Telecom is launching a new "all you can eat" broadband plan next week but details are scarce, despite questions posed by the Otago Daily Times.
The only certainty is the price, which has been set at $59.95 a month, for the "Big Time" plan.
Ralph Brayham, director of home services for Telecom Retail, told an audio conference the new plan would suit a flat full of students or a family who wanted certainty about the price they would pay for their broadband internet connection, no matter how many files were downloaded.
However, he could not guarantee any definite upload or download speed, saying the plan would be "shaped", or in other words controlled, during peak time, which is set between 3pm and up to 11pm daily.
Speed on the new plan would be more than zero and less than 100, he said.
Basic surfing and checking emails would not be subject to data shaping but Mr Brayham was vague about what would be shaped.
If, for instance, you were the first person to download the latest YouTube video or iPhone software upgrade, then you could expect to be "shaped".
If you were the 1000th person, then the data was more likely to come from Telecom's cache and you would not be shaped.
The ODT suggested to Mr Brayham that the plan could end up like dial-up where users started downloading a file, went away and ate their dinner, before returning to click end.
While not denying that, Mr Brayham said the plan was part of Telecom's desire to provide the best services to customers while being financially responsible.
The new plan had been in response to customer feedback.
If the plan was found to be not suitable for a user, they could switch back to a speed plan which had bandwidth restrictions and extra costs if those restrictions were exceeded.
A separate circuit would be established for the new plan so as to not compromise the full-speed service, he said.
• It is 10 years since Telecom introduced broadband to New Zealand. It was then called Jet Stream.
