Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 13 December 2001

Note: the comments below are the unabridged submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.
 

From: Peter Belt
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: JetStart

Telecom can't have it both ways.  On the one hand they disallow "servers"
as per their Terms and Conditions, but they are at the very same time
pushing you into MSN Messenger, which - you guessed it, is a server
application as well.  In my opinion this won't stand up in court.
Jetstart is a flat fee for no volume charging.  T&C state no servers, but
Xtra aka MSN want you to run MSN Messenger - promoting it heavily.  This
is inconsistent.  What will it be Telecom?  Only pre-approved applications
can be run?




From: Simon
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: DSL pricing

90% of the reason that DSL costs so much is the cost of
International bandwidth. Right now pricing is such that one
128k customer can use over $400 of bandwidth each month if
they use their link continiously. At $30 or so per customer
you need a lot of low use users to compensate for one
high-use one.

The problem is that Southern Cross is still too expensive
(even if you purchase large amounts on multi-year contracts)
for ISPs to make money. The Southern Cross cable has a
capacity (right now) of over 60Gb/s , the total bandwidth
usage of all New Zealand Internet users is only 1 or 2 Gb/s
and total phone useage is probally not much higher.

Public releases by Southern Cross seem to gloss over these
figures, I'm sure Xtra and all the other ISPs would love to
offer flat-rate 512k DSL for $30 per month, the sole reason
they can't is they cost of International bandwidth.




From: Joe Dydowicz
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Telecom Jet Stream

>Couldn't they effectively control the problem by using
>asymetric data rates and limiting the outbound stream to
>33.6Kbps just like a dial-up modem? If they did this then
>a JetStart user would represent no more of a bandwidth
>burden than any other computer running P2P over dialup.

What about the users of Jetstart that use it mostly for the
latentcy factor of a 128k up and downstream? Limiting the
upstream to them would make it no more than a glorified
modem. Considering the pitiful offerings for any
other "higher than a dial-up modem" (We will not go into
details of my latest fiasco of trying to find
something 'better') in the Auckland region at least, at a
comparable price, its better than nothing.

As usual, the NZ Net Users that want something a bit more
than a normal 56K modem connection (more than 5.6K
downsteam/3.3k upsteam) at a reasonable price has to stand
around with one hand grabbing their ankle and the other on
thier wallet saying "do it to me again!".

Maybe Telecom should realize what the meaning of "flat
rate" means to the world outside their corporate offices..




From: Hank
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Telecom

Is it Telecom, or Teleban? Grateful we don't have to put up
with same in the U.S.. Our DSL just gets better and better.
Guess competion is the great motivator here. My DSL was
$39.95(US) per month and the modem was free. Worth every
penny!




From: Ian
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Coverage...

For those lucky enough to live in Wellington we have an ISP
down here who offers cable access as an alternative to
Telecom / Xtra...

For about $75-80 per month, 128k upstream, 256k downstream,
5Gigabytes of traffic per month, fixed IP's, server
allowed, only one outage I've seen in the last 8 - 9 months.

Its all coverage I guess...



From: Richard Gray
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: P2P on Jetstart

Your article on the proposed ban on P2P services on
jetstart is slightly misleading.  My understanding is that
the ban is being imposed by XTRA rather than Telecom (and I
realise that they are fairly interchangeable).  If you're
using the Jetstart service with another ISP then this
should be a non issue.

From the sound of things on nz.comp and the nz adsl mailing
list, XTRA is the wrong isp to be with if you want optimal
performance from your jetstart anyway.

Aardvark Responds
You're right -- I have equated Telecom with XTRA, simply
because their profits both eventually go into the same pot.

However, the point you make is a valid one and prospective
JetStart users would be well advised to shop around for an
ISP which offers less onerous restrictions as to its use.