I moved to NZ from the UK just over 2 years ago and a bit taken aback by the broadband plans on offer to consumers. All of them had some sort of data cap in place, which limited the amount of data that could be transferred in a month. This was a bit of a strange concept to me, coming from the UK. Worse, the data limit applied for uploaded as well as downloaded data.

I’m sad to say that things haven’t changed all that much since then.

Soon after arriving in the country, we bought a house. As part of getting the new place up and running, I took the opportunity to get a decent internet connection. I did a bit of research and in the end decided to go with TelstraClear DSL (there is no cable available where I live).  Here’s what I know about Telstra’s PDQ MAX plan – admittedly some details may not be correct anymore:

• Doesn’t include a phone line – you’ll need one of those from elsewhere. We had a standard issue job from Telecom at around $40/month + calls.
• Any standard ADSL router hardware is supported.
• Internet is nice and fast with Telstra, even if they have a chequered history when it comes to playing nice (peering) with other network providers.
• 12 month minimum term.
• $10 of toll calls were included in the bill – even though I never used them. There was no way to opt out. This sucked.
• Static IP not available.
• 10Gb of data included in the $69.95 monthly cost – additional data packs added automatically (no data cap).

So total cost (including landline and around 30Gb of data) each month ran at around $150. After a year I decided to shop around to try and find a better deal.

I was hearing good things about Xnet at the time and after some deliberation signed up with them. Here’s the skinny:

• VOIP phone + internet (on VFX Fusion plan) for $69.95 / month. Goodbye Telecom landline!
• Free local and cheap toll calls.
• Needs an approved Linksys ADSL router.
• Acceptable internet performance.
• No minimum term.
• Static IP available for $10/month.
• No data cap enforced, data charged at $1/Gb (up or down) – ‘local’ (Xnet server) traffic is free – this includes VOIP data.

Total monthly bills average around $120.

After a while, internet performance with Xnet went down the toilet. I guess they got oversubscribed.

Tonight, as I write this I am getting 1.51Mbps download speed. Yesterday it was under 1Mbps – on a supposedly unlimited connection. By way of comparison, I was regularly getting over 9Mbps when I was with Telstra.

I raised a support ticket with Xnet the other day about the performance issues I am seeing – here is their response:

I have had a look at your connection and I could not see anything
immediately wrong, so I have listed your issue with our network team to
look into.

Issues like this tend to take longer than usual to resolve, as we can’t
see the cause of the fault, so it requires a more in-depth investigation
into your connection.

It could be something affecting other users as well, so we will be
checking out if other customers have been reporting similar issues.

If you haven’t heard from us within a couple of weeks, feel free to get
back to us to see how we are going with it.

Yeah…. I was hoping for something a little more helpful. This is what spurred me into action again – cheap or not, Xnet have got to go.

So I am back in the market for an ISP. Here’s my wishlist:

• I hardly use my landline, but it’s nice to have one. Only used for local calls and infrequent international calls to the UK. VOIP is an option, but not a reqiurement. No ‘bundled’ tolls included kthx.
• Decent performance. Doesn’t have to be amazing, but it would be nice to be able to watch 2 minute YouTube videos without waiting 10 minutes for them to buffer first, you know?
• Data allowance. If my usage must be metered (and I don’t know of any truly unmetered plans in NZ) I like the ”unlimited” model used by both Telstra and Xnet. I am really not so keen on the “use more than your allowance and we will throttle you back to dialup speeds” model employed by Telecom and Vodafone. This sucks, IMO.

Apart from that I guess I want what everyone in NZ wants – cheap cost, a support line that I can actually get through to when stuff breaks, the moon on a stick, yada yada.

It seems most ISPs are offering the same kind of packages these days, so I have a few to choose from. I just have to work out where I want to compromise.

If you have any strong recommendations – or know who I should avoid – please let me know before it’s too late! Either leave a comment or send me a message on Twitter.