As I've blogged before, I've cut off the Foxtel satellite and gone OTT with the Foxtel Now service. Upgraded my NBN plan to unlimited data, and stream not only Foxtel to my television via Chromecast, but also a lot of my other content, Netflix, YouTube, and Free-to-Air content.
For the first few weeks it was great - apart from some latency issues, and a truly horrendous Foxtel Now app, the quality of the picture was pretty good. A friend came over and when I tole them they were watching a stream, they remarked how good it was and that they could hardly see any difference in the picture quality.
And then something happened. I don't know if it was other people in my area started using more internet, or if there is an issue at the local node or exchange, but the quality of the picture would deteriorate around peak times such as the evening. It was a considerable drop off, especially with sport. I really have no idea, but my guess is that my neighbour - that just moved in a few weeks ago - has started drawing down a lot of data in the evenings.
I ran a few speed tests, and sure enough, the download speed was well below what I was paying for. 12MB down and 1MB up was slowed to 6-8 down and 1 up.
So I rang my provider, and over a number of days, it was established that the level of degradation I was experiencing was not unusual, but that there may be a smaller NBN unit at the local exchange - or something like that. But it was also established that for my level of use, which is quite pronounced, I may need to upgrade to the next level of internet plan - 25MB down and 5MB up. This is because services like Foxtel Now demand an upload speed of around 1.5MB up. I'm not sure exactly how streaming services need an upload speed - something to do with the asymmetry of the internet connection, but I have almost resigned myself to the fact that I'll be needing a bigger bit rate to get the kind of service I'm after.
I told this to my internet provider, and - God love 'em - they offered me a FREE trial period of a week on the 25-5 plan to see if it resolves the issues I'm having. If it doesn't resolve it, then it may be a technical issues that would likely need to be addressed by the NBN wholesaler. If the problem is fixed, then I may need to upgrade my plan if I want to keep the quality of picture.
I forgot to ask the provider today if the modem I have is up to the demands I'm placing on it. But I think it should be ok - I got it when I upgraded to NBN the first time.
If I do need to upgrade to 25-5, it raises other questions. the cost per month goes up to $80 a month - and all of a sudden I'm back near what I was paying per month for Foxtel on the satellite. Keep in mind that I'm already paying $65 a month for Foxtel Now. So I can chose to go to another provider - the cheapest I can find for a 25-5 plan is $60 a month with Amaysim, which is seriously good. However, I really like Internode as a provider, and I'm not sure if I change provider if my modem would be compatible, or if I would need to buy a new one. However, I'm hopeful that if I do need to change plans, I can haggle with Internode and get them down to maybe $70 a month for a 25-5 plan by leveraging the offer from Amaysim and my good standing as an Internode customer.
Generally I'm on this service as my preferred means of getting content - do I miss the satellite? At times, yes, but in some small way I also feel that if I am putting pressure on the infrastructure, then the government will ultimately have to bend to the will of the people and improve the infrastructure accordingly. I honestly don't see myself going back to the satellite unless there is a catastrophic failure with the NBN delivery. I can only see myself placing more demands on my service once I get my gaming PC back (!), in addition to the second and third screen viewing I'm already doing on my plan.
Maybe a 25-5 plan is inevitable...
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Participant Observations - 7/10/17 - New Phone!!
So this week my new phone finally arrived. It's a Nokia 6 with 32GB of storage, with an additional 64GB of storage added with a micro SD card.
I've given myself 6 weeks to become fully proficient in using it - the architecture is Android, where as I've been using iPhones since 2010.
UPDATE 19/10/17
There are considerable differences, but the most obvious benefit is the overall improved performance and usability of the phone. The screen is almost twice the size as the iPhone 6, and this makes watching sport on the phone obviously far more enjoyable.
The apps are good, but I'm still floundering around with some of the settings for apps and the phone in general. I clearly have an Apple bias, but the functionality is not quite as clear as the iPhone, but again the unit has forced me - challenged in some respects - to engage and learn how the new phone works. There are some apps on iPhone that aren't on Android, but this is not a real disappointment with many comparable apps on the Google Play Store.
For example, I'm becoming aware that this new phone will not act like a storage device for songs like the iPhone did - streaming music will become much more common. This has it's drawback - everytime I take a photo, the phone wants to save it to the Cloud, where as the iPhone would only save it locally and then save it to the cloud if you requested it to. To that end, I have found the file storage a little bit frustrating with the new phone. With the iPone, every photo was saved to the camera, and easy to find there - there were no second, or third directories. With the new phone, there is a multiude of places the files can bse saved - the camera, downloads, the cloud, separate photos folders, and so on. This requires more time to be spent on file maintenance than I would like.
I'm still woking out how to personalise the phone, in terms of displays and backgrounds, but genreally i like the touch and feel of the unit, and of course I bought a case and screen cover for it almost immediately.
I am also basically consigned to the fact that Google will now have complete access to, and surveillance of, every part of my life that is connected to my phone in any way. I stopped short of using my fingerprint as a sign-in device however!! Haha. The screen unlock feature of pattern recognition is different - I'm not sure if I love it - your finger leaves a trace on the screen when you unlock it that a potential thief could see and replicate to unlock the phone - a PIN number does not have the same design flaw.
But on the whole, the new phone has made me somewhat critical of the iPhone - even though there isn't a great difference between the two, I am no longer a staunch advocate for Apple, and am happy to entertain alternatives.
Ok, so I will update this post in a few more weeks...
I've given myself 6 weeks to become fully proficient in using it - the architecture is Android, where as I've been using iPhones since 2010.
UPDATE 19/10/17
There are considerable differences, but the most obvious benefit is the overall improved performance and usability of the phone. The screen is almost twice the size as the iPhone 6, and this makes watching sport on the phone obviously far more enjoyable.
The apps are good, but I'm still floundering around with some of the settings for apps and the phone in general. I clearly have an Apple bias, but the functionality is not quite as clear as the iPhone, but again the unit has forced me - challenged in some respects - to engage and learn how the new phone works. There are some apps on iPhone that aren't on Android, but this is not a real disappointment with many comparable apps on the Google Play Store.
For example, I'm becoming aware that this new phone will not act like a storage device for songs like the iPhone did - streaming music will become much more common. This has it's drawback - everytime I take a photo, the phone wants to save it to the Cloud, where as the iPhone would only save it locally and then save it to the cloud if you requested it to. To that end, I have found the file storage a little bit frustrating with the new phone. With the iPone, every photo was saved to the camera, and easy to find there - there were no second, or third directories. With the new phone, there is a multiude of places the files can bse saved - the camera, downloads, the cloud, separate photos folders, and so on. This requires more time to be spent on file maintenance than I would like.
I'm still woking out how to personalise the phone, in terms of displays and backgrounds, but genreally i like the touch and feel of the unit, and of course I bought a case and screen cover for it almost immediately.
I am also basically consigned to the fact that Google will now have complete access to, and surveillance of, every part of my life that is connected to my phone in any way. I stopped short of using my fingerprint as a sign-in device however!! Haha. The screen unlock feature of pattern recognition is different - I'm not sure if I love it - your finger leaves a trace on the screen when you unlock it that a potential thief could see and replicate to unlock the phone - a PIN number does not have the same design flaw.
But on the whole, the new phone has made me somewhat critical of the iPhone - even though there isn't a great difference between the two, I am no longer a staunch advocate for Apple, and am happy to entertain alternatives.
Ok, so I will update this post in a few more weeks...
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