Farmside trialling unlimited rural 4G broadband $79/m

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Farmside trialling unlimited rural 4G broadband $79/m

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hio77

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#2729318 15-Jun-2021 19:53

Let's be honest here, ISP's don't want to do this as it means offering lower speeds - so they can't upsell the copper customers.

However, Customers want "unlimited" even if they don't really need that.

this is a gamble on that basis, there will be a massive * FAIR USE APPLIES astrix. and you can almost be sure that's enforced very closely.

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tim0001

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#2729321 15-Jun-2021 20:10

@halper86

Unfortunately the CIP report didn’t say what the minimum speed was. But the woolliness in the target allows them to drop well below the minimum speed sometimes.

A reliable 5Mbps would be adequate for some people (myself included). It would be a big upgrade actually. The RBI2 target doesn’t give me a great degree of confidence though.

To be fair, the chorus adsl2+ minimum spec is pretty low too at only 32kbps

coffeebaron

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#2729367 15-Jun-2021 21:47

I think the RBI2 target speed is suppose to be 20Mbps down.

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halper86

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#2729378 15-Jun-2021 22:32

Thanks for the clarification @antonknee . OP @tim0001 the minimum speed for EUBA (ADSL2+) is 64kbps (https://sp.chorus.co.nz/system/files/resources_files/Enhanced%20UBA%20User%20Guide%20.pdf)(sec 6.2), but in reality people usually receive more than this. I hope @coffeebaron that this is the case, as 5mbps would be unusable in todays standards.

@hio77 yup I called shots on this earlier, I wonder how big the trial is going to be

halper86

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#2729385 15-Jun-2021 22:55

Aucklandjafa:

How do RSP's share bandwidth/spectrum on RBI sites. Is it split into thirds? Or is it a free-for-all, meaning any RSP (ie voda/farmside) can offer unlimited plans and degrade the experience for all users from all telcos?

I must have been distracted as I have only just saw this. RCG sites are MoRAN - meaning that all 3 provide services from a single site - using shared gear and antennas - but use a 1/3 of the spectrum each to deliver service to their own customers. (https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=255647)< Press release from admin Re: RCG

-e- I'm not 100% sure on your actual question (rbi instead of rcg), but I would imagine that there is no splitting of spectrum as the service is wholesaled from VF, with terms and conditions set by CIP so it is fair and anticompetitive. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

halper86

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#2729387 15-Jun-2021 23:08

section 68, unfortunately parts have been withheld but mentions about having extra spectrum to be allocated at no cost, to meet the RBI2 contractual obligations.

tim0001

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#2729451 16-Jun-2021 09:33

@halper86

For some rural adls users the speed limitation is not the sync rate but the shared backhaul on the DSLAM. Some ISAMs are still connected via copper backhaul (at say 6Mbps). When you get a 100 people trying to share that backhaul the performance is pedestrian at best. (Happy to PM some SamKnows performance graphs.)

I hope we are not heading down the same road with RBI2.

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hio77

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#2729501 16-Jun-2021 10:37

halper86:

@hio77 yup I called shots on this earlier, I wonder how big the trial is going to be

I doubt it will go far, particularly when you get into how RBI is billed etc, there are a ton of holes to look at if they start shaping etc and calling it unlimited (same as the mobile product)

I'm sure my ex-collogues at spark are watching this pretty close, with very strong battles between we should do it and the capacity folk turning around and saying it's just not feasible without impacting KPIs etc.

Probably about all I can say though...

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tim0001

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#2729604 16-Jun-2021 12:53

Here's the press release from VF/Farmside

rbi2unlimited

“There is spare network capacity in a number of the recently built Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI2) cell sites, so we are trialling an unlimited RBI2 broadband service for $79.99 a month, launching at Fieldays. We’ll be reaching out to households in certain geographical areas to let them know if their address can connect to RBI2 broadband and access unlimited anytime data. We’ll then assess whether we can offer unlimited RBI2 data plans longer-term.”

Linux

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#2729633 16-Jun-2021 13:31

RCG sites can burst into the other carriers spectrum / band for extra performance if required

freitasm

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#2729635 16-Jun-2021 13:33

tim0001:

More details on the Herald (pay walled)

The press release:

As Fieldays gets started, Vodafone is proud to offer rural Aotearoa new connectivity options including trialling a RBI2 Unlimited Broadband service for people who live in the second Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI2) area.

This comes as Vodafone ramps up network investments to expand its regional coverage footprint around Aotearoa, and as part of the Rural Connectivity Group (RCG) to build more cell towers in rural New Zealand under the RBI2 program.

This three-month RBI2 Unlimited Broadband trial sees Farmside, Vodafone’s rural broadband specialist, offer unlimited wireless broadband* for $79.99 a month to households within the geographical RBI2 area, with the trial also open to wireless internet service providers (WISPs) as part of Vodafone’s wholesale agreements.

