Where Dial-Up Goes to Die

Do you know how much Internet bandwidth you use per a month in your house? Yeah, me neither. But here in New Zealand you need to know.

For home Internet access, you must subscribe to packages according to how much bandwidth you plan to use per month and the speed you want. This applies to both uploading and downloading. If you happen to go over your monthly limit, your access is slowed to dial-up speed. Goodbye podcasts, YouTube, Skype, and streaming radio. *Sigh*

Coming from the U.S. where Internet is fast and use is unlimited, I have absolutely no idea how much bandwidth I use. We don't have Internet at home yet because all the plans in our area require a land line, which we don't have and don't want to pay for. There are so many different packages and add-ons that it gets a bit overwhelming. Here are some packages offered by the main Internet provider. Let me know if you can make some sense of it.....

Broadband Plans	Speed (Downstream/Upstream)	Usage Allowance	Monthly Charge	Additional Usage
HighSpeed 10G	Up to 4 Mbps / 2 Mbps	10G	$54.95	1G packs at $2.95 per pack
LightSpeed 20G	Up to 10 Mbps / 2 Mbps	20G	$79.95	1G packs at $2.95 per pack
LightSpeed 40G	Up to 10 Mbps / 2 Mbps	40G	$109.95	2G packs at $2.95 per pack
LightSpeed 80G	Up to 10 Mbps / 2 Mbps	80G	$149.95	2G packs at $2.95 per pack

We are looking into an unlimited wireless option but the initial set-up costs are astronomical and speed cannot be guaranteed at any one time.

I do have fast wireless Internet access on my computer through the research I do at the University, but my use has to be paid for according to how much I use. When the IT department help set up my personal network, I asked about bandwidth use but they couldn't tell me how much the average student uses.

It would be nice to have some sort of Internet usage meter on my computer to let me know how much bandwidth I'm using and the associated costs. For now, I'll just use the University network until I get a bill.