UFB coverage - what is the ISP page actually checking?

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Oldmanakbar

110 posts

Master Geek

#162217 2-Feb-2015 12:37

When you punch in your address on an ISP coverage checker, what does it actually check? And can different ISP's check different data?

The reason I ask is this. I currently have UFB with Vodafone, for various reasons I am looking to move away from them to another provider.
Yet when I check with Snap, Spark, Orcon and most interestingly Vodafone, they all say that UFB is unavailable at my address.

My Republic is actually the only ISP that says I can get UFB. The Chorus map itself says Fibre200 is available.

Oddly enough if I put in my street all the houses from 1 through 14 say no UFB but anything higher is fine. Which is odd considering the UFB enters my cul-de-sac near house number 1.

Now the ISP I am moving to has nicely agreed to sign me up manually via email as my ETP and flashing ONT should be proof enough the service is available. So I should be fine from here on in, but I am genuinely interested how the coverage checkers can be incorrect. Note they were all correct when I bought the house 6 months ago. Pretty amusing my current ISP says I cannot get it, when I am paying for it.

I get how they can be out of date, and new connected houses might not be there yet. But months later removing a bit of a street?

Can anyone shine some light on the subject?

Cheers

ubergeeknz

3344 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Vocus

#1227645 2-Feb-2015 12:38

ISPs need to build a handover in each region to supply UFB. Whereabouts are you?

BarTender

3606 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1227658 2-Feb-2015 12:54

If you check this Chorus page (assuming you are in a Chorus fibre are) they list all Retail providers who have a handover in the area.

https://www.chorus.co.nz/getting-ufb

It may also depend on if you are in a Fibre only area, as some providers such as Spark don't currently provide service in Fibre only areas because they can't deliver phone service over anything other than Copper.

May be worth asking if you can get Naked Broadband too.

Oldmanakbar

110 posts

Master Geek

#1227912 2-Feb-2015 17:30

I am in the suburban wellington area, aka pretty much all of the ISP's (apart from Bigpipe grrr!) have service for UFB here.

From one of the replies I am unsure if I made myself clear in my Post.
I have UFB already and it is working. When I moved in 6 months ago, all the usual ISP line checkers said UFB was available at my address, and now they do not.
This makes it difficult for some (not me) to switch ISP as the option is simply not there for a lot of them.

My question is, what are they checking with these tools exactly? As it differs from reality, and what was there before.

DarkShadow

1647 posts

Uber Geek

#1229062 2-Feb-2015 22:35

Chorus provides a big CSV file of all the addresses in the country and what you can get at each place. That's what the ISP websites are looking up against. It's not that accurate.

If you call up the ISPs and ask for a manual prequal, they can do a live lookup on the Chorus database. This is more accurate but still not 100%. There will be cases when the prequal say service is available only to find it's not when the tech turns up on site.