KEY POINTS:
The news media are often a good gauge of public opinion - and a sounding board for what's really annoying people.
In the past that has been everything from bank fees and leaky buildings to high petrol prices and crazy waterfront stadium schemes.
But if the stream of messages sent to the Herald by readers these days is anything to go by, slow and unreliable broadband is the current bugbear of the masses.
On an almost daily basis I personally receive broadband horror stories from readers. The pattern is familiar: a user upgrades from dial-up to broadband to free up the phone line and surf the web faster. The promised speeds aren't delivered, so the customer complains, receives shocking customer service and gets angry and distrustful of broadband providers.
Take the case of Sione Tu'akoi:
"Three weeks ago we decided to move our internet from Clearnet dial-up and signed up with Xtra broadband. To our horror the Xtra broadband speed is slower than Clearnet dialup connection," he wrote.
Despite complaining, speed testing his line and sending the results to the Xtra experts, Sione hasn't heard a bean back from them - and he's furious.
Ian Mead owns a computer business and says he is well able to identify with what he calls "Telecom's wholesale failure to deliver".
"My customers frequently complain that, to them, it seems they are being pushed from dialup to ADSL and receiving heftier bills for a similar service which is not what broadband is supposed to be."
Others are angry that the speed at which you can upload data to the internet is limited on many plans offered by internet providers, to 128Kbps. That makes sending large files a tediously slow process and is a problem for many small businesses who are increasingly exchanging documents and photographs online.
Many factors influence what broadband connection speeds you get and it is not always Telecom's fault if the pipe isn't delivering what was promised.
But enough dissatisfaction has been voiced since Telecom and its competitors dramatically increased maximum download speeds last year to suggest there's a gap between the promise of broadband and what is being delivered.
As a result, the internet industry risks alienating customers, just as they expect them to start paying more for web access.
Telecom's competitors are itching to take advantage of local loop unbundling to take business off Telecom.
"The year will bring early access to Telecom's copper and the ability to provide a truly differentiated offer to consumers," iHug boss Mark Rushworth told the Herald last week.
But will these different services mean better services, and more specifically, better and more reliable download speeds?
No, says a former Telecom engineering consultant, who spent 10 years working for the company but does not wish to be identified.
"ADSL was developed in the US by Bell Labs, in the mid 1990s, as an interim measure before the telcos needed to install optic fibre cable to all subscribers," he said.
"The telcos here and overseas found they could make a quick buck from the perception, by the customer, that they were getting a high-speed internet connection."
In other words, as long as we're relying on Telecom's copper wires, we're going to be a frustrated bunch of web surfers.
No national residential fibre network has ever been laid by Telecom and while TelstraClear installed a hybrid fibre cable network in parts of Wellington and Christchurch, it was thwarted in reaching the Auckland market when its plans to string overhead fibre cables through the suburbs met with resistance in 2002.
Laying fibre now isn't out of the question, but it's so expensive to do that no telco, Telecom included, would approach such a project with enthusiasm.
The former Telecom consultant for one thinks wireless technologies such as WiMAX, a faster and longer-range alternative to Wi-Fi hotspots, are the only hope. Internet providers like CallPlus, Woosh and NZWireless agree. They're all using WiMAX and envisage it offering an alternative to Telecom's copper wire network. TelstraClear has spent upwards of $50 million building a wireless network in Tauranga with similar aims.
Industry analysts have long pointed out that the inherent delay or "latency" in wireless transmission will never make it an effective technology to deliver demanding services such as high-quality internet telephony, internet TV services, video on demand and real-time gaming.
This year will see two different approaches from internet providers as some focus on making the best of Telecom's copper while others look for alternatives in new technology.
Serious money and market share is at stake.
In the meantime, keep on the case of your ISP if your broadband is flaky. Arm yourself with the results of your speed tests and get used to that on-hold music. At least you can take comfort in the fact that many others are doing exactly the same.
