Skinny Home Wireless Broadband doomed?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Skinny Home Wireless Broadband doomed?

1 | 2

amiga500

1484 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 422
Inactive user

#1712650 30-Jan-2017 10:35

Last year Skinny had big advertising posters for the fixed wireless broadband on a lot of the bus stops in and around the student suburbs. This year very similar posters but pushing the $58 unlimited wired broadband.

The new budget wireless plan of $40 for 40 gb could be attractive to some. It seems that it would be very easy to delete the $52 for 100 gb deal & go to the $40 for 40 gb. The two options pop up when you go to the renew page.

Ten years ago I got by on the Telecom 10 gb, plan then 'dial-up' speed (64k) for the rest of the month. I think I was paying about $120 a month for that!

Bung

6556 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2743

Subscriber

#1713136 31-Jan-2017 10:11

If it is not doomed it is rationed. I've just been through a "not available at your address" exercise yet Spark could do wireless broadband + phone. Skinny call centre said they hadn't been allocated any capacity at my address.

amiga500

1484 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 422
Inactive user

#1714744 2-Feb-2017 23:03

I think I will be staying with the $52.00 for 100 gb deal. I'd be saving $12 a month but only getting 40 gb. for $40.00.

chevrolux

4962 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2638
Inactive user

#1714752 2-Feb-2017 23:39

Bung: If it is not doomed it is rationed. I've just been through a "not available at your address" exercise yet Spark could do wireless broadband + phone. Skinny call centre said they hadn't been allocated any capacity at my address.

That's been made well known that the number of devices is being limited to the geographic area purely to manage capacity.

People look for conspiracies in their ISP these days purely because they choose to ignore the technical aspects of a sutuation or, for the most part, don't understand them what so ever.

dickytim

2514 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 537
Inactive user

#1714782 3-Feb-2017 06:04

Bung: If it is not doomed it is rationed. I've just been through a "not available at your address" exercise yet Spark could do wireless broadband + phone. Skinny call centre said they hadn't been allocated any capacity at my address.

This has been the case from the very beginning.

I am looking to change over to unlimited with Skinny, but that is with a fiancé about to take 6-8 months off work for a "holiday"...oops child rearing.

tangerz

627 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 167

#1714922 3-Feb-2017 12:18

chevrolux:
Bung: If it is not doomed it is rationed. I've just been through a "not available at your address" exercise yet Spark could do wireless broadband + phone. Skinny call centre said they hadn't been allocated any capacity at my address.

That's been made well known that the number of devices is being limited to the geographic area purely to manage capacity.

People look for conspiracies in their ISP these days purely because they choose to ignore the technical aspects of a sutuation or, for the most part, don't understand them what so ever.

That's it in a nutshell. People simply don't understand what's going on. There's no conspiracy, just good network management by Spark. Here's what I imagine they are doing:

Area 1: No network congestion. Large excess of capacity. => Sell some of the excess as Spark Wireless Broadband. Sell a large chunk of this excess as Skinny Wireless Broadband.

Area 2: No network congestion. Some excess capacity. => Sell this excess as Spark Wireless Broadband. Limited or No Skinny Wireless Broadband Available.

Area 3: Some network congestion. No excess capacity. => Limited or No Spark Wireless Broadband. No Skinny Wireless Broadband Available.

Area 4: Significant network congestion. No excess capacity. => No Spark Wireless Broadband Available. No Skinny Wireless Broadband Available. + Time for network upgrade!

As I said, this is just good network management by Spark. You can just imagine the outcry if it was a free-for-all with Wireless Broadband customers joining in areas already congested by mobile traffic. Not only would the performance of the Wireless Broadband be poor, it would impact the performance of the mobile users as well, something I imagine Spark would be unhappy about.

Bung

6556 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2743

Subscriber

#1714961 3-Feb-2017 14:02

Is capacity rationed as crudely as offer to Spark and Skinny customers inside 5km from cell site and only Spark customers outside this range? Signal on Spark's 4G 700 map is shown as good everywhere. Vodafone's 4G extended is shown varying in strength.

AliExpress

Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

tripper1000

1627 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1143

#1740171 16-Mar-2017 10:24

Bung: Is capacity rationed as crudely as offer to Spark and Skinny customers inside 5km from cell site and only Spark customers outside this range? Signal on Spark's 4G 700 map is shown as good everywhere. Vodafone's 4G extended is shown varying in strength.

According to sbiddle over here they are aiming to use 2300 MHz for FWA eventaully, so the areas were Fixed wireless is available may be regulated by this to a degree, and not necessarily everywhere they have mobile coverage.

tripper1000

1627 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1143

#1740175 16-Mar-2017 10:31

Whoops, gajan has confirmed that the above is not true.

amiga500

1484 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 422
Inactive user

#1743062 17-Mar-2017 21:57

Been on the Skinny wireless broadband for just over a year now. The Huawei B315 modem has worked perfectly the whole time on Windows and Linux. Still getting very good speeds most of the time so pretty happy with that too. Some months I use all my 100 gb and some months I am struggling to use it all.

1 | 2