Can't get Fibre, VDSL or Wireless - what are my options?

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Can't get Fibre, VDSL or Wireless - what are my options?

Carkus

33 posts

Geek

#261711 11-Dec-2019 13:52

So, yeah as per the title.

I live on a lifestyle block property in Paremoremo which is about 5-10 minutes drive out of Albany in Auckland. We're currently on Spark ADSL getting an unreliable 10Mb Down/1mb Up connection that's had a few faults in the last few years.

UFB did not come up our street, and the closest it went was down the main road which which is about 700-800m away. Spark's address checker says we can get VDSL, but I know that we are too far from the cabinet to enjoy any VDSL speeds. The tech who tried to install it years back failed to stand up the service and recommended we down-grade to ADSL for a more reliable connection.

After some recent faults with our DSL dropping, I've become more tired of our poor internet performance which is not great if my partner and I both want to use internet at the same time. My son will be old enough in a couple of years to want to stream things himself so it's going to get worse if we're all trying to use the internet at the same time.

Spark mobile coverage is terrible at our location, and doesn't appear to support Wireless there. My mobile is through Vodafone, and on their site it looks like they support 3G Mobile or possibly 4G with an aerial but I have no idea how reliable or fast that would be for our internet use. $165 for 200GB also seems a bit over priced if the connection is poor.

Can anyone make any recommendations for a better service, other than moving house?

Cheers

toejam316

1466 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2372462 11-Dec-2019 13:57

Stratanet might be a goer - not the cheapest, but better than a kick up the pants.

Otherwise there might be other WISPs operating in the area, or if you can get clean line of site you can talk to someone about setting up a point to point link between their place and yours to get Fibre on the go.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

engedib

254 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2372463 11-Dec-2019 13:59

Knock on a couple of doors down the road where they can get UFB.

Offer to half their broadband costs, upgrade the plan to 200Mbit+ and install a P2P wireless link to your place. Might need a bit of planning / cabling, but using a pair of Ubiquiti PowerBeams it's an easy solution :)

OldGeek

893 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2372487 11-Dec-2019 14:53

Try using broadband.nz . I found the best way to use an address-finder to get a picture of what is available at a specific address. Looking in your general area, this shows wireless availability from Vodafone and Connecta.

Hope this helps.

--

OldGeek.

Voyager referral code: https://refer.voyager.nz/6XQR2QG9Q

Lias

5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2372685 11-Dec-2019 19:22

There's always the option of asking Chorus to install fiber at your cost but you will cry.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13765 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2372687 11-Dec-2019 19:31

Lias:

There's always the option of asking Chorus to install fiber at your cost but you will cry.

Cheaper to move.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree

quickymart

13927 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#2372710 11-Dec-2019 20:39

Just remember your location to a major city/suburb/landmark means very little as to what you can get, but you should be able to get Wireless RBI there, surely?

coffeebaron

6231 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2372724 11-Dec-2019 20:50

Quite possible I can install an RBI 4G option. I've done a few in that area. Yes there are data caps, but that's just the nature of wireless. Another option, do you have line of site to the Waitakere's?
Anything feel free to flick me a message and we can get in touch.

Rural IT and Broadband support.

Broadband troubleshooting and master filter installs.
Starlink installer - one month free: https://www.starlink.com/?referral=RC-32845-88860-71
Wi-Fi and networking
Cel-Fi supply and installer - boost your mobile phone coverage legally

Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

gz343

24 posts

Geek

#2372866 12-Dec-2019 06:30

I was in the Vodafone store yesterday and they offer 240gb for $73 on their 'Home Wireless Broadband' plan.

You had to buy their $200 modem, though they did say I could use my own if I had one.

If you get decent Vodafone signal right now, it could be an option until you get a better solution.

Carkus

33 posts

Geek

#2372917 12-Dec-2019 08:26

gz343:

I was in the Vodafone store yesterday and they offer 240gb for $73 on their 'Home Wireless Broadband' plan.

You had to buy their $200 modem, though they did say I could use my own if I had one.

If you get decent Vodafone signal right now, it could be an option until you get a better solution.

Sweet, that's not too bad. I get about 3 bars of VF signal, just don't know how fast it will be on Wireless. I like to do gaming so have my reservations over how that would work.

Carkus

33 posts

Geek

#2372919 12-Dec-2019 08:29

coffeebaron: Quite possible I can install an RBI 4G option. I've done a few in that area. Yes there are data caps, but that's just the nature of wireless. Another option, do you have line of site to the Waitakere's?
Anything feel free to flick me a message and we can get in touch.

Hey, thanks for the reply. Yes we do have line of sight to the Waitakere's. I'd have to run some maybe 30m of ethernet cabling to top of our section, but that could be an option. What kind of speeds and costs are we looking at here? I'll PM you.

Carkus

33 posts

Geek

#2372933 12-Dec-2019 08:39

engedib:

Knock on a couple of doors down the road where they can get UFB.

Offer to half their broadband costs, upgrade the plan to 200Mbit+ and install a P2P wireless link to your place. Might need a bit of planning / cabling, but using a pair of Ubiquiti PowerBeams it's an easy solution :)

Yeah I'd considered that. With Wireless P2P, I'd prefer to have my own connection rather than leach and share someone else's. Was thinking I could use a secondary port on the Fibre ONT and install my own router to that, and then have a ubiquti nanostation send it over to our section to a receiver. We use some Ubiquiti NanoStations now as our Internet goes to the main house on the section where our router is located, and then we use a couple of those nanostations to send it about 50-70m to our dwelling. Great products.

I would be able to get LOS to a neighbour with fibre, but a lot of suitable houses in range are pretty flash and I don't know how keen they'd be for running cabling, drilling holes and mounting the ubiquiti gear outside. It takes a bit to set up as well to align and piss around with config so I doubt I i'll find someone keen to work with me.

I think a Wireless ISP would be a better solution if the performance is good.