I also forgot to mention that switching to iHUG or even with Telstra broadband won't guarantee you better line connection or faster download speeds.
The root of the problem lies in NZ's outdated copper backbone infrastructure. As described here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/3959420a6430.html
Some beleivers think that if Telecom continued to be stated owned (gov't operated), none of these problems would occur. That can not be farther from the truth. History has shown a time where NZ people had to wait for months just to get a telephone hooked up in their home during the days of gov't ownership of Telecom.
Actually a lot has to do with cost and lack of planning (or educating the public why higher costs are a priority for future expansion?). My father had a house built in Canada in 1975 connected with separate coaxial and copper lines underground from the street. It wasn't even 10 years ago that Telstra/ Saturn decided to lay coaxial cable lines in the streets of NZ. Comparatively, Canada at the same time was laying fiber optic everywhere. Friends that were building a new house had their homes wired up with fiber optic and this is over 10 years ago.
Though would it be unfair to compare say Canada to NZ? After all Canada is 1/10th the population of the USA which is a fair comparison to how NZ is to Australia?
BQ