New Zealand broadband: A Digital Inequality.

Most of you may have heard about the Digital Divide, which separates the internet “haves” from the “have not’s”, but more importantly the inequality of life this separation promotes; however if you look at the inequality of broadband in New Zealand, is there any wonder why people don’t bother?

An example, not related to Broadband in New Zealand, but to highlight the inequality;

You have a friend who purchased a really nice Ball Point pen from Company X, and impressed, you also buy a Ball Point Pen off the internet; excited, it arrives a few days later and you rip into it only to find a Crusty old Chewed up Pencil.

You then ring Company X, and after a 20 minute wait and being bounced around 3 different operators, you are finally speaking to the right person. They tell you that the pencil was in fact a Pen when they packaged it, but due to factors outside of their control, the quality of the Pen may vary by the time you receive it.

Not once did they offer to send a replacement, or review their means of delivery.

HOLD ON, WAIT JUST A MINUTE.... Doesn’t this go against some Fair Trading or Consumer Guarantee act???

The simple answer is, YES, in any normal situation you are covered...

but with the Internet, and Broadband Capable Internet Service Providers in New Zealand; they have forced us to accept their lack of responsibility over the delivery methods, which unfortunately affect’s their service quality greatly.

Where does the responsibility fall if not with the people YOU ARE PAYING for the product/service; or at least for those people to follow it up with the people responsible at least?

The only thing which does seem to stand out amongst the crowd is an ability to provide support to customers. Whether or not they waste your time or cause you more inconvenience, seems to be irrelevant in any case.

Now, while many have their own horror stories for New Zealand Broadband, examples of this in-equality comes from my own experience but also confirmed by years of helping people setup and configure their internet connections.

I have lived in three different houses in my city, and from all three houses the pricing of my Broadband changed very little however the responsiveness and performance varied greatly. (In fact truth be told, I am paying twice as much now, given my need for responsive internet in my line of work, for only half the speed I had at Hillcrest – 5m/bit average, while only 2.4m/bits average, where I am now).

My question TO ALL broadband capable ISP’S in New Zealand.

Why am I paying the SAME money for you to deliver less than HALF the service I used to receive? I am actually paying twice, but that was my own choice to unsuccessfully try and get better internet.

Who is responsible for the gross inequality of this ‘expensive’ service?

Doesn’t this unacceptable spread in service quality indicate some sort of need for a tiered pricing structure?

Cloud Computing, Destined to be the Next Big IT Cliche!

You know, in my years in the industry I first heard this term at University around 2006 in one of my many programming papers. Cloud Computing... Huh, thats a pretty cool term I thought to myself...

Well someone else did too, because now its all over the show; being used by companies left right and center to sell their products through the indication that there is some new technology behind this 'special cloud computing' where in actual fact there is not. It is just a term, with no more meaning than if someone had come up with another word for 'Browser'.

Cloud Computing, as it was explained to me by a my Lecturer, with a PHd at University; "outsourcing and decentralization of processing power". This is technically a definition of Distributed Computing, Virtual Private Networking.

An excellent example of 'Distributed Computing' is the Stanford Universities, Folding@Home application (or I believe they call it 'Life' on the PS3); which essentially takes what ever processing power your Home PC, or PS3 is un-used at the time and use this to processing Protein Folding scenarios.

Client Side programming, which has been around for decades, is also a form of 'Cloud Computing' in the sense that you are 'Outsourcing' and 'Decentralizing' a particular process out to your Users or (Clients).

So in conclusion, I am steering away from the term Cloud Computing due to the confusion it is bound to generate over the coming years; and its wide overuse in the IT industry; to specifically represent a single, or subset of technologies; which may be more expensive but virtually no different than the service you are receiving now.

True Cloud Computing would technically mean something getting CHEAPER due to the outsourcing/decentralization and reduced resposibility to administer the processors doing the work.

I wont even bother linking you to a Definition of Cloud Computing; because the question is; who's definition is actually correct? Every one seems to want to Narrow it down, and the simple fact is; Cloud Computing is a GENERAL term used to represent a wide range of technology (not neccessarily new) and add a new 'marketing twist' to help sell, and perhaps justify a higher price what could be the same product or service thats been around for years.