[nzlug] ./ - broadband isn't,broadband unless its at least 2Mbps

[David McNab]

On Sun, 2007-05-20 at 11:55 +1200, Robin Sheat wrote:
> On Sunday 20 May 2007 05:06:07 Mathew Carley wrote:
> > I wish someone would say that to Telecom! Isn't broadband in NZ consider to
> > be 256kbps or more?

In New Zealand in 2007, 'broadband' can mean as little as 0.5kb/s,
depending on one's ISP, time of day and TCP/IP port. I'm on orcon here,
and bang on 5pm on weekdays, my torrents slow from around 100kB/s down
to 0.25kB/s. 

Then there's the http connections, even to sites like TradeMe, that seem
to get routed off through carrier pigeons in the Kalahari Desert. Quite
often, it takes 3 or more retries before one's packets from Firefox
actually get to the TradeMe server.

> [Xtra's] existing plans are still ludicrously expensive... 2c/Mb excess usage?!)

They need to charge that to pay for the TV ads