailto:owner-***@unixathome.org] On Behalf
Of Tracy Briscoe
Sent: Sunday, 11 September 2005 10:14 p.m.
To: ***@lists.unixathome.org
Subject: RE: adsl plans

Post by Paul Quinlan
Now sure what your letter about the "full amount of $65/month as they
should have" is about, as Jetstart (128/128) was always around $30!

I'm just moving off Jetstart at the moment with Paradise. We were paying
about $30 to the ISP (paradise) for the account, then Telecom would also
charge about $30 on the phone account to have Jetstart enabled. This seams
to be the norm from the quick google search that I did. Ines was lucky
Telecom stuffed up in its billing.

-Tracy B
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Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.20/95 - Release Date: 9/09/2005
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[Alastair Johnson]

Post by Paul Quinlan
I think the same confusion has arisen as happened a couple of months ago.
Jetstart/Jetstream Starter only referred to the 128/128 plan, and this was a
c.$30.00 fee all up from the ISP. The other plans you (and Alastair) refer
to are the JPP (Jetstream Partnering Plan) fees, which have just (or are
just about to) stopped. They were for faster download plans (up to 2mb)
than Jetstart, and depending on when started, were either 192kb or 128kb
download.
So, either Ines wasn't on Jetstart, but actually one of the JPP plans, or
Telecom/Xtra have stuffed it up in the letter. If he was on JPP and Telecom
had't been charging their component, then Ines, you have been very lucky.

1. Jetstart/Jetstream Starter was offered under the Jetstream Partnering
Plan.

2. Xtra is a Telecom brand. This means they charge $30 + $35 on the
same bill.

I'm presuming since Xtra sent the letter, they have not been charged the
$35 component and will only need to pay the $30 component to TNZ.
Without seeing their bill though, this is not possible to confirm.

If, as other people have suggested, there has been a billing screwup and
TNZ/Xtra have only been charging $30 and not $65 for the service, Ines
has been lucky. Nonetheless, there will be a plan change required.

aj.

[Alastair Johnson]

Post by Paul Quinlan
Now sure what your letter about the "full amount of $65/month as they should
have" is about, as Jetstart (128/128) was always around $30!

DSL component - $29.95. ISP component (for Xtra) $35. = $65.

Presumably they dropped the charge on one part of it or another.

BTW, if the original poster moves to one of the other plans, he will be
saving money if (s)he goes to something like the 256k/1GB plan. Not
spending more.

aj.