One of my newsfeeds just flashed up a headline along the lines of “NZ has free broadband again!” which, naturally, caught my eye. “Someone is doomed.” I thought to myself.
But, of course, I was wrong. And so was the headline. Here is the article in question – if you read it, you’ll see that what you actually get is free broadband from Vodafone-owned Ihug .. IF you change your landline rental over to Ihug AND pay them $20/month in prepaid toll charges AND most telling of all, this free plan has a data cap of 1GB/month. Presumably after you use that up, you start paying.
You know how when you go to the supermarket, they sometimes have, say, a friendly person with a tray offering you a little bit of sausage roll, or cheese, or chorizo sausage? And it’s free? And if you like it, you go buy some, because that little bit of sausage is just enough to whet your appetite.
Well, Vodadfone is offering “free” broadband the same way that Foodtown is offering “free” chorizo fucking sausage.
1GB/month is just enough to go “Why yes, I pretty much AM connected to the internet in some manner” before the cap runs out and you start paying.
TANSTAFL.