... you get a REALLY sore head! However, sometimes, when enough people complain loud enough, for long enough, and independent Industry Reports say the same thing as the complainers, even a monopoly has to sit up and take notice.
You've probably heard me rant and rave here at the DBB (a lot)
about all sort of things - but the one thing that can make me angry just thinking about it is my DSL charges.Here in New Zealand we have one of the (if not, THE!) finest Telecommunications systems in the world. All the phone lines are new. All the exchanges are new. The data network is all-fibre, and the last mile is copper. New Zealand's pipe to the world (The Southern Cross Cable) has a capacity in excess of 120GB/s!!
But our DSL servcies have been third-world, not first world.
I've been paying $70 a month for a 256/256 symmetrical DSL line, with a 2GB cap per month. I share the line with Contact (another D3er) and so we have beenlimited to 33MB per day - each, in order to stay under 2GB per month. We had to stay under it because excess data traffic is charged at 20 cents per MB!!! ($200/GB!!)
It was actually cheaper here, to have another TWO phone lines installed, get another TWO DSL connections and buy 2 more DSL modems and end up with 766Kb/s symmetrical with 6GB monthly traffic, than use 3GB on my 256 plan! That shows how retarded the system was!
But, on the 8th March Telecom New Zealand are decapping all DSL connections (domestic ones) and beginning to charge by speed rather than data traffic.
My new plan will be 512/512Kb/s for $75 a month. I'll get 10GB/month at the rated speed, and once I hit 10GB or more, the ISP will drop my speed down to 256/256, and once I hit 20GB they'll drop it down to 128/128 - until the next billing period where it'll jack back up to 512/512.
No extra charges at all.
I've been mailing just about every person in New Zealand who would listen, for about 18 months now: members of parliament, telecom, my ISP, lawyers, Consumers Institute, The prime minister, newspapers etc - trying to get some sense out of Telecom as to their insane DSL charging rates.
FINALLY sense has prevailed. I guess Telecom finally managed to figure it out: that the uptake of DSL was at 25% their expected rate 2 years after its introduction - and it was entirely due to the insane charges and pathetic data traffic limits. (Full speed DSL 2+Mb/640Kb started at 400MB a month for $90!!!)
I'm so happy I could just about cry.
So, I'll be setting up a D3 server for the local Antipodeans, and trying to find a P2P app that can work through my firewall (WinMX can't!) *PHEW*
and a few others finally told me it wasnt.
