Spark offer to upgrade to 100 from 30 at same cost

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark offer to upgrade to 100 from 30 at same cost

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671 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#1481415 29-Jan-2016 18:37

But yes, now WiFi is the bottleneck!

I plugged into the Ethernet cable and that speed was 80/20, better than 35/20 over wifi. Would a better router make a difference?

ps2jak2

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#1481544 29-Jan-2016 22:31

SheriffNZ:
But yes, now WiFi is the bottleneck!

I plugged into the Ethernet cable and that speed was 80/20, better than 35/20 over wifi. Would a better router make a difference?

Whats your router? - 80/20 implies you only have 100mbit wired and 35/20 wifi probably means the device itself is quite old. You really need something with 1gbit ethernet and solid wireless N to get the most of it and an acceptable plug and play option would be to buy Sparks latest HG659B (or see if you can get one by signing another contract if you don't see yourself moving). It definitely isn't top of anything but its 100% plug and play rather than having to configure VLAN 10 and all that and has wireless AC / decent wireless N and gigabit ethernet. They retail for $200 from Spark and to get anything with the right support thats noticeably better your looking at closer to $300.

jonb

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#1481575 29-Jan-2016 23:28

The Spark standard router is the hg630b, which is a 100mbps device. The best I have got is 93/20 over Ethernet., 70/20 over n-wifi. The main benefit of 100/20 UFB isn't for higher speeds to a single device though, but to allow multiple users to do intensive tasks at the same time. It is fit for purpose in that respect, in my opinion. Hg659 would be better though ..

ps2jak2

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#1481578 29-Jan-2016 23:41

jonb: The Spark standard router is the hg630b, which is a 100mbps device. The best I have got is 93/20 over Ethernet., 70/20 over n-wifi. The main benefit of 100/20 UFB isn't for higher speeds to a single device though, but to allow multiple users to do intensive tasks at the same time. It is fit for purpose in that respect, in my opinion. Hg659 would be better though ..

They list the 659b as the fibre device now which is how I managed to get mine when I upgraded to 100mbit. - I beleive its quite a recent change though. The 630b is listed the VDSL router and an even more basic one for ADSL. I'm guessing they've done this because most fibre connections will be 100+ and the likes of Vodafone have been providing the 659 for ages on all fibre plans. I sometimes get as high as 104mbit down to Spark wellington servers and 20 up with Gigabit ethernet and my Wireless N is about the same as yours. The AC wifi on my hg659b can go higher (around 85 on a good day) but I have to be close as its inherently inhibited by being 5GHZ.

SheriffNZ

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#1481622 30-Jan-2016 09:09

jonb: The main benefit of 100/20 UFB isn't for higher speeds to a single device though, but to allow multiple users to do intensive tasks at the same time.

Thanks for reminding me. I don't seem to have any issues with the speed on my 630b, other than not being able to reach 100/20. If I hadn't have tested it, I wouldn't have noticed any "problems".

droidxt

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Geek
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#1482950 1-Feb-2016 16:20

ITGirl:

We had the same email, however be careful that if you have a landline, make sure that the slider is set to with landline as it defaults to naked plan. We are now without a phone line but the speed has been increased. That took about 6 days to complete as the order goes to Chorus first and has to wait until they tick the completed box to send back to Spark to amend their side before passing to the accounts team to adjust your account.

Our phone line has now been in limbo for 9 days.

I selected the landline option. Got the speed upgrade on 28th, but phoneline went down. After 4 support calls with spark, no progress. Spark support has been useless, I'm guessing they need to talk to the fibre company (Ultrafast Fibre in my case) to get it sorted... But 5 days - seriously..?

xontech

268 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#1484241 3-Feb-2016 11:21

xontech:

xontech:

antant:

Hi all,

Has anyone actually had their upgrade completed yet ... I ordered pretty much straight away, requesting it to be done last Monday, although admittedly that was perhaps a bit too optimistic of them to give that date and for me to choose it ... just wondering how long it normally takes for them to do it?

Thanks!

When I asked Spark they said 7 to 14 business days. I'm at business day 5 at the moment, will see how it goes.

Got an email early this morning to say the order had been processed and completed. So that was 7 business days.

I'm not sure the upgrade has actually happened as speedtest is not showing any difference in speed, either up or down (wired gig connection through to the Spark supplied router, using Sparks speedtest server). Just rebooting everything now and if still no joy I guess I'll ping Spark and see if they can see what is going on.

Turned out that with my upgrade request only 2 of the 3 systems that need updating were done. Meaning I was effectively getting 30/10. Spark updated the 3rd system and a few day later I started getting simlar speeds to those mentioned (approx. 38Mbps on iPhone and laptop wifi, 94Mbps on wired mac mini).

