Ian Batterbee
2006-02-13 05:53:22 UTC
http://www.telecom.co.nz/chm/0,5123,205112-203090,00.html
In a nutshell, they've come up with 7 emotively named plans (basic, go,
explorer, adventure, pro, pro advanced, and pro ultra) that still charge
like a wounded bull. I've haven't seen any of the other ISPs come out
with UBS plan information yet, but I expect they'll all be rather similar.
The Basic plan is 256/128 for $29.95 with a rather embaressing 200mb
data cap (come on.. even windows update, virus updates, etc will chew
through that pretty quickly)
Go (2048/128) is the only plan that stays at 2mbps, and has a 1GB cap
($39.95)
Explorer ($49.95) and Adventure ($59.95) are 3500/128, with absolutely
pathetic 5gb and 10gb caps respectively, and unless you want to pay
$79.95 per month or more to go to Pro and beyond, you're still stuck on
128kbps upstream. Many would argue that even at 2048/128, the upstream
rate already impacts, or even limits the download speed (more so if you
have more than one user on your home network), so I wonder what the hell
the think people are going to do with their 3.5mbps download speed if
they can't send ACKs fast enough to get that speed anyway.
Remember, Telecom counts traffic in BOTH directions, so the more they
increase the speed, the more easily they allow people to hit their cap,
which in turn forces their customers to upgrade to a plan they didn't
really want just so they can still use the internet for the last 2-3
weeks of their billing cycle.
Oh, and the usual "if you don't have your tolls with us, you can add $10
to all those plans" restriction applies.
You have to admire telecom for their marketing strategy here - the
people that have been complaining about their upstream rate and change
to the 512kbps plans will be paying more than they did before, which
means more profit for telecom. The people who currently have dialup and
never use the internet will be sucked in to the go plan so that they can
run google earth and see all those things their grandchildren have told
them about, and once they do they'll exceed their 200MB cap and have to
"upgrade" to the $39.95 go plan, which again means more profit for Telecom.
And finally, my physical connect rate here is is only 2560kbps
(admittedly, with g.lite) - so even if I went to a 3.5mbs plan, the
crappy copper I have to my socket would be the limiting factor for me. I
remember that telecom used to say that they wouldn't enable ADSL for
anyone that couldn't connect to the exchange at at least 2mbps - I
wonder if they'll up that figure, or if they'll start re-laying copper
in those locations where people have asked for 3.5mbps and can't get it
due to the quality of the wires.
--
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see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
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In a nutshell, they've come up with 7 emotively named plans (basic, go,
explorer, adventure, pro, pro advanced, and pro ultra) that still charge
like a wounded bull. I've haven't seen any of the other ISPs come out
with UBS plan information yet, but I expect they'll all be rather similar.
The Basic plan is 256/128 for $29.95 with a rather embaressing 200mb
data cap (come on.. even windows update, virus updates, etc will chew
through that pretty quickly)
Go (2048/128) is the only plan that stays at 2mbps, and has a 1GB cap
($39.95)
Explorer ($49.95) and Adventure ($59.95) are 3500/128, with absolutely
pathetic 5gb and 10gb caps respectively, and unless you want to pay
$79.95 per month or more to go to Pro and beyond, you're still stuck on
128kbps upstream. Many would argue that even at 2048/128, the upstream
rate already impacts, or even limits the download speed (more so if you
have more than one user on your home network), so I wonder what the hell
the think people are going to do with their 3.5mbps download speed if
they can't send ACKs fast enough to get that speed anyway.
Remember, Telecom counts traffic in BOTH directions, so the more they
increase the speed, the more easily they allow people to hit their cap,
which in turn forces their customers to upgrade to a plan they didn't
really want just so they can still use the internet for the last 2-3
weeks of their billing cycle.
Oh, and the usual "if you don't have your tolls with us, you can add $10
to all those plans" restriction applies.
You have to admire telecom for their marketing strategy here - the
people that have been complaining about their upstream rate and change
to the 512kbps plans will be paying more than they did before, which
means more profit for telecom. The people who currently have dialup and
never use the internet will be sucked in to the go plan so that they can
run google earth and see all those things their grandchildren have told
them about, and once they do they'll exceed their 200MB cap and have to
"upgrade" to the $39.95 go plan, which again means more profit for Telecom.
And finally, my physical connect rate here is is only 2560kbps
(admittedly, with g.lite) - so even if I went to a 3.5mbs plan, the
crappy copper I have to my socket would be the limiting factor for me. I
remember that telecom used to say that they wouldn't enable ADSL for
anyone that couldn't connect to the exchange at at least 2mbps - I
wonder if they'll up that figure, or if they'll start re-laying copper
in those locations where people have asked for 3.5mbps and can't get it
due to the quality of the wires.
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
To unsubscribe: send mail to ***@lists.unixathome.org
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message