Which company is the best ISP in New Zealand? Is there a "best" ISP in our fair country? I don't know but what I do know is which ones are ones to go for and which ones to steer clear from. To start off with I'll do the major companies i.e. Telecom, TelstraClear, Orcon and then go to the smaller companies i.e. Farmside, NZNet, Actrix, Whoosh etc. I recommend reading through it, it may take some time but it's well worth the wait for the reviews especially of the one on NZnet, or if you are impatient you can just skip to the end of the post.
Telecom
Traditionally Telecom have been rather good with their broadband packages. You pay a fair bit more than the competitors but with that extra you pay for you get a dedicated technical support team which is available from arount 8am until 9pm 7 days a week. Download and upload speeds are as fast as the line can handle which is around the 3.5 to 5MB per second (theoretical maximum)
TelstraClear
TelstraClear is another big contender within New Zealand as an ISP with the likes of their cable network is available in Christchurch, Wellington (excluding Porirua area but includes Kapiti Coast up to Waikanae) and Auckland. Outside of these areas you have to jump onto their PDQ, Pretty Damn Quick, ADSL network which as the name suggests is pretty damn quick. You have a 12 hour call center, 8am-8pm, 7 days a week with good technical support. If you live outside of their cable network then go with Telecom as with TelstraClear you are paying too much for too little.
Vodafone
Now as far Communications companies go you would expect a multi-naational corporation to be able to deliver you a phoneline and broadband pretty damn quickly right? Wrong! Now call me biased but when I called them to get a new broadband and internet connection I thought that they would be able to get it sorted out within a week, 5 working days, and get back to me saying that I would be able to have a connection and that it would be connected on x date. Apparantly when I put my application forward they didn't have a contact number for me and even though they had my email address they couldn't send me an email requesting the extra details that were needed due to Vodafone staff not being able to send external emails. Personally, couldn't be bothered with them.
Woosh
Now Woosh is a relatively new company who do pretty much the same things as the rest of the other ISP's out there BUT they do have ONE advantage if you live in Wellington. The ENTIRE city is their wireless hotspot so if you have Woosh Wireless you can log on anywhere in the city and still have your lightning quick wireless connection.
Orcon
Now Orcon is just one of those fantastic ISP's that have no fixed term contracts, high data caps and speeds and actually know what they are talking about when it comes to their technical team. You can choose to go for either their traditional ADSL and phoneline packages OR you can go for Naked DSL which is where you get straight broadband without the need for an analoge phoneline. Also when you sign up with them, you get an @orcon.net.nz email address FOR LIFE.
Actrix
Now I'm not going to imply that I know what Actrix are like because I don't although I have read some good reviews from these guys. They are a Wellington based ISP who have been around or the last 15 years or so delivering internet solutions to businesses and consumers alike. If you want more info about them then check their site.
Farmside
Now these guys are absolutely fantastic! These guys I love. They are wicked and I have mad respect for them. They provide phoneline and broadband packages at a VERY reasonable price and by very reasonable I'm talking $125 for phoneline, 30GB of broadband, and 700 minutes to call anyone in New Zealand and Australia. If you can't get broadband where you live due to distance from the exchange then no worries, they have a sattelite package where you get quick broadband from their Taiwan based sattelite. Worth checking them out
NZNet
Now these guys I have a HUGE problem with. Not only are they absolutely shit, their broadband speeds shit and slow, their "tehcnical support" useless and only open during business hours, 8.30am until 5.30pm Monday to Friday, but they constantly change the dates of when things are meant to be connected. I switched from Farmside to NZNet as NZNet offered us a cheaper broadband plan and phoneline. I currently have Naked DSL through them and I have to say that the service that I am getting is utter fucking shit. The connection drops out at least 5-6 times an hour but the download speeds are shockingly slow. Now I'm not sure if you are aware of this but the definition of broadband is being at LEAST 8 times faster then dial up. The fastest dial up you can get in New Zealand and anywhere else in the world is 56k or 5.6K. With NZNet the AVERAGE download speed that I get through them is 20-40K. Thats only JUST on the cusp of being labelled as broadband. Their digital phoneline service? Don't know what it's like as it's taken over THREE WEEKS for them to send out the new IP phone that I am to be using and to get my number ported over from Farmside. You can check them out but I DO NOT recommend them WHAT SO EVER!
