Hi,

Just wondering what current opinion was on the best broadband (fibre or
4G) with landline options are.

At the moment we have 4G broadband with Vodafone and landline with
Spark. Combining the two would save nearly half the cost. I'm not sure
if landline over the 4G broadband is good enough - mobile phone voice
call quality is almost always horrific, so perhaps via fibre is better.
I'm also not sure what the landline phonecall costs are. Current copper-landline calls are of course free unless it's a toll call or an international call (which we have a low-price deal for, so cheap when
calling the UK).

Although Orcon is now owned by awful Slingshot, so I'm not sure if
they're still considered one of the best providers as they were some
years ago. They are offering an unlimited fibre900 + landline plan for
just $89.95 per month, which seems like a great deal.

Spark's technically-unlimited (they can change your plan at *their*
choice!) fibre900 + landline plan costs $140 per month. Spark would
probably make the current landline easier to add to a new broadband
plan.

Vodafone's unlimited fibre900 + landline plan is currently discounted
to $113 per month. I do have a bit of an issue with Vodafone *yet*
*again* screwing me over - my current 4G plan only has 120GB limit, and
they've recently introduced a 300GB plan for the same price, but
haven't bothered to tell / move customers using the old plan!!

Thanks

Bungle Bob.

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On 2/02/2020 5:05 pm, BungleBob wrote:

Hi,

Just wondering what current opinion was on the best broadband (fibre or 4G) with landline options are.

At the moment we have 4G broadband with Vodafone and landline with Spark. Combining the two would
save nearly half the cost. I'm not sure if landline over the 4G broadband is good enough - mobile
phone voice call quality is almost always horrific, so perhaps via fibre is better. I'm also not
sure what the landline phonecall costs are. Current copper-landline calls are of course free unless
it's a toll call or an international call (which we have a low-price deal for, so cheap when
calling the UK).

Although Orcon is now owned by awful Slingshot, so I'm not sure if they're still considered one of
the best providers as they were some years ago. They are offering an unlimited fibre900 + landline
plan for just $89.95 per month, which seems like a great deal.

Spark's technically-unlimited (they can change your plan at *their* choice!) fibre900 + landline
plan costs $140 per month. Spark would probably make the current landline easier to add to a new
broadband plan.

Vodafone's unlimited fibre900 + landline plan is currently discounted to $113 per month. I do have
a bit of an issue with Vodafone *yet* *again* screwing me over - my current 4G plan only has 120GB
limit, and they've recently introduced a 300GB plan for the same price, but haven't bothered to
tell / move customers using the old plan!!

Thanks

Bungle Bob.

I used to be with Actrix but they were bought out by Voyager (ex-Orcon founder Seeby Woodhouse's
'new' ISP) so ... now I'm with Voyager. <shrug>

I've been happy enough with them, I have an unlimited fibre + Landline (VOIP) package that's $99.95
a month. (I'm a 'legacy' so get mine for $89.95 / month, what I was paying Actrix.) $99.95 / month
includes renting an Huawei router which they insist on if you're using their VOIP service. Or you
can save $10 a month and buy the router outright for $225. There is no minimum term.

<https://voyager.nz/home>

Connection speeds never seem to suffer and pings are good for gaming. Also I've had zero internet
outages since I've been with them. Might pay to give them a look over before making your decision.
I hardly even use the 'landline' though so you'll have to check on call prices etc.

Last I heard Orcon slows down a lot during peak times but hopefully someone might give you more
up-to-date info. I'd be interested to know how they're performing myself as a 900Mbps download
speed for the same as I'm paying now would be nice. However I wouldn't want to commit to a 12 month
plan only to find it slows right down during peak times - as usual they quote *up to* 900 Mbps. Try
arguing once you're signed up if it's only 200 or something in reality, dropping to a crawl during
peak demand time - I've been down that road.

Cheers and good luck!
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy little classification
in the DSM"
David Melville

This is not an email and hasn't been checked for viruses by any half-arsed self-promoting software.

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On Sun, 2 Feb 2020 17:05:49 +1300, BungleBob <bunglebob@thejungle.com>
wrote:

Hi,

Just wondering what current opinion was on the best broadband (fibre or
4G) with landline options are.

My first recommendation is that you consider joining Geekzone - an
NZ-based website that fundamentally replaces nz.comp and has a much
wider catchment. In particular there are the geekzone forums:

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp

The New Zealand Broadband forum has many existing posts and you can
post your question there.

At the moment we have 4G broadband with Vodafone and landline with
Spark. Combining the two would save nearly half the cost. I'm not sure
if landline over the 4G broadband is good enough - mobile phone voice
call quality is almost always horrific, so perhaps via fibre is better.
I'm also not sure what the landline phonecall costs are. Current >copper-landline calls are of course free unless it's a toll call or an >international call (which we have a low-price deal for, so cheap when
calling the UK).

Although Orcon is now owned by awful Slingshot,

Not quite correct. Orcon and Slingshot are mow owned by Vocus and
customer service has improved greatly in recent years. Take a look in
the Geekzone Orcon/Iserve forum to get a feel for what people are
saying. Note that for each forum, the ISPs generally have techs who
monitor and respond, so these forums are another support channel for
each ISP.

so I'm not sure if
they're still considered one of the best providers as they were some
years ago. They are offering an unlimited fibre900 + landline plan for
just $89.95 per month, which seems like a great deal.

I have been on Orcon now for over a decade. I have moved to a
location that gets only ADSL (actually VDSL) but I enjoyed Fibre for
about 6 months before moving. I never observed any performance
degradation at any time although on Fibre I was on a 100/20 plan. The
Geekzone Orcon forum has a lively and frequently critical audience and
I don't recall this subject being raised - certainly not in the last
few years.

I have an Orcon 'landline' and it works well with good call quality
(both Fibre and VDSL services) using the Orcon-supplied Netcon NF18ACV
router.

Spark's technically-unlimited (they can change your plan at *their*
choice!) fibre900 + landline plan costs $140 per month. Spark would
probably make the current landline easier to add to a new broadband
plan.

Vodafone's unlimited fibre900 + landline plan is currently discounted
to $113 per month. I do have a bit of an issue with Vodafone *yet*
*again* screwing me over - my current 4G plan only has 120GB limit, and >they've recently introduced a 300GB plan for the same price, but
haven't bothered to tell / move customers using the old plan!!

Thanks

Bungle Bob.

--
Crash McBash

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