Just to add my two bits. I think it all depends on the goegraphical or rather political region concerned. Someone selling 256 kbps Broadband in
U.S. would become laughing stock very fast. However someone selling 256 Kbps as broadband in say Srilanka would just barely get away with it. Then again maybe not cause the ADSL connections sold in Sri Lanka are 500 Kbps and 1 Mbps flat rate plans. But Sri Lanka is supposed to be backwards in terms of technology compared to New Zealand ?? Very confusing...
On the other hand however selling 256 Kbps as broadband in Never Never Land (located towards the northern tip of Antarctica) would most probably work.
The sad thing is that in Seychelles which is a tiny country of just 65000 people, all broadband connections sold are 500 kbps or better. Actually
Tikiri Wicks wrote: the they
only have 4 types of connections in that country. Dialup, ISDN BRI / PRI, 500 Kbps Wireless, and HDSL Leased lines at higher. The telecoms company owning the local loop (Cable and Wireless Intl.) willingly rent out raw copper pairs at a nominal rate of about 400 NZ dollars per month which is ideal for use with HDSL modems going upto 2 Mbps Bi-directional. Unfortunately they do not have high speed fibre running to the country. Instead they make do with satelite bandwidth into the country.
Well no need to add wood to a burning fire...
Many of NZNOGgers will know Andy Gardner who has been living in Mexico for a few years now. A couple of days ago we were ICQ chatting and Andy said: "Mexico's dominant telco just doubled everyone's DSL speed with no price increase. Those getting 256k suddenly found 512k available. I was on 512k so after a re-boot of my DSL modem I now find myself with 1megabit AYCE DSL for 899 pesos per month. NZ$119. Gosh, I miss Telecom." NZ has dropped from a high placing for % penetration of broadband, to, iirc, 23rd from 24 OECD countries. The sole differentiating factors are the exhorbitant costs and data caps applicable in NZ. I trust all have seen the advert re LLU in tonights paper, and are responding accordingly? Keith Davidson