Off Peak Period Change

[ForumAdmin]

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

For customers too, who apparently have to make constant decisions about the make-up of their internet service.

While I acknowledge that the Exetel network appears to be struggling to maintain good speeds at the moment and something needs to be done, surely this situation was predictable given the move to unlimited off-peak? Why didn't Exetel foresee this? Why didn't Exetel maintain a fixed cap on off-peak downloads or the three times average that was in place before? No-one wants an off-peak period if it cannot be used. Already the "window" during off-peak in which good speeds are obtainable is fairly small, maybe a few hours around 5am to 7am. I assume that window will disappear completely after everyone is crammed into a smaller period.

Also how does this resolve the slowness in peak times which are going to be under even more stress as people stop using off-peak and move to peak instead?

The "free" wireless service is of no use to me and I don't see it as compensating anything.

Could you point me to the MRTG report that shows your link(s) being under-subscribed?

The only minor issue at the moment (at least that I can see) is the AAPT back haul which is constantly being 'deferred' by AAPT and was due to be upgraded over 4 weeks ago - currently promised for 5 days time.

[Ravenous]

PAYU Downloads: $1.75 per mb

Surely a typo here? Originally is was $0.0175 (1.75 cents) per mb

[david.mcauley]

extemely dissatisfied!!

I am lost for words, I am paying $65 for 6gig peak that now has to last me an extra 6 hours a day.

Or you could change to a plan that has more than 6 gb peak.

Givin the Circumstances in which i am already feeling ripped off, being in the first month of a 12 month contract, i hope that was a joke.


I wouldnt need to pay $10 to change plans and than another $10 a month if Exetel cut the off peak period by a more reasonable amount , I would have still been happy with 9 hours. 6 hours is too little.

please wave cancellation fees.

[ForumAdmin]

PAYU Downloads: $1.75 per mb

Surely a typo here? Originally is was $0.0175 (1.75 cents) per mb

Thank you - it's been corrected.

[ajarm1]

There is no change of value - unless you download an amount that cannot be accommodated in 180 hours a month.....very hard to actually do that.

That seriously depends on the system you're using to download (both the protocol and the computer system), as well as your connection.

For me I have a low powered (Celeron 600) system that I use for a file server, which while it's great for saving on electricity it does mean that it's not very good at processing downloads (particularly for a protocol like usenet) which means that while I sync at ~10-12MBit allowing speeds of up to ~700KB/s (which still isn't fantastic as ADSL2 goes), it means that combined with restricted connections and other issues my file server downloads usenet at an average of maybe 50KB/s. This allows at best 200MB/hour. With my current 10 hours of downloads per night, that's a maximum of ~60GB a month, which works out quite nicely. Restricting it to 6 hours means that with my current setup it actually isn't possible for me to use the full offpeak amount.

Now I'm sure that's great for your network, but it substantially changes the decision I'm about to make, as I am moving house at the end of this month. The place I'm moving to is nice and close to the exchange however only Telstra has ADSL2+ there, which means my only option for decent internet through Exetel is 8MB ADSL1. Given even 10-12MB wouldn't be enough with the new offpeak limits I'm going to have to consider other options.

I seriously doubt that my individual case will make a difference to your decision, but I'd hope that you re-evaluate this decision soon so that I can continue to use Exetel for my internet as for the ~3.5 years I've been with you I've so far been very happy.

[wurzel]

I saw a post briefly before it was deleted last month that (among other things) made a remark along the lines of "What's the point - Exetel will just change it again in a few weeks if I switch plans anyway!"

I guess they're owed an apology.

[Zoner]

Nine hours would have been nice. The computer is in the bedroom, can't sleep with it on. Offpeak has pretty much disappeared

[renwick]

Wow this is a huge change, and issue. Earlier this year I changed over from my grandfathered plan to a new plan with unlimited off-peak which was $5 cheaper than my old plan (because of the price increase), at a $10 plan change cost. The funny thing is that the peak allowance was increased somewhere during April, I remember signing up for 45GB and then checking the members facility to find it gone up to $60. You guys even stated that the bandwidth would be no problem with unlimited plans:

A) Exetel has finalised the details of almost doubling its current IP bandwidth at no additional cost than it pays now which means that IP bandwidth will not be any sort of issue. Exetel has not been able to reduce monthly port costs and back haul costs as significantly but has satisfied itself that the new costings negotiated over the past month or so provide the financial flexibility that will make no economic impact on its profitability or cash flow.

