Take your caps off Telecom
Chelfyn kicked off our first week back at TMet Towers after the summer break, by appearing on the Jim Mora's show on Radio New Zealand. He was railing against the dire state of New Zealand's current 'broadband' access.

Telecom have brought out a new range of plans which they are tyring to sell as an improvement on their service. Unfortunately the current caps on international traffic mean that one can hit a monthly limit in a matter of hours. As Chelfyn says, it's like buying a super new TV, which works for a few hours before becoming a radio. To get more pictures will cost you $20 an hour for the rest of the month which is a complete and utter rip-off.

We use Slingshot as our ISP. They don't cap our international traffic but the speeds still aren't up to international broadband standards. If the NZ government is serious about creating a knowledge & innovation economy, then they need to get serious about providing a world class telecoms infrastructure. We are being held back from competing on a global scale while Telecom milks as much profit as they can before Voice over-IP hits. As more Kiwis start to use their net connections to make voice calls for free, Telecom may regret their luddite attitude.

It's frustrating the way that they are dragging their heels, as right now we are only able to broadcast live radio from our studios. WIth a bit more bandwidth we could be broadcasting live tv and creating content for the current crop of indie media like VideoBomb.com & Current TV which have some excellent clips and videos. My current favourite is the one on Cat Herding..