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

jonb

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#1484302 3-Feb-2016 13:06

I asked about the hg630b issue to online chat this morning, and the Broadband team called back later. After explaining the issue they are now swapping it for a hg659 for no cost.

xontech

268 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#1484311 3-Feb-2016 13:18

jonb:

I asked about the hg630b issue to online chat this morning, and the Broadband team called back later. After explaining the issue they are now swapping it for a hg659 for no cost.

Would you mind explaining what the hg630b issue you had was? Are you (& Spark?) saying that it can't deal with throughput to make use of 100/20 plan?

Thanks.

jonb

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#1484325 3-Feb-2016 13:34

Same issue as described above, a wired speedtest on the Spark speedtest widget maxes out at ~90/20, with wi-fi off and no other devices. It isn't a major problem, but would like to get full benefit of 100/20 UFB, and the customer service person from the broadband team was ok with sending a hg659 and returning the hg630.

xontech

268 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 56

#1484330 3-Feb-2016 13:39

jonb:

Same issue as described above, a wired speedtest on the Spark speedtest widget maxes out at ~90/20, with wi-fi off and no other devices. It isn't a major problem, but would like to get full benefit of 100/20 UFB, and the customer service person from the broadband team was ok with sending a hg659 and returning the hg630.

Thanks. I'm in the same situation so was assessing if it was worth trying the same thing. Think I will......

SheriffNZ

671 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 317

#1484344 3-Feb-2016 14:02

xontech:

jonb:

Same issue as described above, a wired speedtest on the Spark speedtest widget maxes out at ~90/20, with wi-fi off and no other devices. It isn't a major problem, but would like to get full benefit of 100/20 UFB, and the customer service person from the broadband team was ok with sending a hg659 and returning the hg630.

Thanks. I'm in the same situation so was assessing if it was worth trying the same thing. Think I will......

Count me in too....

xontech

268 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 56

#1484348 3-Feb-2016 14:08

SheriffNZ:

xontech:

jonb:

Same issue as described above, a wired speedtest on the Spark speedtest widget maxes out at ~90/20, with wi-fi off and no other devices. It isn't a major problem, but would like to get full benefit of 100/20 UFB, and the customer service person from the broadband team was ok with sending a hg659 and returning the hg630.

Thanks. I'm in the same situation so was assessing if it was worth trying the same thing. Think I will......

Count me in too....

Maybe not so fast :-)

Response I have received is that I should try changing wireless channels as it may be interference. I'll accept that and do further testing.

For wired, 92Mbps is acceptable (which I also agree with).

SheriffNZ

671 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 317

#1484358 3-Feb-2016 14:13

xontech:

SheriffNZ:

xontech:

jonb:

Same issue as described above, a wired speedtest on the Spark speedtest widget maxes out at ~90/20, with wi-fi off and no other devices. It isn't a major problem, but would like to get full benefit of 100/20 UFB, and the customer service person from the broadband team was ok with sending a hg659 and returning the hg630.

Thanks. I'm in the same situation so was assessing if it was worth trying the same thing. Think I will......

Count me in too....

Maybe not so fast :-)

Response I have received is that I should try changing wireless channels as it may be interference. I'll accept that and do further testing.

For wired, 92Mbps is acceptable (which I also agree with).

I got 82Mbps via eithernet the one time I tested it (other than my apple tv, I'm on wifi for everything) and it's a pain to regularly test.

Beaglz

14 posts

Geek

#1487315 8-Feb-2016 11:25

Beaglz:

It would be interesting to know the length of time and location it is taking for people's UFB upgrades to be taking. I see a number of people of commented on the number of days it has taken but not their location....

I am coming upto 2 weeks this weekend (North Shore) and no sign of my data plan being upgraded to 'unlimited' let alone anything on the speed change.

Mind you I did sign up for the landline phone change over to fibre in early November (or was it October) and received the cordless phone 7th December then nothing happened. Had to sign up again (and got offered another phone) before the job was actioned over a week ago. Would have thought the jobs would have been done at the same time.

Also upgraded to a 'broadband & mobile bundle' which saves $10 a month - couldn't be done initially as there was another job logged for my phone number so seems only one job can be done at a time?

Must be time to crack open a cold one!

Update - Now 3 weeks since I signed up for unlimited broadband and UFB upgrade from 30/10 to 100/20. Technically that is 3 calendar weeks and one could argue it isn't 15 business days but Spark does provide a service 7 days a week...

Still no change in data cap or change in speed (or any update regarding the works). Got a reply to an email sent on Friday yesterday saying there was a mixup and they are investigating. Now they want to know whether I want copper landline re-instated or naked broadband! Responded that I want neither as the switch from copper to fibre landline had been completed. Just want datacap and speed upgraded - didn't think it was that complicated!

Finger crossed for this week although I will not be holding my breath!

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