[Air-l] Down to the Wire

[Andy Williamson]

Hi James
 
>Is broadband 'metered' in NZ?  One would expect that to be a clear reason
for slow 
>uptake of broadband, where the drivers are music, movies and games.  Or if
those 
>aren't drivers, per se, they are certainly the majority of use.

It is to a degree and I suspect this is a factor (as dial up is not
metered). But, I don't think it would turn out to be a major as the
broadband packages here tend to be capped and then pay per additional Mb,
rather than straight metering. Typical plans are 2-3Gb, 5Gb and 10Gb per
month - which is a decent amount of downloading for most users. 

The other regulator is speed - lower cost plans are also restricted in terms
of performance, which of course could negate the perceived benefit.

One could probably argue that heavy users such as gamers would still rather
pay than cruise along on a slower connection. It would be interesting to
look at broadband uptake (or lack of) by type of use (home business, family,
gamers etc). 

Andy