Spark won't allow me to use 5G Broadband at my Greenlane house but my phone gets excellent 5G there

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark won't allow me to use 5G Broadband at my Greenlane house but my phone gets excellent 5G there

alanwalp

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#312895 27-May-2024 18:04

My house (Greenlane, Auckland) is just outside the 5G coverage area on Spark's website but it is elevated and I get good 5G coverage on my iphone.

I have asked Spark to change me to a 5G broadband modem (currently 4G broadband) but they won't allow me to.

Is there anyway around this? Do I need to speak to a more technical person at Spark?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Alan

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alanwalp

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3327036 2-Jan-2025 16:28

Hi All

Just a final update:

I tried a 5G modem with both 2 degrees and Spark over a few months, but the connection wasn't consistently stable with either one.

So, I got some fibre from the Chorus guys and installed it in conduit to the back of the house over a week or so. Then the Chorus guys came back and were happy they only had to connect both ends (even though they initially said I shouldn't install the modem in the location I put it) and our connection now is fast and stable.

In the end I haven't had to make a hole in the house or cut up the concrete, and while the aesthetics aren't quite so nice (ie I have a conduit running up a concrete wall), our internet (so far!) is proving much better.

Therefore, I think the original advice that many of you gave me to "just get fibre installed" turned out to be correct!

Many thanks

Alan

PS I'm now trying to figure out how to get the fast connection to all parts of the house. I get about 700/400Mbps from the modem itself, but the airport express extenders I have around the house are running closer to 100/100 or worse. I presume I either need different cables (although I think I have cat5E everywhere now) or the airport expresses are too old and need upgrading. Hopefully I'll figure this out ...

alanwalp

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3327509 4-Jan-2025 17:38

Final update (I hope!)

On investigation, I found:

The switch had a max speed of 100/100.
The way the switch was wired was slowing the speed to about 15/10 for some reason, I'm not sure exactly why but it may have been because the incoming ethernet wires were also connected into the phone for VOIP and perhaps this wiring was setup wrong and was reducing the speed somewhat because when I bypassed the "ADSL" I/O it seemed to speed up the switch to 100/100.

I have now

Bought the suggested TP-link AC1200 Wi-Fi to replace the Airport Express units.
Bought a new switch that runs at 1000/1000.

After installing the new switch, I now get

880/500 via ethernet throughout the house
650/450 via the TP-link wifi units
and the old airport express units are now giving me 100/100

So, happy days! Thanks so much to all those who made suggestions during this process, for a newbie like me it was super-helpful and got us to an excellent outcome!

Cheers, Happy New Year and all the best wishes for 2025 for you all!