goodbye orcon
Got a lovely email from my ISP today. Said that shortly the plan I was currently on would be changing price. It seems that despite all the recent rhetoric from Telecom and others about cheaper, faster broadband, that to keep exactly the plan I’m on today next month I’ll need to pay an additional 120%.
I’m definitely switching now.
I don’t want to bag Orcon completely on this: although they’ve chosen to take Telecom’s nickel in the form of some crappy speed upgrades at the cost of higher data charges for them, it’s either that or a high stakes game of refusing the industry’s 800lb gorilla in the hope that some deus ex machina will make things right.
It could happen. Slingshot and ihug have refused, hoping that maybe the Government’s pet regulatosaurus will sort it out. I’ve decided to assist by switching to ihug: as well as having the best plans at the moment I’m thinking that the more market power broadband customers can give the refuseniks the harder it will be for Telecom to throw their weight around. I hope. Maybe resistance is futile.
Anyway, here’s the plan comparison. I’m relatively happy with the $49.95 price point, so that’s the anchor for plan comparison.
| Plans | Current Orcon Plan | New Comparable Plan | Orcon’s Suggested Plan | ihug’s “Light” plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | $49.95 | $109.95 | $49.95 | $49.95 |
| Speed | 256k | 256k | 256k | 2Mb |
| Data Cap | Unlimited | Unlimited | 40Gb | 20Gb1 |
| Uploads count? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Dialup option | $10/mo | $10/mo | $10/mo | $0.01/minute |
| Tolls Bundled? | No | No | Yes2 | Yes2 |
1 10Gb peak / 10Gb offpeak
2 Add $10 for the equivalent plan without tolls.
I’ve never used more than about 12Gb in a month, so the lower data cap on ihug isn’t really an issue (and ihug don’t meter uploads, so the effective data cap is higher than 20Gb anyway). Plus, given that I have to give up TelstraClear for tolls, I need to get a new dialup account for those times away from home: and ihug has the best option for that.
And… I get eight times the speed for the same price. What’s not to like?
stephen
16 March 2006, 08:10 #
Yeah, I’m not too impressed. Because I’m not making such extensice use of Bittorrent as you, I’d be $10 pm better off with the new plan Orcon’s recommended for me – but what I want is more upstream bandwidth. As someone pointed out on the ADSL list yesterday:
“this is the crux of the unbundling issue…
You can’t pay more to get what you wan’t.
You can’t pay more to get higher speed.
You can’t pay more to get lower round trip times.
You can’t pay more to get higher Sustained Information Rates.
You can’t pay more for a Symetrical Service.
In a free/competitive market all of those options would be available if
there is a market demand for them.”
I’d switch from Orcon too if anyone offers a good 512 kbps up plan but since I signed up quite recently the penalties are significant :(
Martha
16 March 2006, 08:54 #
I can’t understand why I can’t use Ihug etc just because we use Telstra for our phone.
Our options are telstra or woosh. Poor me.
And My $50 per month buys me 4gb. Joy.
Alan
16 March 2006, 09:29 #
Stephen: I’ll face the same problem if ihug change their plans too in the next 12 months, so it’s a bit of a risk changing right now.
The broadband situation really is a farce, and it’s entirely down to Telecom. Who really are just operating in the best way for their shreholders, so in some ways it’s not really something you can blame them for either.
The only recourse from that perspective is to join an ISP that doesn’t b.o.g.u. for Telecom and hope that a sufficient market signal is sent.
Martha: what you’ve discovered is another good reason why we never went for Telstra’s homeline service – the broadband options are limited. Have you checked out Gasp though?
Brian
16 March 2006, 09:56 #
Thanks for the market analysis and overview. I really have to upgrade from dialup, and I was wondering which option to go with. Now I know. Thank you very much!
Alan
16 March 2006, 11:09 #
Brian: my analysis is faulty in that ihug could easily turn around and accept the new deal from Telecom as well, which will mean either a rise in prices and/or a restriction in features such as the free uploading.
Maybe Paul Brislen is right: Telecom have won the war already.
Mr Reasonable
16 March 2006, 20:55 #
I switched over to iHug in Feb onto the 20Gb Light plan and since uploads don’t count, I have been nowhere near the cap even using Bit Torrent to the max and sending piccies to Frog Prints by the bucket load. For some reason the 2mbs line seems faster than when I was with Telecom. On-line toll checking and usage meters are most excellent too. I suspect that they will stand their ground as the PR is gold to them right now.
susan
17 March 2006, 02:38 #
We use ihug. Sean says their technical help has been useful and sensible. I can’t say that about their customer services. I felt that after the week or two of attempting to get connected neither ihug, nor Telecom, nor I came off looking good.
