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I've just moved from the center of Havelock North, down TeMata Road towards the Cheese factory near one of the new Telecom Cabinets. I'm now on ADSL2+, which is the new Telecom Network where your home copper connection hangs off the new Cabinets onto Telecom's Fibre backbone.
Up until this year my entire home broadband experience was on a TelstraSaturn cable. It's always felt snappy. Being in Havelock for 6 months I had to use JetStream for the first time. It was awful. Hair tearing out awful. For big chunks of the day the web was unusable. No wonder people complain about broadband.
ADSL 2+ feels a lot more like my cable experience. It still feels bursty - after a small delay pages load with a snap, but it is much, much better than the old JetStream ADSL.
I've also got an AirNet connection at Waimarama delivered through two radio hops. That's the best home Internet I've experienced in New Zealand. It feels very symmetrical and surprisingly low latency.
Telecom customer service on 123 is very good. Twice now I've set up a new Telecom connection and it could not have been easier. Complete contrast to 018 in the Philippines where the operators, understandably, have no idea of proximity and seem to struggle with my accent. No Pipi's cafe in Havelock is not near the Coromandel.
Anyone else on ADSL2+ yet?
Update: Tested at 15MB up and 0.78MB down. Smoking! Ping time slow at 200ms.
13:59, 21.09.2009
Cheers for the plug Rod! What sort of speeds are you seeing on speedtest.net?
14:28, 21.09.2009
At Mogul, our Telecom connection is showing as 5.60Mbps download and 0.60Mbps upload with a ping of 65ms. Can anyone beat that??
15:49, 21.09.2009
At our offices in Napier we are getting 6.12Mbps download and 0.63Mbps upload. Are there any major infrastructural differences between Napier, Hastings, Havelock North? What sort of speed should be acceptable for HB?
16:02, 21.09.2009
We are at download of 4.08, upload of 1.02 and ping of 17ms – in Havelock North via Airnet (rating 4.1 out of 5)
16:21, 21.09.2009
Updated post. 15MB up and 0.78MB down. Smoking! Ping time slow at 200ms
11:53, 23.09.2009
Arghh!!!!!! So after 2 days Telecom turned off our phone and broadband for some reason and was due to have them up and running again by 4:00 yesterday. Didn’t happen.
This morning the phone is working. No Broadband.
Called the help center. “Your broadband will be connected by 5pm tomorrow, we are waiting for some ports to open up.”
Crap!
21:09, 23.09.2009
For those who are interested and are wondering if or when ADSL2+ is going to hit them, you can check out the following service availability tool: http://telecomwholesale.co.nz/maps
Once you have completed your search, under “Exchange Details” you will see “Show cabinets within exchange” which will give you an even clearer timeframe of Telecoms upgrade plan.
14:52, 24.09.2009
My office is in the Hastings CBD. Just now I got 7.8Mbps down, 47ms ping, 670Kbps up. (Telecom ADSL2+).
08:17, 24.10.2009
ADSL2+ by September 2011 – Whoo Hoo! Can’t get Airnet either due to a line of Council owned trees on top of a hill.
With ADSL we get around 4mbps down and about 500kbps up. Would love something faster.
10:36, 26.10.2009
Top of Bluff Hill – ADSL 2+, 2.34Mbps down, 59ms ping, 0.76Mbps up – I can almost see the exchange from here – can anyone else on the hill tell me whether this is reasonable?
14:47, 26.10.2009
If that is ADSL2 speeds then it is very unreasonable.
16:41, 04.11.2009
Download Speed: 6439 kbps (804.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 709 kbps (88.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 63 ms
14:35, 01.03.2010
DSL seems to now be way worse than what it was a few months ago. Over the last few weeks Skype is really choppy and video almost unusable. I re-ran speed test and got 0.8MB down (compared to 15.17 earlier) and 0.66MB up. That’s a fraction of what I used to get!
Anyone else noticing this?
Roll on fibre.
08:12, 20.03.2010
Just tested Waimarama over Airnet. 4.54Mbs down and 1.01Mbs up. Better than right in Havelock North.
22:40, 29.03.2010
Hmmm. At 9:00 at night I was getting .6/.4. Unusable. Later at 10:35 back to 15/.79.
It seems contention just kills ADSL performance.
23:02, 19.11.2010
Wow 19.7Mbs down and 1.4Mbs up.
Just chopped over to ADSL2+ at the office on Emerson St in Napier (CBD), from our older Airnet wireless connection (4Mbs down and 1Mbs up). Still with Airnet – service is great.
16:12, 24.11.2010
19Mbps down and 1Mbps up. Mogul is the first business in Havelock North to access ultrafast broadband. Thanks Airnet!
21:38, 24.11.2010
I’m at 15.17 up and .98 down in camberley
21:39, 24.11.2010
whoops I’ve got my ups and downs around the wrong way – that’s how fast i am!