Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


myfullflavour

896 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted
Full Flavour

#270078 22-Apr-2020 13:12
Send private message

If you live along a rural fibre (RBI) route, you may be eligible for a fixed-price installation of $1980+GST (plus some additional materials depending on your driveway length).

This mostly applies where fibre was run to nearby schools, cell towers and broadband cabinets a few years back.

Chorus have given notice that they will be removing rural fibre subsidies in March 2021.

You can request a NGA On Application (rural fibre quote) from Full Flavour here:
https://forms.gle/5mJcMs1TnNFnrZok9

Chorus release

RBI fibre build subsidy withdrawal
For a few years, as part the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI), we have subsidised charges for fibre build activities for many RBI users, based on certain location and density criteria. This programme recognised on the world stage for delivering social impact is now complete. We are giving 12-months’ notice of our intention to withdraw all subsidised fibre build charges under the RBI scheme, effective 18 March 2021.



Delivering social impact
Our priority for RBI was getting fibre to rural schools, medical facilities, mobile cell sites and some libraries followed by rural businesses and homes. As part of the RBI program we also installed or upgraded 1,200 cabinets with fibre backhaul and modem equipment to deliver fixed line broadband access to around 57% of rural New Zealand.

Thanks to this programme, 110,000 households and businesses got access to faster broadband. Before the cabinet upgrades, residents and businesses in these rural areas could generally only access broadband speeds of between one and five million bits per second. At the completion of the program, the average speed in these areas is about 10 Mbps.

The programme, in partnership with Network for Learning, also delivered fibre broadband to 1,000 rural schools, ensuring that students now have access to the same opportunities as their urban counterparts.



What’s happening
As of today, we are giving 12-months’ notice of our intention to withdraw all subsidised fibre build charges under the RBI scheme for new connections, effective 18 March 2021.

RBI is now complete, but we remain committed to continually improving broadband in rural New Zealand.

From 18 March 2021 all fibre build requests via our NGA on Application process for pricing to sites outside all Chorus UFB candidate areas will not be eligible for the current RBI Zone A (high density $810) and Zone B (medium density $1,980) fixed prices and will instead all be priced on a Zone C (low density) Price on Application basis.



View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic
 1 | 2
Lias
5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2467961 22-Apr-2020 15:54
Send private message

Interesting, I always thought they were running fiber to EVERY school but it seems that only ~97%of them do.

 

Ah well I guess my parents are never getting wired broadband at their retirement section, although it was already a stretch hoping they would run fibre 10km past the school to the next township and put a DSLAM in there.

 

Their choices will be 1 bar of Vodafone RBI or the utter rip off that is ThePacific.net (I legit wonder how they sleep at night with what they charge)





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.




boosacnoodle
963 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #2467968 22-Apr-2020 16:18
Send private message

Thanks for the heads-up. I would say the average person probably has no idea that they were even eligible for this offer, so I wonder what the take up actually looked like. I also can't think of many people I know that would meet the criteria that would be happy to pay the connection fee.


wratterus
1687 posts

Uber Geek


  #2467970 22-Apr-2020 16:26
Send private message

I assume this applied to everywhere covered on the 'Rural' section of Chorus's map?

 

Lias:

 

Interesting, I always thought they were running fiber to EVERY school but it seems that only ~97%of them do.

 

Ah well I guess my parents are never getting wired broadband at their retirement section, although it was already a stretch hoping they would run fibre 10km past the school to the next township and put a DSLAM in there.

 

Their choices will be 1 bar of Vodafone RBI or the utter rip off that is ThePacific.net (I legit wonder how they sleep at night with what they charge)

 

 

@Lias where roughly are your parents located?




myfullflavour

896 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted
Full Flavour

  #2468007 22-Apr-2020 18:13
Send private message

wratterus:

I assume this applied to everywhere covered on the 'Rural' section of Chorus's map?



@Lias where roughly are your parents located?



No, Chorus removed the rural fibre from their public map. Service providers still have access to it in a backend system.

The medium subsidy which has the broader eligibility requires road frontage of 50 to 100m per premise, otherwise full price-on-application (POA) applies.

