We only use Telecom for our home phone line, every other telecommunications option at home and work we have deliberately chosen another provider. This stems from a month of not having our new lines installed in our new work building, despite having placed the request some two months before our moving in date. What did they do? Set up a redirect to the mobile phone, pay the extra charges and then at the end of it all offered us [sarcasm on] a whopping [sarcasm off] one month rebate off of our line rental costs.

Unsurprisingly we have never looked at them again after that debacle, price bribery included.

At home we use Ihug for broadband and I can't really complain too much about the speed. We're on one of the old plans, so haven't expected the 7 Mb speeds they say are possible. But since there isn't really any great cost difference I might change over in the new year.

At work we use Telstra for broadband and on the whole it has been fine. There was a bumpy bit a while back, which our IT guy suggested was Telecom stuffing around at the exchange in an attempt to meet the broadband capacity required by users.

Your comment: "I think Telecom/Xtra have a major problem with network capacity; there just isn't enough broadband to go around." is quite correct !!

You are beautifully placed to take advantage of the cable network in Wellington. Was there a specific reason you chose to go with Xtra rather than cable?