Spark Home Wireless - feedback wanted

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bbunnys

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Topic # 240055 18-Aug-2018 08:37

So long story short, currently we live in CHCH and have fibre which is great.

But looking at going out to the countryside and where we are looking seems ADSL and im guess Home Wireless are only options. Get 3 bars of 4g on phone. So figures reception is fine for wireless broadband.

But looking for some feedback of how people like it? Would have to use Spark 240gb plan as thats already way less data than we use on fibre. But think ADSL unlimited will be way to slow to stream Youtube etc. and cant find any plans more than 240gb on wireless.

Can you stream video ok on Home Wireless, seems they say speeds are up to 36Mbps max. But does weather effect it at all. Would mean a lot less watching Netflix for me (hopefully they do bigger plan in future) but with two girls approaching teenage years. Would need decent internet for them, for facetime with friends, online school work etc.

sbiddle

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Reply # 2075168 18-Aug-2018 09:01

Have you looked at options for local wireless providers? These will almost certainly be a better option than Spark.

D.W

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Reply # 2075181 18-Aug-2018 09:08

I'm in Chch (rural, Diamond Harbour), and can only get ADSL. We get around 15Mbit down, which manages to stream Netflix in 4K. YouTube can stream in 1080p fine or 4K with a bit of buffering.

Usually the 240GB options aren't available in rural areas, so that may well not be an option.

I tried Spark Wireless but found the speed to be inconsistent (it was much slower in the evenings, sometimes slower than my ADSL), so switched back to ADSL.

bbunnys

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Reply # 2075187 18-Aug-2018 09:26

D.W:

I'm in Chch (rural, Diamond Harbour), and can only get ADSL. We get around 15Mbit down, which manages to stream Netflix in 4K. YouTube can stream in 1080p fine or 4K with a bit of buffering.

Usually the 240GB options aren't available in rural areas, so that may well not be an option.

I tried Spark Wireless but found the speed to be inconsistent (it was much slower in the evenings, sometimes slower than my ADSL), so switched back to ADSL.

Interesting you get 15Mbit down. As when I search for my area (Selwyn) says the max I can expect on ADSL is 10.

Looking on national broadband map says Diamond Harbour ADSL is 1-20Mbps. But Selwyn is on 1-10Mbps. So provided data is correct, id strugle to get decent speeds for streaming on ADSL.

sootyandsweep

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Reply # 2075188 18-Aug-2018 09:29

Agree as above. Rural Wairarapa and cant get the 240 so stuck on 120. Usual speeds here around 10mbps but slows in evening. We even went and installed the Yagi antenna after reading on here to try and speed up but no real luck. Interesting thing was previously with Vodafone Wireless and speed was usually 30mbps without slowing and transmitters share the same site and that was without antenna. Spark 10mbps seems to run everything ok though but if I wasnt sucked into the 12 month term I would be changing back to Vodafone.

cyril7

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Reply # 2075196 18-Aug-2018 10:02

Hi, here is a WISP operating in your area, worth checking out, although most wisps only offer around 10Mb/s, that said I see both of the lower tier plans on UBB are 20/5 and the top one with no data cap states full speed, not sure what that taps out at.

Cyril