Ok, so, we're on an internet plan that is pretty pathetic really, but it's just while I'm at home so I can't do anything about it. Anyway, it's the 31st at the moment, and we're back on broadband speeds, yet our usage meter is still showing that we should be on dial-up. It'sd not showing a new data chunk, and when I look at previous months, it's all from the first to the end of the month.
What I want to know is, does anyone have any idea whether or not I'd be able to make use of this broadband speed without it using up next month's data chunk? Mum's dead set on there just being a delay in their usage meter, but I'm not so sure. Is it likely that they'll be tricky bastards and carry this usage over to next months chunk?

Wow, I'm not sure any of this made sense, but I want to download S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat without using up all of the new chunk of broadband. Sigh. I hate this internet plan.

Anyway, if anyone actually made sense of this babbling, help would be greatly appreciated

I used to work for an internet provider years ago. When we upgraded users from a lower teir of internet to a higher one, we would prorate the bandwidth and price.

In simpler terms, you'd only pay for the days you had the higher/lower service, your bandwidth cap would increase (or decrease) and you'd retain the amount of bandwidth you'd already used that month. Once the month ends, it'd start anew.

It was good because it helped customers figure out how much they're using on a monthly basis, and it let them tweak it to their necessity. Some people initially purchased more than they needed, while few found they were exceeding limits.

I'm in Canada so i'm not exactly sure how it'd work in New Zealand.

With this plan, basically we pay for 5 gig of broadband, then once we've used up that 5 gig of high speed internet, it switches over to broadband and we pay no extra cost for the rest of the month we're on broadband. The problem I've got is that the month isn't over, and we're still showing as being on dial-up, yet we have broadband back. I want to make use of this broadband, but I'm worried that they'll track how much I've used, and add it onto next month's 5 gig, so we'll basically start the month on dial-up, instead of broadband, cause I'd have already used up the broadband.

5GB of Bandwidth?! Yikes! I've downloaded 7GB+ worth of xbox demos this weekend alone! I can't imagine surviving on 5GB. I guess you make use of what you have, right?

Anyways, your internet service providers approach to changing your plan is unlike anything we have in Canada. For us, once you reach your bandwidth limit, you'll be charged extra per GB. Obviously, the higher your internet plan the cheaper the over charge fee is.

In terms of monitoring software, ours worked on a daily basis but there was no way of switching it over to the next month or stacking bandwidth amounts...so I wouldn't worry.

So what happens once next month arrives? Do you stay on broadband or do you go back to being on dial up? Sometimes it also depends on your billing cycle. Are you billed from the first to the 30th of each month? Or is it something different?

Dude, it's horrible. It's only for about half the year, the rest of the time I'm flatting, with 30 gig. Our 5 gig is shared between 3 people, too

As for being charged per GB, we do have that option as well, but for my mum it's cheaper to go onto dial up once the limit's been exceeded, because she doesn't pay extra for that.

Once the new month arrives, we just get a whole new 5 gig block of broadband to use up. Just starts again. According to the website, we're billed from the first to the last day on the month. I'm just confused, because it's not the first yet but we're back on broadband speeds when we should still be on dial-up until tomorrow.

I'm just going ahead and downloading. I figure, since our usage meter is telling us we aren't back on broadband, their fault for being misleading.