[wellylug] telstraclear nz usage reporting script

[Sam Vilain]

On Sat, 2008-08-16 at 08:53 +1200, Bruce Hoult wrote:
> Gosh.  If I don't "run out during the month" then I figure I've paid
> them for something I haven't used.  There's no "running out" .. they
> just happily bill you for whatever you do use, and at a considerably
> lower rate per GB than you pay for the minimum charge GBs included in
> your plan.  e.g. on the 40 GB plan I'm on, the first 40 GB effectively
> cost $2.75 each if you use them all (more if you don't), while extra
> GBs cost only $1.50.

Ok, but your base charge is already twice the cost of the 10GB plan.

http://www.telstraclear.co.nz/residential/inhome/internet/cable-broadband/plans.cfm

The basis of your calculation seems a recipe for upgrading your
connection forever.  To compare your argument to electricity usage, you
could divide your bill by the number of units used and see that using
more power was relatively cheaper, because each kWh started representing
less and less of the final bill, percentage-wise.  But it doesn't mean
it makes fiscal sense to use more power.  It's just an artifact of there
being a fixed line cost - though it isn't explicitly listed on your
internet bill.

A better comparison is to compare the per-GB over-usage charge to the
difference in price for going up to the next plan.

Say I'm on a 10GB plan, and each GB over the plan costs $2.95.  The 20GB
plan costs $25/month more, making those blocks $2.50 each on prepay.  So
unless my use is more than 18GB per month _on a regular basis_ it pays
for me to stay on the plan I'm on.  If I were to start using 30GB or
more regularly, then it might be worth considering moving to the 40GB
plan.

But even if I did end up using 20GB one month, it might still make sense
overall that I stay on the plan I started with.

The TelstraClear over-usage warnings are deceiving - I've observed
people getting them and saying, "oh, we keep going over our usage, we
should upgrade".  Then they upgrade their plan and accordingly start
increasing their usage to "make use of what they paid for".

Not that I'm the voice of fiscal sensibility or anything :-)
Sam.