Telecom to offer $59 a month all-you-can-eat data plan - but with throttling
In a historic move, Telecom (NZX: TEL) is taking a second stab at an un-capped data plan with its new $59.95 a month Big Time plan, launching July 7.
Ralph Brayham, Director of Home services for Telecom Retail, says the new plan is aimed at two types of customers: those who want price certainty, and power users who want to be able to download unlimited amounts of data without worrying about punitive charges for blowing their cap.
However, the new Big Time plan comes with a catch: “We will unashamedly be shaping data,” says Mr Brayham.
That means that during peak internet use times (usually 3pm to 10pm) Telecom will give priority to people on “speed plans” (that is, every customer not on a Big Time plan). As a result, Big Time customers could see reduced peformance as Telecom manages its overall network traffic.
Big Time customers will be given a discrete, separate slice of bandwidth. If 10 use it, they’ll each get 10% of the bandwidth. If 100 are using it during a peak time, 1% - which in practical terms would mean slower or “throttled” performance.
Back to the future
This is Telecom’s second time around with an all-you-can-eat data plan.
Two years ago, its Go Large plan was taken offline after the Commerce Commission said Telecom had failed to highlight the fine print. Telecom paid Go Large customers $130 to $160 compensation each to head off a Fair Trading Act prosecution.
Go Large was described in advertisements as "unlimited Internet usage at maximum download speeds." This time, Telecom is being completely upfront about data shaping, and its potential to slow Big Time connections.
Customers on Telecom's Total Home package will get Big Time for $10 more than your current plan. Big Time is open to residential customers only.
Catching up with the rest of the world
While Telecom's all-you-can-eat plan will be unique in the New Zealand market, it would no be considered that radical in most locales.
A recent OECD survey on uncapped broadband put New Zealand among four countries in last-equal position. In most OECD countries, ISPs routinely feature only all-you-can-eat data plans. Data limits are almost non-existent.
Go moves to full-speed/full-speed
Separately, Mr Brayham announced that the 200,000 customers on Telecom's Go plan - it's most popular - would be automatically upgraded from full-speed upload/128Kbit/s download speed to full-speed/full-speed in a gradual process beginning in July. The transition is expected to take several weeks.
More local copies of overseas web content
Mr Brayham also said that Telecom had ramped up its local caching efforts, so that files such as viral YouTube videos and big Microsoft and Apple updates will be offered via a local server, speeding service and lowering international data costs.
Telecom won't put any figures on the caching upgrade, but says it has been one of the keys to topping several performance metrics in broadband performance surveys carried out for the Commerce Commision by Epitiro.
Caching should help Big Time customers. A big file - say, Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 update - would only be shaped if they happened to be the first to download it. After that it would be cached.
Faster species of DSL spreads
Mr Brayham said Telecom had now shipped more than 250,000 ADSL2+ modems to customers, but deferred questions about the possible launch of faster VDSL2 plans to Telecom Wholesale - which has previously indicated VDSL2 plans will have a $20 surcharge.
Vodafone and Orcon have complained that VDSL2 should be viewed as just another DSL service under the Telecommunications Act, and should therefore be charged at no premium by Telecom Wholesale. This represents a problematic situation for the Commerce Commission, which has used the potential of "premium services" (without actually naming VDSL2) as one of the justifications for regulating relatively high pricing for access to Telecom's roadside cabinets.
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Comments and questions24
Are they seriously saying that their contention ratio will be 100:1?
I pity anyone who tries to use such a plan at peak-hours. They might as well go back to dial-up if that ratio is correct.
I also pity those folks who consider their YouTube view-counts to be a metric of success. A lot of views won't be reported if those videos are cached locally.
And let's hope they've got their caching sorted this time. I recall last time they made an attempt to improve caching, some international news-sites were cached for days and thus the content was significantly out of date when accessed via Telecom's caching servers.
Early days and potentially problematic but a significant shift.
Where does it mention the contention ratio in the article? Answer: nowhere
Where does it mention "advertisement" in this article?
"A lot of views won't be reported if those videos are cached locally."
Yes they will. That's not how video caching works.
:Vodafone and Orcon have complained that VDSL2 should be viewed as just another DSL service under the Telecommunications Act, and should therefore be charged at no premium by Telecom Wholesale."
Interesting. Vodaphone and Orcon expect Telecom to pay for the VDSL2 upgrade, but not charge extra for the connection?
Where does it mention contention ratios?
from the article:
"Big Time customers will be given a discreet, separate slice of bandwidth. If 10 use it, they’ll each get 10% of the bandwidth. If 100 are using it during a peak time, 1%"
Bruce, You should know better. That's not a contention ratio in the relevant sense. The fact is that anything at this point is conjecture. Let's judge the product by the quality of the service when it arrives - or continue guessing and just pollute the ether with irrelevant rubbish.
When will Telecom (and other ISPs) consider users with exactly the opposite needs - modest data usage but a requirement for maximum CONSISTENT speed both ways?
Sure, the 3Gb plan will be upgraded to so-called full speed both ways - but we all know that in practice this could be on the sad side of 5Mbps at times.
