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How Many Sleeps Till We Get Real Bandwidth?
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25 September 2000 Edition
Previous Edition
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NZ's Net users should soon be feeling the excitement that little kids feel as
Christmas draws near. The kind of thrill that makes it hard to get to sleep
at night and wakes you just as the sun rises each morning.
Why?
Because in just a few short months, New Zealand's international bandwidth
shortage should be relieved and, with any luck, web-surfing speeds and downloads
will improve significantly.
The commissioning of the big fat digital pipe that is The Southern Cross
cable should also see some improvement broadband access prices with, one
might hope, even the prospect of flat-rate ADSL from Telecom.
Readers Say
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Have Your Say
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As I mentioned earlier this month, the massive increase in bandwidth, combined
with a sagging Kiwi dollar could also make NZ's web-hosting services
internationally competitive.
Start scratching the days off your calendar and if you don't have a broadband
Internet connection then order one today.
The key players in NZ's local broadband market are
ihug's Ultra,
Telecom's Jetstream,
Saturn,
Chello and
Walker Wireless.
Have I missed any?
The Great Kiwi News Site
Thanks to all those who responded to my call for comments last week in the
area of local news sites.
It seems that virtually nobody considered
4 NZoom.com
to be a real player. Too little news delivered too late was the general concensus.
4 The NZ Herald
received more favourable comments, most commenting that it was usually
up-to-date, some even admitting that they no longer buy the print edition
because the online version is so comprehensive.
4 Stuff.co.nz
scored well for its regional coverage -- although many of those who felt this
was a good thing also complained that it could still be better. Some people
did suggest that the Infotech section of Stuff was too heavily biased towards
carrying press-releases rather than stories.
Of course I forgot to mention
4 XTRA
which now has a fairly comprehensive news section. This oversight was remedied
by a number of readers who were kind enough to remind me and advise that they
considered it pretty good.
I also omitted to mention
4 NewsRoom
and was also suitably chastised for doing so.
Of we can't forget 4 Scoop
either. Both of these sites are an excellent local news resource with plenty of
coverage of political events.
It's not surprising that nobody put in a good word for
4
TV3's awful site as a decent news source.
After enjoying a "coming soon" page for so long, I was kind of hoping that the
TV3 site, when it launched, would be something really good. Unfortunately
it's a real disapointment and the news section is an ergonomic mess.
It would appear that when it comes to news, we're spoilt for choice -- although
some of the choices are less than perfect.
You Saw It Here First
IDG's website carries a story this morning in which they report that the
Commerce Commission is eyeing the SkyBiz business scheme with some
concern.
It's good to see that the word is finally getting around after Aardvark
exposed this dubious business in the
August 9th edition.
Remember -- you saw it here first ;-)
As always, your feedback is welcomed.
