Moving to Masterton

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cshwone

193 posts

Master Geek

# 180828 23-Sep-2015 09:27

Hi, we are in the process of moving across to the Wairarapa from Kapiti. Since we arrived in the country we have always had Telstra/Vodafone cable Internet which has generally been fault free (until recently). So I have no experience of ISPs other than Telstra/Voda.

I see that Masterton has UFB and have looked at the plans generally available and they all seem much of a muchness. So I think what is going to sway mme is the quality of service, reliability, NZ based call centre etc.

Would appreciate input in helping chose an ISP.

Thanks

wasabi2k

2092 posts

Uber Geek

# 1392495 23-Sep-2015 09:39

Have always had great success with Spark... but in AKL.

sidefx

3365 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 1392506 23-Sep-2015 09:49

One person supports this post

Awesome, having UFB available is a big bonus :)

I've been very happy with snap, now snapdegrees (or 2 degrees if you insist) performance. Seems they are undergoing some teething issues with changing to the 2 degrees brand, but based on stories here no worse than any of the horror stories from other providers including vodafone. Performance certainly still seems very solid for me so IMO that hasn't been affected by the 2 degrees rebranding\marketing\etc. Our street will be getting UFB in the next couple of months (I hope! It's supposed to anyway) and after some consideration I've just signed up to a new 12 month contract so will be sticking with them for UFB.

The router (fritzbox 7490) they supply is really top notch. I chose to go with their naked plan and 2talk for VOIP, which is easy enough to configure on the fritxbox, but they also have a VOIP offering which may be less hassle.

The other option I'd consider is bigpipe. They're a bit more BYO (as in router, ATA, VOIP, etc - they don't offer these AFAIK so you would need to supply your own) But by all accounts they're also very good on the performance and pricing fronts. EDIT: Hmm.. though looking on their website it looks like they may not have a UFB offering in Masterton.

DarthKermit

5000 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 1392536 23-Sep-2015 10:05

I see that all of Masterton's UFB coverage area is now complete.

Rikkitic

Lock him up!
10955 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

# 1392568 23-Sep-2015 10:22

If service is important to you look for the smallest local provider you can find. I am with Netspeed (not ufb, unfortunately) and I love them. The owner/operator always answers when I ring and we are on first-name terms. No queues and no getting lost in overseas call centre shuffles. They are reselling Vodafone so I get the the quality of that without the frustrations of having to deal with them.

I don't think there is ever a bad time to talk about how absurd war is, how old men make decisions and young people die. - George Clooney

cshwone

193 posts

Master Geek

# 1394801 26-Sep-2015 11:53

Thanks for the responses. It looks like 2 degrees is my best bet. We are all on their mobiles and I had forgotten that they did broadband. (Onset of senility !!!)

Yorkshirekid

149 posts

Master Geek

# 1394956 26-Sep-2015 17:38

I'm not allowed UFB as the guy at the top of our driveway (who lives in Oz), won't sign to allow the 5 ppl down here to have this service. So, we are stuffed. So if you are moving to a house with a shared driveway - check out this aspect first mate.

FWIW - A friend who works for the local tech company and lives just outside the CBD is with Spark He said his speeds are super quick (can't recall the up/down, sorry) and he's very happy.

mattwnz

15283 posts

Uber Geek

# 1394988 26-Sep-2015 18:26

Yorkshirekid: I'm not allowed UFB as the guy at the top of our driveway (who lives in Oz), won't sign to allow the 5 ppl down here to have this service. So, we are stuffed. So if you are moving to a house with a shared driveway - check out this aspect first mate.

FWIW - A friend who works for the local tech company and lives just outside the CBD is with Spark He said his speeds are super quick (can't recall the up/down, sorry) and he's very happy.

Can't you take that to the disputes tribunal? If someone is selling their house, that sort of thing could affect whether someone buys it, so surely there are ways around that. Maybe some form of easement, even if you have to do it overhead.

Yorkshirekid

149 posts

Master Geek

# 1394993 26-Sep-2015 18:43

Nope - explored all avenues over the last 18months. i started before the fibre was even laid in the street. The law is that if one person opposes, then that's it pal - stuffed. Even if we have 10,000 ppl down a shared driveway, 1 person can kill it for all.

A Bill has gone to parliment to challenge this. And you know how long those things can take. Basically, by the time anything is passed we will all have to pay for the install. The thing that really urks me is that he is a millionaire and lives overseass, coming back about 3 times a year to see relatives.