And how "full speed" is the upload capacity anyway? 512Kbps ain't all that quick when you're sending large files.
Also, does Xtra still enforce a 5Mb email attachment limit? (other ISPs have more realistic limits, like 20 Mb for any one message)
That was just a for-instance number not an example of contention. CK
Okay so who else is offering an unlimited plan? If any other ISP offered something similar would they get a similar beat up to these comments?
If you need a CIR then you have the options of HSNS or UNS. It costs a lot lot more for an ISP to guarantee a CIR so hence the high price for these perceived business services.
You need to google 'contention ratio' because that quote is NOT talking about contention ratio.
Signed up to this plan the other day (open to existing Go Large users already) and just pulled over 50GB on this new plan (new peak dl is now 12,000kbps on go large max was about 5,000 kbps) thats fast in my book people should learn to stop b*tching based on this i can now pull upwards of 1.5TB a month dont know of any other consumer plan in NZ that you could do that for $59.95 a month
after spending many hours to telecom technical support in the last few weeks after a shaping change made guild wars unplayable online due to massive and frequent lags, with at no time them mentioning this upcoming new plan, I was effectively forced to change providers. I can only assume telecom doesn't believe in internal communication. further online gaming will still probably be rubbish on this new plan once it is populated by myriad users. SO for those of us that want to onlinie game and download large amounts....... I am unconvinced telecom can provide a viable and cost effective solution. unlike slingshot who allows downloads betwen 1am and 7am to not count towards the data cap, hence an effective means of unlimited download. Slingshot are not the only ones using this method, perhaps telecom could take a leaf out of that book.
Symmetrical speeds & committed information rate = expensive pipes. Thats what your isp buys for their backhaul. They are available, and cost. but i spose you want it for free.
On the full speed thing, I think they are simply removing the 128k uplink throttle. the limiting factor then becomes the speed your ADSL modem can connect to the exchange. that will vary with distance, quality of your modem, etc.
I just sent a 10mb email via xtra so I would guess their transit limit is more than 5 ;-)
i was on the go large plan and just changed, my reason for changeing was that i like to download content from xbox live, and telecom was clearly throttleing it.
it used to take about two hours to get 60MB from xbox live, and it took me 12 hours to get an update for fable 2, half the time the dash wouldnt even load.
after contacting telecom several times i gave up and rang to tell them i was switching to telstra clear, but they told me i wouldnt notice any diference in speed even if i changed.
well it takes me about 3 mins to get 60MB and ive had 700MB in under 15mins, so thankyou telstra clear!
seriously people go to telstra clear if you want decent broadband, telecom will always shaft their customers, look at the go large fiasco, glad i got my refund but im more happy to see the back of that rubbish plan and telecom, dont trust their new plan.
http://buttonmasher.co.nz/blog/2009/04/16/crawling-xbox-live-downloads-xbox-nz-responds-telecom-questioned/comment-page-1/#comments
the telecom executive says the peak times are 3 to 10pm (also quoted in the herald) YET the telecom website says the plan will be throttled between 9am and 2 am. thats a big difference
whos kidding who? yet another great big telecom shafting, just as they are now giving new customers double the download limits for the same money the old LOYAL customers are paying for half the data cap. IE: a new customer will pay $59 for 40 Gb and if you signed up last week you will still only get 20GB for the same monthly fee.... surley thats a job for the commerce commission ?
I just signed up 1month ago to this plan as we frequently went over 40gb caps at ADSL2+_ speeds, I have not noticed a big change in speeds from the unlimited plan, as before we get 13Mb/s down and .9Mb/s up. with an upload like that our connection seems really fast and those fingers are consistent. I expected a 13Mb/s connection would get throttled Big Time! but no, speeds still up and our flat downloaded 1.5tb of data in one month!
go telecom, just what new Zealand needs...fair pricing and speeds.
as for shapeing so far P2P only seems greatly effected.
I'm on telecom brothers on telstra and guess who gets better speeds, not me.
I'm also telecom now * big mistake * I got sold on the idea with wireless router - plus big time. Both have failed Hard. I also have a disabled person in the house. Which is the reason for moving wireless. How ever Telecom's agent. Didn't think to ask, if my computer was HAD wireless or was compatible. Felt Kinda ripped of there... AGAIN. After moving from ORCON. where I had good speed, Good Service, and nice ping. Telecom has failed to deliver all of the above. I still have lots of extra cords around.. That I wonted out of the way. im now stuck with telecoms contract. If I had my chance i wish I had stayed At ORCON today... PS thanks for doing me over TELECOM.
yea fair enough they should have asked you. still your problem can be fixed by buying a $40 wireless receiver for each computer
you shld have found out before you signed up
Internet in New Zealand is a laugh specially when you sing up for BIG TIME PLAN like me. It is ridiculous the speed that they offer. At pick up from 10am till 2am I get only 300kbps to 700kbps via p2p. When using http file I can get 6mb if I can use download accelerators. It is a complete missuase of information .
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