Lias
5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2468077 22-Apr-2020 20:40
Send private message

wratterus:

 

@Lias where roughly are your parents located?

 

 

Currently still in Wellington, but are planning to retire to their place at St Omer/Nopera in the next year or two. There's a school 10km down the road at Waitaria Bay, which as noted I was kind of hopeful that if they were going to run fiber too they'd keep running it a bit further round, but it appears to be one of the unlucky few to never get fiber.





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.


wratterus
1687 posts

Uber Geek


  #2468111 22-Apr-2020 21:33
Send private message

Both Spark & Vodafone ought to have great 4G coverage around that area from the Kenepuru Sound tower I'd have thought? How recently have you checked it?


Scott3
3963 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

  #2468160 22-Apr-2020 23:44
Send private message

myfullflavour:

No, Chorus removed the rural fibre from their public map. Service providers still have access to it in a backend system.

The medium subsidy which has the broader eligibility requires road frontage of 50 to 100m per premise, otherwise full price-on-application (POA) applies.

 

 

 

Obviously nothing to do with full flavor, but it is a real pity that there is no public facing means of finding out about (potential) rural fiber coverage. Would be a big draw-card for say somebody looking for a lifestyle block to telecommute from.

 

Does anybody know if those with coverage have been marketed to (or notified that rural fiber is an option they could consider)?

 

 


 
 
 

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.
Lias
5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2468395 23-Apr-2020 09:42
Send private message

wratterus:

 

Both Spark & Vodafone ought to have great 4G coverage around that area from the Kenepuru Sound tower I'd have thought? How recently have you checked it?

 

 

I don't go there, the great outdoors and back to nature has no real appeal to me unless it also has high speed fibre lol. I mean yeah the view is nice but that in no way shape or form makes up for a lack of good broadband to me. 

 

I'll ask them if the coverage has improved, last time I talked to mum she got 1 bar on average.





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.


myfullflavour

896 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted
Full Flavour

  #2468402 23-Apr-2020 09:46
Send private message

Scott3: Obviously nothing to do with full flavor, but it is a real pity that there is no public facing means of finding out about (potential) rural fiber coverage. Would be a big draw-card for say somebody looking for a lifestyle block to telecommute from.


I'll see if I can get something published.

wratterus
1687 posts

Uber Geek


  #2468404 23-Apr-2020 09:47
Send private message

Click to see full size

 

Click to see full size

 

 

 

 


Lias
5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2468424 23-Apr-2020 10:05
Send private message

wratterus:

 

Click to see full size

 

Click to see full size

 

 

They are down the bottom somewhere between the end of the road and that campground. Doesn't look too bad on that coverage map but we all know the reality can sometimes be different lol. If the coverage has improved that's a definite bonus, because while RBI is still overpriced and has data caps it's lightyears better than the local WISP.





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.


wratterus
1687 posts

Uber Geek


  #2468445 23-Apr-2020 10:19
Send private message

As long as their devices support Band 28 on Spark, they ought to be mint there. 


Lias
5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2468451 23-Apr-2020 10:35
Send private message

wratterus:

 

As long as their devices support Band 28 on Spark, they ought to be mint there. 

 

 

I'm fairly sure both of them are on Vodafone. As for Band 28 support, last I checked I think mum had an iphone 5 or 6 so she  might be okay but dad's cellphone was a non smart flip phone that's probably old enough to have kids.





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.


old3eyes
9119 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

  #2468453 23-Apr-2020 10:41
Send private message

Lias:

 

Interesting, I always thought they were running fiber to EVERY school but it seems that only ~97%of them do.

 

Ah well I guess my parents are never getting wired broadband at their retirement section, although it was already a stretch hoping they would run fibre 10km past the school to the next township and put a DSLAM in there.

 

Their choices will be 1 bar of Vodafone RBI or the utter rip off that is ThePacific.net (I legit wonder how they sleep at night with what they charge)

 

 

Looks like they couldn't sleep as their website seems to have gone. 





Regards,

Old3eyes


quickymart
13924 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

  #2468565 23-Apr-2020 12:42
Send private message

? link worked when I tried it just now?


 1 | 2
View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.