Telecom's latest broadband release light on generosity

By PETER GRIFFIN

Telecom has released its latest range of high-speed internet offerings, but with many Jetstream users barely touching their download allowances there is no show of generosity in the form of bigger download caps.

Jetstream has had a face lift, with three new residential offerings offering speeds up to 256Kbps - not true broadband speed - but "up to six times faster than dial-up" internet.

An entry-level offer has Telecom's component of the fee priced at $39.95 with a monthly data cap of 500MB. Anything over that limit is charged at a stiff 20c per megabyte.

A second offering at $49.95 has a data cap of 1GB a month and users can pay $59.95 for a 2GB cap.

On top of those prices is an internet provider's fee.

The fee will be set by the internet providers who resell Jetstream when the new offers come to market in about a month.

But Chris Thompson, head of consumer marketing at Telecom's internet provider Xtra, said the fee would average around $20.

That could see an entry-level offering for Jetstream costing around $60, slightly less than the $65 average fee charged for Jetstart, which allows speeds up to 128Kbps and has 5GB and 10GB data limits - depending on which internet provider is used.

Xtra is expected to offer improved installation and set-up packages as well as specific broadband content on its website.

While many carriers overseas, particularly those operating cable networks, have set high monthly data caps or moved to flat-rate, all-you-can-eat data plans, Telecom says its research shows most Jetstream users are coming in well below their monthly allowances.

Thompson said 48 per cent of customers on Telecom's current 5GB plan had data traffic of less than 500MB a month.

"The problem you have with flat rate is that a very small proportion of users can use a very large amount of resource which drives up the average cost," he added.

Barriers to jumping onto the high-speed information superhighway, however, remain high.

Telecom has not moved to reduce installation costs for Jetstream, which are set at $248 or $99 for self-installation.