I like to spread the love around the telcos – the other day I posted about the cool Vodafone forum offering that really answer the needs of their own particular community of interest. Today it’s the turn of Telecom to get some bouquets.

Telecom have just reviewed all their broadband offerings and I have to say the results are pretty appealing – basically the full line speed (unconstrained both up and down) options have come down a price point or two, while the data caps have increased across the board – sure we could focus on locations with better broadband than us but I prefer to congratulate on progress and encourage further movement.

As the NBR details;

the $99 max/max 30GB Advance plan and $149 max/max 40GB UltraPro plans have been killed off, their position in Telecom Broadband’s foodchain now surplanted (sic) by a revamped $79.95 Pro plan that offers max/max speed and a 40GB cap.

Max/max speed now kicks in on Telecom Broadband’s $49.95 plan, formerly, constrained to 128Mbit/s upload. Your $49.95 now also buys you double the data, with the capped expanded to 10GB.

A $29.95 plan will remain for those willing to live without max/max speed, with its data cap doubled to 500MB.

Telecom Broadband’s business plans – all already max/max – have also had their data caps expanded. Its entry-level $59.95 plan has had its cap raised from 3GB to 15GB; it’s $79.95 more than doubles to 40GB, and its $109.95 plan doubles to 60GB.

None of the plans offer naked DSL; all are tied to a Telecom landline. Those on $99 and $149 Telecom Broadband plans will be automatically put on a $79.95 Pro plan by Telecom Broadband.

What’s cool to see is that Telecom are, in part, paying for these price drops through increased usage of local caching of files through Akamai – it’s a good, fast and efficient temporary solution to the constraints of limited international bandwidth.

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

4 Comments
  • Cool! But I really don’t like that words”issues”. It doesn’t really say much does it? Do Enterprise folks still stare at their shoes? Maybe it’s the optimist in me seeing everything as an opportunity to learn and make a positive change 🙂

    Some thoughts, are you expected to 1) try to define / explain it, 2) present Nicholas Carr’s “Big Switch” story, or 3) evaluate the impact of the opportunity relative to a) running their business, b) transforming their business, or c) growing their business? I think a lot of use cases could help create compelling and useful stories.

  • @Steve

    Yes to #1
    Yes to #3a and #3b

    Always keen to hear of good case studies you’d suggest

  • The greatest value is not related to the stories of delivering “software as a service” but instead how this new type of net-native “software” is transforming the communication and coordination among people. For example, ignoring the big showcased companies, how many business people are using Google Docs because it’s cheaper? At this point having spent the capital with Microsoft they are both effectively a similar price. So if cheaper is not driving force behind the rapid take-up…

    Okay collapsing the seemingly dysfunctional software stack doesn’t hurt either, but they’ve been hearing that for over ten years now.

    Perhaps a couple of those “issues” you mentioned are that software categories do not have the same return e.g. customer facing, collaboration and infrastructure are high, ERP / Desktop not so much, historically. I’m sure you’ve already got this one loaded.

    remark to #1 withheld

    It’s been at least 15 years since we’ve had such an opportunity to create significant value in the IT sector for our customers. There is much to teach, learn and innovate around; don’t let them miss this one!

  • New plans are great – and i’ve noticed the way that Telecom is marketing it’s new bundled home package (total home) is much simpler than previous http://www.telecom.co.nz/totalhome?pid=int014

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