Earlier, I whinged at length about the general lack of options available for fast(ish) internet here.

I eventually went with the last option discussed, so that I now have one bill for local calls, another for tolls, and a third for an 256 Kbps download / 128 Kbps upload ADSL internet connection. I chose Orcon, whose $49.95 per month with no traffic limits, extra charges, or throttled speed seemed the best of a bad bunch.

Or so I thought.

Now I find that my supposedly fast connection is now at a measly 72/97 Kbps as measured here. That’s right – the download speed is slower than the upload speed!

Other measurement services tell a similar story: that the internet connection I’m paying an extra $35 per month for, over and above my old dial-up connection, is in fact little faster than a 56k modem.

Orcon’s home page has this to say:

Users may currently be experiencing high latency and slower than normal downloads on BitStream DSL.

This performance degradation is due to network congestion, and we are working with Telecom to get increased capacity provisioned as soon as possible.

There are two probably scenarios here: either Orcon has fucked up their capacity planning; or Telecom are being obstructive. In most situations like this it’s prudent to pick incompetence over conspiracy every time… but who would know. I wouldn’t put money on either option.

I just wish it would get sorted out. I’m not getting what I paid for.