Knew this was coming but just heard this merger has become official, ending another era of small independent RSPs

I worked there from 1998 to 2006 and saw lots of technological change starting with 28k8 modems (24 of them in a rack), then 33k6 - we were too far from the exchange to be reliable so a PCM circuit was installed (which would have cost thousands back then) - The final upgrade was 56k delivered over an PRA circuit into an Cisco AS5300 - Radius was not popular back then, I remember using TACAS+ for authentication.

Most people were on Windows95 when I started but there were still a few Window 3.11 around,
battling to get Trumpet Winsock to play nice was a favourite past time.

Before ADSL was even a thing we were installing wireless broadband all round Hamilton - In those days each install cost us round $1500-$2000 worth of equipment - We had little competition with Walker Wireless, GoLive & later Wired Country being the only others in that market.

When ADSL came along most corporate customers initially stayed on Wireless. Data back then on ADSL was hellishly expensive - The migration from home users from dialup to ADSL was slow.

We did lose a bit of our customer base to i4free which provided free internet by passing on terminating charges between Telecom and Clear Communications.

Bandwidth started out with a 1.6mbps wireless link to the Waikato University, followed by a 2mbps DDS circuit, and finally a 10mbps FX circuit, which was what was used up until my departure.

Another thing I remember doing was bonding dialup connections using linux with the PPP Multilink protocol where DSL or a wireless connection was not possible.

To Kiwi Internet, good luck and look after the SatLan customers. Some have been customers before I started working there.