Off Peak Period Change

[ForumAdmin]

These are increasingly difficult times and each day, it seems, presents yet another new 'challenge'.

Exetel has offered 'free' downloads in an off peak period for ADSL customers since March 1st 2004.

The actual period has varied, on average one and a half times per year, over the past six years as times, circumstances and carrier and other pricing changes. Circumstances have again materially changed and require us to modify the off peak period to ensure that the network that supports residential users remains as it has been planned to operate – without congestion at all times and without any ‘throttling’ of P2P or other traffic types.

We will change the off peak period from 1st June 2010:

from: the current 12 midnight to 12 noon or 2 am to 2 pm periods

to: 2 am to 8 am

This is a significant reduction on first sight but it still means that anyone who knows how to use a down load scheduler can down load, depending on their actual line speed, a very large amount of data in any month.

Replacing the 'lost' bonus download time Exetel ADSL users will be given the option of getting a 'free' wireless service:

Monthly Access Charge: $0.00

PAYU Downloads: 1.75 cents per mbyte

Modem if required: $50.00

Contract Length: 12 months

Current customers can transfer to this plan via the User Facilities from June 1st 2010

[nihonjin]

Whilst im disappointed to have the off-peak hours reduced by so much i do understand that you need to do what is necessary to stay in business. Despite suggesting that we can still download large amounts of data in the reduced hours its not always about sucking down as much bandwidth as we can but rather it was good to know that in the morning you can still download something even something large from time to time knowing it was in off peak up until midday. If there was anyway possible to keep the off peak period to include part of the day time it would be great.

Finally the wireless option that has a min spend each month defeats not having a monthly fee as i would have thought that many users with adsl would only be using wireless at times they are away from their internet ie holidays, travel etc In these situations there may be many months where no use is necessary. Is there anyway to remove the min spend each month that way it truly is a backup service that can be used when needed and you only have to pay for what you use and not pay a monthly min spend.

thanks.

[ForumAdmin]

Finally the wireless option that has a min spend each month defeats not having a monthly fee as i would have thought that many users with adsl would only be using wireless at times they are away from their internet ie holidays, travel etc In these situations there may be many months where no use is necessary. Is there anyway to remove the min spend each month that way it truly is a backup service that can be used when needed and you only have to pay for what you use and not pay a monthly min spend.

thanks.

I would think that's a very tough thing to do but it's still being considered.

[ForumAdmin]

Whilst im disappointed to have the off-peak hours reduced by so much i do understand that you need to do what is necessary to stay in business. Despite suggesting that we can still download large amounts of data in the reduced hours its not always about sucking down as much bandwidth as we can but rather it was good to know that in the morning you can still download something even something large from time to time knowing it was in off peak up until midday. If there was anyway possible to keep the off peak period to include part of the day time it would be great.
thanks.

What would you think would be a "reasonable" amount?

[nihonjin]

I have posted in the other thread saying that if the free wireless option is at the cost of reduced off peak i would think that most would prefer to pay for the wireless and keep the off peak as it is. If this is not an option then perhaps extend off peak up until 10am or something like close to this.

[ForumAdmin]

I have posted in the other thread saying that if the free wireless option is at the cost of reduced off peak i would think that most would prefer to pay for the wireless and keep the off peak as it is. If this is not an option then perhaps extend off peak up until 10am or something like close to this.

I actually asked what a 'reasonable' amount of down load was from 8 am to 12 noon was?

[Cexitime]

Are those under contract going to be affected?

[leithant]

I'm very disappointed at such a drastic change. I am still on the 2am-2pm arrangement and it's very convenient. Sure for some things it's easy to use a scheduler, but for others it is not at all. I believe it has been a bad mistake offering unlimited off peak data, as previously I thought even 50-60 gig was too much in the interests of network performance.
If exetel were to keep this proposed off-peak period ( although I presume it will change in another 7 days!!!) I would really expect to see a comprehensive unmetered mirror site to compensate.
I realize you are having network issues ATM, (It's all too obvious at my end) but I think your massive off peak data allowances are what are attracting leechers and causes your network congestion.