Ralph Brayham, Vodafone NZ’s acting Consumer & SME Director, says: “Increasing digital inclusion and closing the rural-urban digital divide in Aotearoa is incredibly important, and we want to offer affordable data services to more New Zealanders. This involves delivering great connectivity to rural New Zealanders by selling broadband services via Farmside as well as providing wholesale services to WISPs.

“Throughout 2020, with Covid-19 making the internet essential to work and learn remotely, data use increased by 56% on the Vodafone network. Following the explosion of data use via applications such as Netflix, YouTube and Zoom, we’ve been upgrading the Vodafone network across urban and regional Aotearoa, plus working with the Rural Connectivity Group (RCG) in country areas.

“To provide rural customers with access to more data while also protecting the network for all users, last year Farmside launched new innovative products including unlimited daytime data boosters which have been really well received.

“There is spare network capacity in a number of the recently built Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI2) cell sites, so we are trialling an unlimited RBI2 broadband service for $79.99 a month, launching at Fieldays. We’ll be reaching out to households in certain geographical areas to let them know if their address can connect to RBI2 broadband and access unlimited anytime data. We’ll then assess whether we can offer unlimited RBI2 data plans longer-term.”

RBI2 seeks to provide fast broadband to the greatest number of under-served rural homes and businesses within the funding available. In August 2017, the Rural Connectivity Group (RCG) was appointed by the government to bring more 4G mobile and wireless broadband coverage to rural New Zealand - and has just passed the milestone of 250 cell sites built under this program.

RBI2 is separate from the RBI1, which was completed in June 2016 and included 154 new cell towers delivered by Vodafone.

The two initiatives (RBI1 and RBI2) have different capacity constraints, and are delivered under different operating models, which relates to the range of services Vodafone can provide to its customers.

For more information, please visit www.vodafone.co.nz or www.farmside.co.nz. Vodafone is a proud partner of Fieldays.

*Fair use policy applies, as per customer terms & conditions. Trial ends 30 September 2021, after which date Vodafone will determine if the RBI2 Unlimited Broadband plan can continue and/or be extended. Customer numbers are limited within the trial period.

RedactedRetracted

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#2730418 17-Jun-2021 22:17

Interesting. We're lucky in that Spark offers their Unplan Wireless plans at our RBI2 site, which are effectively unlimited for us as far as I can tell (the terms and conditions only state that they can move you to Fibre or another plan at their discretion if you exceed 350 GB, but there's no other plans (not even ADSL) available at all!), but would be good to have some more options, as I assume Vodafone will have to wholesale this to other ISPs if they introduce such a plan.

sbiddle

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#2730451 18-Jun-2021 07:28

RedactedRetracted:

Interesting. We're lucky in that Spark offers their Unplan Wireless plans at our RBI2 site, which are effectively unlimited for us as far as I can tell (the terms and conditions only state that they can move you to Fibre or another plan at their discretion if you exceed 350 GB, but there's no other plans (not even ADSL) available at all!), but would be good to have some more options, as I assume Vodafone will have to wholesale this to other ISPs if they introduce such a plan.

Vodafone hadn't announced any wholesale offering (when I say hadn't - nothing had still been announced earlier in the week before this offering was officially live), which is why this is so controversial.

atomeara

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#2731584 20-Jun-2021 16:54

halper86:

Thanks for the clarification @antonknee . OP @tim0001 the minimum speed for EUBA (ADSL2+) is 64kbps (https://sp.chorus.co.nz/system/files/resources_files/Enhanced%20UBA%20User%20Guide%20.pdf)(sec 6.2), but in reality people usually receive more than this. I hope @coffeebaron that this is the case, as 5mbps would be unusable in todays standards.

@hio77 yup I called shots on this earlier, I wonder how big the trial is going to be

Not going to hijack this thread for Chorus copper stuff

The old Conklins are all gone.

All Chorus copper broadband services are now all on the Nokia ISAMs, for any cabinets that are fibre fed they are now under the Chorus Congestion free network obligation.
This does not apply to the DSL line sync, but beyond that it does (Chorus side), so in most cases you should get near line speed, that obviously also depends on the ISPs network but doesn't tend to be to much of an issue these days.

https://sp.chorus.co.nz/download-file/2207

This also does not apply to any non fibre fed cabinets, there are about 200 of the 7800 copper broadband cabinets using either radio or copper backhaul. How congested these are depends on the backhaul type, number of customers and traffic generated by these customers.

There are still continuing to upgrade some of these to fibre backhaul and are still install new copper cabinets in some rural places, however it seems to be a pretty slow pace. Expecting a number of them on the lower West coast one fibre is completed. Only Haast township is tagged for UFB currently.

As for the other part about using Chorus Fibre for RCG cell sites, I have previously looked at a bunch of sites, it seems very hit and miss by region, the West Coast of the South Island seems to be about 80% Chorus fibre but I go to other places and can't find any.

Having one on fibre and others using radio back to the one with fibre also seems common.

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