More Intel chips

More Intel chips
Xeon processors released

Ah... My 5 years with broadband
Pretty sure some of you out there have been using some sort of "broadband" for longer than I have (how much did you pay!?!), but for me, I've been using broadband for 5 years.

[Let's wind back into the past shall we?]

Got connected to Xtra Jetstream during September 2003, during their new Jetsons/Flintstones (whatever it was called) marketing period. Back then, we signed up to the Home 500 Full Speed plan.

500MB and a blisteringly fast 2mbps connection at the low price of just $59 a month!

In those days we barely reached 500MB a month. That seemed virtually impossible, especially from surfing on free service dial up from ISPs like Zfree and i4free.

Overage was at a whopping $0.20/MB! Thankfully, we only got over that only once.

Back then things were really expensive, and not just for Internet. Seriously, we had to go out and get a $200 JetStream Single PC Pack. A SpeedTouch 330 USB Modem and 2 filters (one dual, one single). I do think that we got signed up on a free connection offer, can't really remember or search for it though.

Back then we had trouble even understanding the meaning behind all of this "allowance". We didn't know that the Internet used "megabytes"... we just cared about how long we got online. We consistently managed to get under the limit which was actually amazing. Don't know how... probably because the web was pretty simplistic back then still.

So over the years we changed plans...

• 2005: JetStream Everyday
  1GB @ 1mbps/128k
  $44.49
   
  We had to sacrifice half our speed for double the allowance - tough for me especially, when we were used to great speed at 2mbps!
   
• 2006: Discover
  1GB @ 1mbps/128k
  $44.49
   
  Nothing different from Everyday, just a name change.
   
• 2006: Go
  1GB @ 2mbps/128k
  1GB @ Full Speed/128k
  $39.95
   
  The "unleashing" of the Internet - need I say more? A price cut and a speed increase helped make my Dad finally realise the potential of the Internet now.
   
• 2006: Go Large
  Managed @ Full Speed/128k
  $49.95
   
  No need to say anything here other than we were on it for 2 months!
   
   
  Then Telecom lost another customer. The freshly bought over ihug was the next to welcome us.
   
   
• 2007: broadband 2
  5GB @ Full Speed/128k
  $40.00
   
  We only truly survived on it for around 3 months. We always went over 5GB easily. I'm wondering what I did 4 years back.
   
• 2007: broadband 3
  Managed @ Full Speed/128k
  $50.00
   
  Finally had a crack at the managed plan. We kept our promise to go under 500MB per day over a 3 day average - but we had some splurges sometimes, until ihug got around to change everything
   
• 2008: Ultimate pack
  20GB @ Full Speed/Full Speed
  =$50.00 (equivalent broadband price)
   
  Vodafone eventually took over the ihug brand, and we were welcomed to the world of max upload!

Fast forward to today - 20GB from Vodafone for $50 (the eqivalent price of the broadband), and now you can get modems from as low as $50 from them and they've got contract offers with free connection and modem.

Broadband speed used to be able to consistently reach the rated speed. It was great. About 3 friends I knew back in 2003 actually knew what broadband was. Who knew that the Internet was possible without tying the phone line? Who knew that the Internet was to evolve into what it is now?

But now with increasing saturation of customers in an area with broadband, everything feels different. Everyone's got broadband now, and most have at least chosen the 3GB Go plan from Telecom. My neighbours probably have broadband.

Things have changed alright.

But I'm not really celebrating now - broadband is now a part of daily life really. I've come to enjoy having it by my bedside.


That was the broadband journey that still continues to this very day... just shows how fast people develop the habit of surfing the Internet everyday just in a matter of months. No wonder New Zealand's broadband is so useless.


When did you discover the world of speedier Internet?
Where was broadband first introduced to you? (At work? Some random cafe? At home stealing someone else's Wi-Fi?)
How much did you first pay for broadband?

Leave your comments below.

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