Spark vs Skinny for Fibre

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark vs Skinny for Fibre

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cokemaster

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#2997598 17-Nov-2022 18:37

I would never recommend Spark Broadband (or Spark mobile for that matter) over Skinny UNLESS there was a value add, feature or some combo that made it more cost effective.

They go over the same networks and offer the same coverage footprints - so performance is not going to be a factor. For vanilla only broadband, you’d be a fool not to choose Skinny over Spark. You are paying for the “premium service” that includes innovations such as the 30 day notice fee and credit card payment fees.

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#2997708 18-Nov-2022 06:42

cokemaster: I would never recommend Spark Broadband (or Spark mobile for that matter) over Skinny UNLESS there was a value add, feature or some combo that made it more cost effective.

They go over the same networks and offer the same coverage footprints - so performance is not going to be a factor. For vanilla only broadband, you’d be a fool not to choose Skinny over Spark. You are paying for the “premium service” that includes innovations such as the 30 day notice fee and credit card payment fees.

I don’t know, I’d say a very good chunk of people have a Netflix sub, making Spark cheaper. I also now pay $52/month for my mobile, thanks to team up, for 14gb vs Skinny’s 12gb for $49.83/month. You still can’t three-way call on Skinny too or do IFP etc.

Horses for courses

cokemaster

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#2997717 18-Nov-2022 07:51

Fully appreciate where you’re coming from. My point is that unless there is some compelling price, package or service (eg. 3 way calling as you suggested), the default position I recommend is Skinny over Spark.

Personally I get better value elsewhere… but that’s another thread/ story.

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Aucklandjafa

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#2997863 18-Nov-2022 11:34

cokemaster: Fully appreciate where you’re coming from. My point is that unless there is some compelling price, package or service (eg. 3 way calling as you suggested), the default position I recommend is Skinny over Spark.

Personally I get better value elsewhere… but that’s another thread/ story.

Oh, definitely. There sure are better-value providers out there, but if you require to use Spark’s network, especially mobile for coverage etc, then the Spark vs Skinny pricing has nothing in it these days. Exception being Skinny’s 6 months free fibre - that’s hard to beat anywhere

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#2998301 19-Nov-2022 09:40

surfisup1000:

alasta:

Thanks. I have no idea what a VLAN10 is so I'm guessing it wouldn't affect me.

I wonder why the Skinny offering is so much cheaper than the competition. Do they cut corners on customer support?

VLAN10 doesn't affect you, but you need to remember to change the vlan settings if your router is coming from another ISP that used it.

Since I went with skinny fibre a year or so back, skinny support has been good. You shouldn't need customer support after your connection is up and running since UFB is very reliable.

Skinny fibre is cheap because I believe their profit margin must be 0! I'm guessing they are trying to ramp up their customer base? But, what's the point without profit?

Also, skinny fibre is not kneecapped with CGNAT like quite a few other ISP's . It means you can easily run plex, vpn, and other such good stuff.

Oh really, has Skinny fibre not use CGNAT? Is that a recent thing?

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#2998302 19-Nov-2022 09:47

They used to, but ceased after migrating to Sparks broadband core.

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CutCutCut

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#2998304 19-Nov-2022 09:49

cokemaster: They used to, but ceased after migrating to Sparks broadband core.

Ok right good to know.

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#2998446 19-Nov-2022 14:04

CutCutCut:

Oh really, has Skinny fibre not use CGNAT? Is that a recent thing?

I've been with Skinny Broadband since 2017. Hasn't used CGNAT in the time I have been with them.

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#2998535 19-Nov-2022 21:45

alasta:

Yeah, I get that.

The thing is, on Spark I have to pay a $13 a month fee to have internet access on my watch. That's in addition to a $29 difference between Spark and Skinny for the core services that I use.

If I'm paying $29 for a premium service then I would have thought that it should cover add-ons like this. I'd be happy to pay a $13 a month fee on Skinny but they don't offer the wearables service at all.

As I noted, premium vs no frills. The pricing doesn't reflect that you get more for your dollar, but that you get more things to spend your dollars on. The features you're seeking aren't features you can have if you're price sensitive, because no one has implemented them except Spark (yet).

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#2999042 21-Nov-2022 08:49

farcus:

CutCutCut:

Oh really, has Skinny fibre not use CGNAT? Is that a recent thing?

I've been with Skinny Broadband since 2017. Hasn't used CGNAT in the time I have been with them.

Spark moved all Skinny subscriber handovers off the custom Skinny BNG hardware onto the Spark Broadband BNGs in 2016/2017 as it was one of the things that was being talked about around the time I left Spark.

So from a network point of view there is no technical difference between the two as both are handing out dynamic IPs from the same DHCP pool for non-static IP address customers.

I do find it interesting post here saying "I would always chose Skinny over Spark" as the only point of differentiation is the bundled addons and perhaps a $10 saving between similar plans. Seems super odd that the race to the bottom is determined between what is good and what is not is the cost of two coffees per month not the lack of CGNAT for any customers, uncongested domestic and international capacity, a network that is robust due to BNGs with redundant core connections placed near the LFC handovers, never have buffering with streaming services due to CDNs placed close to the customers and has far fewer network outages in comparison to most other larger providers.

What has always fascinated me over all these years is the complaints in Geekzone, considering Spark has/had 50% of the Broadband market for a long time it should represent 50% of the complaints on here. Whereas my rough guesstimate is Vodafone far outweigh the problems real-users have with their internet, and Spark only has 10-15% of the issues as there can be literally a week go by with no one complaining about their Spark broadband on here.

That isn't by accident and has taken a lot of work to achieve that.

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