Big users force out Big Time

Telecom has called time on its all-you-can-eat Big Time broadband plan as it struggles to manage traffic demand created by the plan.

Telecom director of home services Ralph Brayham said a small number of users consuming terabytes of data had stressed the system to the point that, for technical and commercial reasons, the service could no longer be offered.

The Big Time plan has been the subject of vigorous discussions on technology forum Geekzone with members logging more than 1700 comments to a "Big Time plan trouble" discussion thread.

Telecom began offering the $60 broadband plan just under 12 months ago, aiming it at customers who wanted either price certainty or unlimited internet allowances.

At the time Brayham said Telecom would "unashamedly" manage internet traffic of customers on Big Time, giving those on Telecom's "speed" plans - offering "full-speed" broadband but a capped data allowance - priority over Big Time subscribers.

Brayham said technology around peer-to-peer usage had evolved at a much faster rate than the software Telecom used to manage the traffic.

He said the product had originally been created to provide price certainty for families but instead users of high bandwidth content had been the early adopters.

"There are some folks who are downloading the equivalent of 1000 or more movies a month ... but they are just voraciously chopping through bandwidth," said Brayham.

"After much agonising, because we think this is a very cool, commercial, innovative product, all we could really do was pull it."

He would not disclose how many customers would be affected, saying only that it was a small number of the 550,000 broadband clients.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Ernie Newman said that the move was disappointing: "If you are the only restaurant in town with an `all you can eat' menu, you are going to attract the big eaters."