[Ravenous]

Edit: Plans at a glance!

We will change the off peak period again from 1st June 2010:

from: the current 12 midnight to 12 noon or 2 am to 2 pm period

to: 2 am to 8 am

This is a significant reduction on first sight but it still means that anyone who knows how to use a scheduler can down load, depending on their actual line speed, a very large amount of data in any month.

This is very disappointing <PERIOD>

I like to utilse the morning period to download steam games and catch-up with i-view, channel 7, etc. I still haven't found a intuitive way of auto-scheduling steam downloads. I usually go through one or two a month. Some are quite large > 5 GB. Being on the 12 GB 1500 ADSL plan this represents a significant loss of value and convenience.

[ForumAdmin]

This is very disappointing <PERIOD>

I like to utilse the morning period to download steam games and catch-up with i-view, channel 7, etc. I still haven't found a intuitive way of auto-scheduling steam downloads. I usually go through one or two a month. Some are quite large > 5 GB. Being on the 12 GB 1500 ADSL plan this represents a significant loss of value and convenience.

How hard/inconvenient is it to use a daily six hour period to download whatever bulk files you need?

[Ravenous]

How hard/inconvenient is it to use a daily six hour period to download whatever bulk files you need?

I apologise, I try to describe it clearer.

Anything I have no other choice but to 'manually' download that is of 'Bulk' (e.g. Steam Games), I do after Breakfast, usually on the weekend after 7 am. Some software like Steam do not integrate with automatic download schedulers, hence the need to initiate the transfer manually.

It is fine I will need to adapt, perhaps drop things like steam altoghether.

Auto-scheduling anything else in the '6 -hour period' is no problem.

I hope this makes a bit more sense regarding the convenience/value of the 8 am - 12noon period.

[ozkidzez91]

I'm really disappointed, as this new period of time is awful. At my house, people getting ready for school/work use the internet to check morning emails and whatever from around 6am-8am daily. To get around slowing the net down on them I schedule downloads from midnight to 6am, then 8am to midday. This essentially means that in the new offpeak period I'll be getting about 4 hours usage. Please pick a better time period if you're going to do this.

EDIT: If we don't change plans, will we keep our current offpeak period? If so, I'm not changing for the foreseeable future. Also, seriously, I've NEVER noticed slowdowns at any time of day EVER with Exetel. Doesn't seem all that fair to be honest.

[Ravenous]

Are those under contract going to be affected?

Hi Cexitime,

I suspect people under contract are affected as the Acceptable Use Policy States:

9.1) c) Exetel may at any time change or cancel the time periods during which downloads by a Customer will not be counted towards the quota for downloads under the Customer's Service plan or modify the amount of downloads permitted for a Customer so long as the Customer's Service plan is complied with.

All agree to comply with the AUP upon entering the contract term.

Cheers.

[dannyg1985]

Being on a 1.5MB connection I cannot see myself downloading a lot of data between these new proposed times. And to justify it with free wireless will just not cut it.
The iPhone plans and tethering has this option sorted for me.

I was happy with the cutback from 2am-12pm, and use schedulers for this purpose. i am a heavy user on both p2p and usenet and by changing these plans no longer suits me as a customer.

I could almost live with the period from 2am-10am, but the proposed hours are just appalling. Have been an exetel customer for almost 5 years now, and not that Exetel will mind so much in losing a customer, seems like I am forced to jump ship.

Good luck with the new Off Peak period.

[ozkidzez91]

Are those under contract going to be affected?

Hi Cexitime,

I suspect people under contract are affected as the Acceptable Use Policy States:

9.1) c) Exetel may at any time change or cancel the time periods during which downloads by a Customer will not be counted towards the quota for downloads under the Customer's Service plan or modify the amount of downloads permitted for a Customer so long as the Customer's Service plan is complied with.

All agree to comply with the AUP upon entering the contract term.

Cheers.

Does "uncharged" time periods include offpeak in all plans or only those that are listed as uncharged/no limit?