huh!?
What the…? Has Xtra sold out?
Well technically the had already sold out they just sold out to some1 different.
from MSN to Yahoo
yep - just a different commercial arrangement; should have changed sometime between 00:00 and 06:00. Has been different all day.
Yahoo!Xtra! Has! Changed! From! Xtra! MSN.
Better than XtraMSN. Who is getting the default IE7 homepage on new Vista machines - do you know?
Nice tidy front page though. I wonder what this will do for Y! messenger and mail use.
Let them know what you think: surveylink.yahoo.com/wix/p2701555.aspx
"What was the main purpose for your visit to Yahoo!Xtra today?"
keep an eye on the competition.
"How easy did you find it to keep an eye on the competition?"
6 - very easy…
Who cares who they are with, they offer the most overpriced unreliable service out of any ISP. The are part of a disgusting monopoly which finally collapsed under public pressure. I feel sorry for anyone on Xtra. They even had to pay money back to their customers because they realised how unreliable their service was.
Wrong, the company I work for is the highest priced ISP I have seen:
kiwilink.co.nz/compare-broadband-plans.php
As for most unreliable I have to dissagree with you there too. For a start, the situation of broadband in NZ at the moment is that everyone wholesales telecomes services to some extent. Every ISP will have their own verification servers and the like but it is still mostly reliant on XTRA for its performance. Also having been on XTRA for about 8 years then changing to Telstra Clear I must say that our reliability and speed went down. To be fair it was, however improved.
When you talk about ISP wholesaleing in NZ, remember that is it Telecom’s Network that Xtra and other ISPs use to connect their customers to their own servers - Orcon, iHug etc don’t actually use ‘Xtra’s’ servers. 
Anyone who thinks local loop unbundling is really going to do much for NZ ‘broadband’ speeds is, I think deluding themselves. Do you really think that the other ISPs are going to spend millions to install DSLAMs (broadband gear for you non-techie types) all over the country? I doubt it very much.
So like them or hate them I think we’re stuck with them for a while yet.
Telecom own the lines but not the airwaves. Think outside the box people.
YahooXtra is advertised on bus stops, the big sheets saying about something happening when X meets Y…
Wireless is less reliable.
Wireless is slower*
Wireless is currently operated by three people, Telecom, Vodaphone, and Woosh*2
Wireless is very expensive to set up a network for. Not as expensive as wires, but still well beyond what pretty much any of the providers can afford to set up properly.
And lastly, people are stupid. The majority of people around won’t change to a better system simply because it is a change.
*: when compared to a proper wired system such as fibre
*2: there are also a small number of other operators in NZ, however they are small enough to neglect.
Also there is satellite internet, which is good, reliable and fast but costs the earth.
Rod Drury has an interesting position on broadband.
Basically, it should be treated as a social utility.
While the market has it’s advantages, my experience is that it is terrible at delivering on inelastic demand. Think rail, telecommunications, electricity. None have performed particularly well via market freedoms.
So I support Road’s position. Capitalism’s maxim of Shareholder Return is often at odds with the wider good, and should be treated as such.