So this is really weird, you state that you can afford the bandwidth, and you even raise the peak allowance (correct me if I am wrong here), but now you "must" reduce off-peak by HALF. This also means that people who use off-peak outside of 3-6am will now use their peak faster. Now for the record, I am able to download torrents at very high speeds (700kb/s+) during even off-peak, and the only slowdown I encounter is that youtube needs a bit of buffering, during 9-12am. Hoping for some real answers, but it just seems that Exetel likes to change a lot, and often, for example all the plan changes earlier this year. Bait and switching?

[jollyg]

To be honest I have always thought that the offpeak period was very generous. To those that are wailing about this being unfair I was well aware when i joined Exetel back in 2005 that the offpeak period was/is a bonus and as was stated then and has always been stated that it could be changed or removed at any time. you must take this into account. If Exetel no longer fits your idea of what you want from an ISP then look around, I always have when changes have been made. You cannot however claim that you have lost an entitlement as it has always been a bonus.
As always through the ups and the the downs the swings and the roundabouts I remain a happy and intrigued Exetel customer up to this point anyway

[colostomy bag]

This time when I'm off contract I'm leaving.

You gave unlimited and then slashed the time in half.

You can't call 6 hours unlimited.

it's pathetic and a con.

By the way, I'm in the 5th day of the new plan I signed into and now its changed, ha ha.

[vbap]

Just wondering whether the cut to off-peak actual is a direct result of the decision to offer unlimited plans?

I am not affected by this - or any of the other changes in the last 6 months (except removal of free values-add extras) - but I am bemused by all the events.

Appeal of Exetel was the openness of the company, basically the strength of John's blogs. But it's interesting that while the *impression* I get is that every month is a "record" in some (positive) metric or another, and costs are some order of magnitude lower that some comparable period, there seem to be an unbalanced number of value-reducing changes.

The value-adding changes *seem* to me to be beneficial only to marginal user groups (unlimited off-peak down loads, then unlimited peak downloads).


I really do hope you eventually see your ideal plan structure of no monthly fees, and a simple dollar-a-gig download price....

Oh, and please don't start charging for uploads, then I really will be affected...

[Paul35]

well they obviously cant get the times right.... it appears peak 8am–2am and off peak as 2am-8am...

[Tazz]

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?

12am - 8am
Cutting it in half to 6hours seems excessive!

[greesha]

I use lots of your services from voip, fax to email, hsdpa and my ADSL2 (optus dslam). I don't download a lot and I will use my peak over use at 50c/GB as much as I use offpeak.

I do my off peak saturday and sunday morning and the 7am-12pm for steam and a bit of p2p. I will need to move up plans to avoid to much excess use charges now so I can continue to use my service on the weekend.

This will take me to a place where one of your competitors is looking good again. $79.95 50GB peak and 70GB off peak 12am to 12pm (exact times when i need it) includes line rental and $50 worth of calls.

Compared to

$45 + $30(line rental) = $75 gets me 60GB peak and unlimited (2am-8am) very restricted off peak and no calls.

I guess I will just have to cop it sweet and move up to the $45 plan until the contract is up. Hopefully this has blown over and my faith is restored before that date comes.

[Ravenous]

Just wondering whether the cut to off-peak actual is a direct result of the decision to offer unlimited plans?

I am not affected by this - or any of the other changes in the last 6 months (except removal of free values-add extras) - but I am bemused by all the events.

The value-adding changes *seem* to me to be beneficial only to marginal user groups (unlimited off-peak down loads, then unlimited peak downloads).

Interesting points you make. I am very disappointed with the loss of convenience of the 8 am - 12 noon period as I need to manually initiate some downloads like Steam and Xbox Live Arcade (like one or two games per month). My usage was around 10 GB last month peak/offpeak combined, maximum month is something like 20 GB combined. A lot of users complaining here seem to be concerned about the loss of 'time' to download like they download the maximum they can for the 12-hour period every single night, which concerns me greatly as network performance had been scratchy of late.

Perhaps, in the wider view of things, this is a good reaction by Exetel?