Caro
17 March 2006, 09:55 #
once Vodafone releases their home cellular broadband and voip services, Telecom can kiss my a$$ as I”ll jump straight across – assuming the price is right. Infact if woosh offered faster speeds then I’d have ditched Telecom yonks ago. Unfortunately they don’t, so we didn’t.
stephen
17 March 2006, 10:08 #
I emailed Orcon a reply yesterday saying that I found their new plans unsatisfactory, and expressing a wish for 2 mbps down/512kbps up. Today I got a commiserating reply from a help desk person saying that this was the best they could do right now – and adding that he personally really wanted 2mpbs/512kbps too! Which is touching, but ultimately useless :(
Alan
17 March 2006, 12:04 #
It is download speed that’s making me switch; Orcon’s plan changes are just a trigger for doing something about it. Fundamentally, I can can get a plan that’s eight times faster for the same price as I would be paying at Orcon. With a couple of other small tradeoffs and bonuses.
I’m not quite so excited about a faster upload speed, although it would be nice. It does get a bit tedious sending large emails and uploading photos etc etc… but not enough to be a big issue at this point for me.
Back over on Orcon, one of their marketing people has replied to the forum thread discussing the price changes (nice that they can be so upfront) with some more background.
Ben
17 March 2006, 16:03 #
I am still on Telecom’s 10G plan. I have considerde changing to IHugs plan which has a lot more data capacity. I held off over Christmas waiting for Telecom to come up with a decent plan. Their new plan’s are uninteresting. So I have no reason to stay, except for not wanting the hassle of changing. I just wish Telecom would come up with decent plans at a decent price.
Ben
17 March 2006, 17:00 #
I’ve just been on the phone to IHug and Telecom. If I change to IHug and use their toll rates, I can drop my line rental by $5 (because I won’t need Telecoms Anytime plan anymore, as it is basically what IHug tolls are), and I can pay $10 a month less for Internet and will get the 10G+10G plan which is 10G during peak time and 10G during offpeak (midnight – 8am) so up to 20G, plus it is only download, whereas my current 10G is up and down included.
So for $15 a month less I can get something that is better it seems. I feel tempted. I’ll talk to Dee about it tonight.
The only downside I can see is that I will be committed to a 12 month contract or have to pay $99 if I shift house or change provided within 12 months. IHug’s conditions say they can change the speeds and price of their plans with a month notice. Even if they change the plans the 12 month contract remains.
stephen
17 March 2006, 17:39 #
Where upload bandwidth makes a difference is in peer-to-peer, VOIP, website maintenance, working from home over a VPN, and when several users are sharing the same connection. All likely and/or popular in this household.
Ben
17 March 2006, 18:56 #
I’ve done it. I’ve signed up with Ihug. If things go according to plan I will be with Ihiug tolls in a few days, and then internet a few days after that.
I’ll cancel the Anytime telecom plan after I know that I am on Ihug tolls.
Alan
17 March 2006, 18:59 #
Stephen: and come to think of it, the first three of those four I do too. Maybe I’m wrong not condidering upload speed…
Ben: yeah, I’ve changed over now too… but I have a slightly more complex transition involving TelstraClear (my current toll provider) as well. We shall see…
Mr Reasonable
17 March 2006, 19:25 #
Hey Ben,
Our transfer to iHug was very smoothe. The only issue was they had to move us over a day early because Telecom couldn’t do it on the date we wanted!
seeby
5 April 2006, 23:11 #
The user above could always switch to Orcon’s new 2meg plan which is only $39.95 with 4GB of data, then pay an additional $10 for 5GB of data which would end up as 9GB of data for $49.95 (very comparable to the IHUG offering). The added benefit is that if the user doesn’t use much data in a month they’ll save $10, which they wouldn’t do with IHUG
Alan
6 April 2006, 06:49 #
Thanks Seeby. That’s true… but… the clinchers for me were:
1) if they use more than 9Gb they’ll incur another $10;
2) On ihug uploads aren’t counted towards traffic quotas – a plus for people who are considering, or might be using services like Bittorrent;
3) ihug provide a $1/hour dialup account for those times when the user is not at home (other ISPs have only flatrate for $10 or more expensive/minute plans);
4) this particular user prefers ihug’s stance towards Telecom more than Orcon’s.
Lastly, I see that ihug have released some new plans in the last week or so. So my analysis above is now out of date anyway.
ihug’s new light plan, while giving a slightly higher download speed (now 3.5Mb/s) reduces the data quota to 5Gb peak/10Gb offpeak. This makes it comparable to Orcon’s “Surfer Medium” plan, although for the reasons above, I feel ihug’s plan is still slightly better.
Patrick
7 April 2006, 01:06 #
ihug’s stance towards telecom is also a big part of why I’d love to keep giving them money.
Sadly leaving the country makes this slightly impractical.
Alan
26 May 2006, 12:16 #
And today, ihug have announced that uploads start to count towards quota from 1 July 2006, thereby removing one of ihug’s advantages over the others.
Bother.
PissedOff
1 June 2007, 12:19 #
I’m on one of orcons full speed plans [not the flat rate one] and right now im struggling to get 20k/s on a torrent with over 800 seeds
happy days
catherine
16 November 2009, 11:48 #
Hi Allan
I am thinking about changing internet providers
at the moment I have a vodem,but find it hard to
find out about all the different plans available.would anyone know a webpage to do this
with up to date info?
I also live in a rural area.
THank You
Alan
16 November 2009, 12:11 #
Catherine: Consumer has a page here (also, I’ve deleted your email from your comment to help avoid it getting (more) spammed).