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With broadband now costing only $19.95 per month (only
$10 more than unlimited dial up) many people find themselves asking the
question: ‘Should I upgrade from dial-up to broadband?’ This article is
designed to address this question while providing information and links
to broadband internet service providers in New Zealand, in order to
steer you in the right direction while allowing you to select the
cheapest broadband provider for your needs.
Contents:
What is broadband?
Why choose broadband internet over dial-up and wireless internet?
What is
the cheapest ISP plan for me?
What speed do I need?
ISP special features/add-ons to lookout for?
Main Broadband providers are in New Zealand
What is broadband?
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to "broadband
Internet" or just "broadband", is a high data-transmission rate internet
connection. DSL and cable modem, both popular consumer broadband
technologies, are typically capable of transmitting 256 kilobits per
second or more, starting at approximately four times the speed of a
modem using a standard digital telephone line. Broadband is a technology
which allows both data and voice signals to be sent through the copper
wires simultaneously and hence you are able to use both the phones and
the internet at the same time. Broadband is generally setup in such a
way that it is connected to the internet at all times, but when a
connection is required it is a lot faster than a dial-up connection.
Why choose broadband internet over dial-up and wireless internet?
There are several advantages that broadband internet
offers over dial-up and wireless internet access.
I will firstly look at dial-up internet. The fastest
data rate that is supported by the New Zealand phone lines using a
dial-up modem is: 56 kbit/s. Broadband on the other hand offers up to
3.5mb/s, (3500 kbit/s) which is about 63 times as fast as dial-up.
On average dial-up takes 20 seconds to connect to the
internet as apposed to broadband taking a matter of seconds. Once
connected broadband can be left online while phone calls can still be
received. Broadband is also much more stable. If you have used dial-up
before you will most likely have been randomly disconnected from the
internet a few times. Those of you lucky ones may have had this happen
during the last few minutes of a Trademe
auction! This can often be a deciding factor when it comes to making the
decision to upgrade to broadband.
Wireless offers the immediate advantage of not having to
have any cables attached to your laptop or desktop computer. However
wireless often has more expensive setup fees, and bandwidth (how much
data transferred to your computer per month) costs are generally much
higher. A good alternative to pure wireless is buying broadband internet
and having a wireless router setup. This basically allows various
computers throughout your house to be connected to the internet
wirelessly while maintaining the cheaper bandwidth costs in which
broadband providers offer.
What is the cheapest ISP plan for me?
The answer to this question can be answered simply by
calculating the amount of internet related tasks you will carry out
throughout one month. Generally if you just use the internet to check
your emails and browse the occasional website then a lower bandwidth
plan is best for you. When this article was written the cheapest
broadband ISP in NZ currently cost $29.95 without toll calls being made
through the ISP or $19.95 with tolls which gives you 200 megabytes per
month. For those of you who browse the web often, download quite a few
images or send many emails with attachments will require something a
little bigger – 1000 megabytes. This will cost you about $30 with tools
or $40 without tolls. Finally those who regularly use the internet for
online games, downloading music, movie trailers and music videos etc
will need a larger plan such as a 5-10 gigabytes (5000 – 1000
megabytes). This will cost you between $40 and $150. If you are unsure
you can always go for a lower plan and if you run out of bandwidth you
can simply upgrade your plan at a later date. However if you don’t with
to be charged extra for using over your bandwidth limit make sure that
you are on a plan which throttles your speed rather than charging you
for each extra megabyte used (this adds up and can be quite a shock at
the end of the month!) Visit
here for a table which shows the average usage each specific
internet task requires.
What speed do I
need?
Broadband Speeds currently range from 256 kbit/s to
about 3500 kbit/s. Again speeds are best adjusted to your current needs
by looking at what you use the internet for. If your main tasks are
browsing the web and sending emails, then 256kbit/s is completely fine.
For watching videos online a faster connection is recommended. A faster
broadband connection will cut down the average time a song takes to
download but will cost a little more. There are many factors which may
affect the speed of your New Zealand broadband connection which can mean
that the speed you are paying for can’t be reached. For more information
on this Visit - http://jetstream.xtra.co.nz/chm/0,8763,204576-203090,00.html
ISP special
features/add-ons to lookout for?
Different NZ broadband providers offer different special
addons to their broadband service. This can include your own person web
space (eg
www.yourisp.co.nz/yourname), an email account, spam filtering,
content filtering, and security software. If you wish to use one of
these add-ons make sure that the broadband ISP supports them as many do
not. For example Maxnet provides
offensive content filtering, where others may not.
Main Broadband
providers are in New Zealand
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