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Stephen Fry Not Best Pleased With NZ Broadband Offering
Stephen Fry Not Best Pleased With NZ Broadband Offering
Stephen Fry, a famous person who is not from New Zealand, has been moved to Twitter by his experience trying to upload sound and video files on our broadband:
New Zealand so fine. It they have probably the worst. Broadband I've ever encountered. Turns itself off slows to a crawl. Pathetic.
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) February 19, 2012
Rise up, Kiwis and demand better? You wouldn't allow crap roads with pot holes and single file. Hats what youve got BBwise a smart guy could
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) February 19, 2012
In a novel response to international criticism, initial New Zealand reaction appeared to not be solely anger at Mr Fry for having an opinion, with many commenters seeming supportive of his assessment.
Later, apparently aware of the attention the issue was getting, Fry said (reconstructed from a series of tweets):
Well, seem to have stirred up a hornet's nest. It seems I exceeded a d'load limit and had my BB throttled to a crawl: @TelecomNZ have put this right. Very quick and polite. But I wonder if everyone who complains gets this attention? I think Comcast style throttling is a for the economy it's disastrous, for visitors for everyone. It won't stop illegal bit torrentinf. Makes as much sense as closing a lane of traffic because there's congestion. Yes, kiwi land is remote, but if Avatar can be made here and MZ wants to keep its rep for being the loveable, easy-going, outdoorsy yet tech savvy place it is, then pressure @telecomNZ into offering better packages. Kiwis travel. A lot. They know 20MB is routine in Europe ( nothrottling) UK rolling out ultra fast fibreoptic. S Korea miles ahead Come on New Zealand. You're world champions at rugby & filmmaking. Pressure the providers to stop it being a digital embarrassment. I was offered mobile 3G SIMS in a stock as a replacement for the down home service. I could tether a PAYH local Vodafone phone if I wants that kind of compromise. In all swift response, but unsdrstandbly. There was instant press interest. I'm no one special- Your local customers should be special. They need choice, service, understanding and respect. Phew! That probably enough on that xx
Fry's comments come as the Commerce Commission hosts a conference (live webcast here) on the future of New Zealand's broadband network. A discussion paper released by the Commission suggests NZ users do not consider data caps a problem.
Stephen Fry is a writer, actor, award-winning gameshow host and (perhaps most relevant) technology reviewer. He is currently in New Zealand working on The Hobbit. At the time of writing he had 3,927,491 Followers on Twitter.
He has previously enthused about New Zealand for reasons including the friendliness of its endangered animals and its coffee.
I'm sure another couple of flat whites will cheer me up...
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) February 19, 2012
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