Anyone using Skinny Wireless broadband? Any good?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Anyone using Skinny Wireless broadband? Any good?

Hiamie

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#247769 22-Feb-2019 09:48

I am considering changing from VDSL to Skinny's wireless broadband using 4G. Before i give up my VDSL connection, I thought i'd see if anyone here has any comments. There is a cost saving to be made, and hopefully the service will be a little better, along with ultra simple installation.

At the moment my Spark VDSL meets my needs, I occasionally have buffering with On Demand TV, but mostly it is OK, and my daughter enjoys gaming (particularly League of Legends) and again the VDSL is OK, but she tells me she would like it to perform better ideally. Not sure if the ping value is important to her, I assume it is tho.

I am located close to Auckland city CBD (in Parnell) with lots of cell sites around me.

Can anyone tell me how they find the service? Can they game OK using it. And is on demand TV reliable. Any other comments welcome.

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#2185241 22-Feb-2019 09:56

My sister is on it (she had rubbish ADSL, no access to VDSL and outside plans for UFB) and finds it fine, though her needs are fairly limited. Way faster than her ADSL, and good enough for VOD; she's certainly not a gamer, so can't comment on that!

The one thing is I haven't been able to sort out for her is the use of her DNS service (Getflix) to be able to access BBC etc, which she had been using with ADSL; while the DNS servers are showing in the router, it just doesn't work. (I'm not sure if she's tried to load them in the device itself.) Not sure if an issue with the router itself or a limitation overall of 4G BB.

1024kb

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#2185291 22-Feb-2019 10:59

I use Skinny, having switched from Telecom. Skinny's conditions are far less onerous, they're much easier to deal with. Get a good site & your speed will far exceed VDSL rates. Their charges are very reasonable although there's no unlimited option. $58 for 240GB is all good.

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michaelmurfy

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#2185292 22-Feb-2019 11:02

Is there UFB available at your location?

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Talkiet

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#2185293 22-Feb-2019 11:07

If your VDSL is decent already, I would personally recommend staying on it. Wireless 4G is MUCH simpler to install, and as you say, is cheaper - but performance wise a reasonable VDSL connection will be better, especially in terms of latency and packet loss which will be important for games.

If you have a really bad VDSL connection though, the 4G wireless might be a good choice (if the VDSL issue isn't a simple to fix wiring fault).

What are your VDSL line stats (from the modem)

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robjg63

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#2185298 22-Feb-2019 11:26

Hiamie:

I am located close to Auckland city CBD (in Parnell) with lots of cell sites around me.

Fairly sure you should be in a Fibre area. Fibre would be hugely better than 4G.

EDIT: I looked at the Chorus Fibre map - No idea how accurate that is.

Have heard that the 4G Broadband can be quite hit and miss and somewhat subject to congestion at peak times. Maybe they have thrown more resources at this so I wouldnt swear that this is still a problem - but it was a common complaint a while ago.

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SATTV

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#2185301 22-Feb-2019 11:32

I had skinny for a few months, I am in a crap DSL area, N VDSL and UFB this year if we a re lucky.

While speed was good for the first few months I regularly could not get anything, I think they over subscribed my area.

I went back to DSL.

I have now gone to Netspeed ( Via Vodafone )because the DSL died and Chorus refused to fix it as UFB was coming soon. That was 18 month ago.

Netspeed does cost more but was a gazilliaon times more reliable than DSL and considerably more reliable than skinny.

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Hiamie

354 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2185389 22-Feb-2019 13:59

Yes, there is fiber here in the street, and i know that is the best option, but exploring other simpler, and maybe cheaper alternatives first.

Everything in the house is connected via wifi, except my daughters gaming pc, which is connected by ethernet. She was connected with wifi, but insists that the Ethernet connection works better, so I ran a dedicated cable to her room.

Thanks everyone for your feedback, any further feedback is still welcome.

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Zeon

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#2185393 22-Feb-2019 14:18

The thing with 4G is that it may start out good but as they pile more subscribers on it gets slower and worse over time as everyone goes for a slice of it. Connections like VDSL or fibre are dedicated and not susceptible to congestion (at least not in your local area) and should have better latency and be more reliable.

it's difficult to argue against cost though.

Speedtest 2019-10-14

nickb800

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#2185457 22-Feb-2019 15:40

I've done this - moving from fibreX to skinny wireless to save a few $. Been a month so far, not sure I'd recommend it as the peak time slow down can be a pain with streaming video stuttering

alasta

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#2185461 22-Feb-2019 15:55

I have never tried the Spark or Skinny offerings but I have been on Vodafone Home Wireless for two years and have absolutely no complaints. I live on my own and don't have demanding requirements, but I stream video from time to time and it works perfectly.

coffeebaron

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#2185540 22-Feb-2019 19:26

30 day money back guarantee on the 4G modem, so try it, leave VDSL connected, then either send it back within 30 days, or cancel the VDSL if it works well.

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PhantomNVD

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#2185598 22-Feb-2019 21:59

I subscribed to skinny BB from their launch, originally connecting to a tower over 25kms away and maxing at 8mb/1m (download/upload) as I refused to pay chorus rediculous $1,500 copper ‘connection’ fee for my new built home, especially as fibre was due in 4 years as a free installation (roughly $400/year cost for the copper installation at that time).

A few months later they upgraded my local tower to support it and I shot up to 42/20, but this only lasted a couple of months before steadily reducing over the next year to the current 12/2... still happily streaming Nflix etc, but even App updates are faster and easier on my 2D 4G dataclock free hour... so (as above) I’d definitely recommend keeping the VDSL as it has no congestion issues... and I dream of being in an area that offers Fibre already... my innitial fibre date was 2020, now pushed out to 2022... so I’m stuck on mobile options until they eventually decide I’m worthy to throw my money at them for fibre 🤷‍♂️

hio77

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#2185599 22-Feb-2019 22:03

PhantomNVD: so I’m stuck on mobile options until they eventually decide I’m worthy to throw my money at them for fibre 🤷‍♂️

There are upgrades headed your way fyi...

Also probably worth switching to B618 if possible.

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nzlogan

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#2185645 22-Feb-2019 23:06

Recently connected a house to Skinny Wireless from VDSL - the VDSL connection was only getting around 13/1Mbps down/up though (I think it was around 2km from exchange though), so probably not a fair comparison. Using Skinny's 4G on my mobile I was getting 150+/20Mbps down/up consistently at that location. From the feedback I've heard from my parents it is significantly better than the VDSL connection so they're probably seeing similar speeds to the Skinny 4G on mobile.

hio77

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#2185646 22-Feb-2019 23:08

nzlogan:

Recently connected a house to Skinny Wireless from VDSL - the VDSL connection was only getting around 13/1Mbps down/up though (I think it was around 2km from exchange though), so probably not a fair comparison. Using Skinny's 4G on my mobile I was getting 150+/20Mbps down/up consistently at that location. From the feedback I've heard from my parents it is significantly better than the VDSL connection so they're probably seeing similar speeds to the Skinny 4G on mobile.

Very Nice. i'd put them at about 1.5KM from the tower?

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