WombatNET. Young Kiwi connects rural properties to high speed internet

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › WombatNET. Young Kiwi connects rural properties to high speed internet

Eva888

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#284513 27-Apr-2021 09:38

He has proved that necessity is the mother of invention.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/prosper/124941352/teenager-bringing-highspeed-internet-to-rural-communities-other-telcos-forget?cid=app-iPad

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#2698665 27-Apr-2021 10:17

Yep, discussed here on Geekzone a year ago...

sbiddle

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#2698667 27-Apr-2021 10:31

And nothing has really changed in a year.

I'm not knocking his business or his idea - but there are WISPs all over the country doing this that don't get annual feel good stories written by Stuff saying about the great job they're doing. Looking at his page the coverage footprint suggests maybe 3 sites now in Upper Hutt and Kapiti, with the vast majority of that coverage footprint being urban and already well served by UFB.

tchart

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#2698737 27-Apr-2021 13:25

sbiddle:

I'm not knocking his business or his idea - but there are WISPs all over the country doing this that don't get annual feel good stories written by Stuff saying about the great job they're doing. Looking at his page the coverage footprint suggests maybe 3 sites now in Upper Hutt and Kapiti, with the vast majority of that coverage footprint being urban and already well served by UFB.

Not sure about Kapiti @sbiddle but I am part of the Whitemans Valley/Mangaroa group on Facebook where there has been plenty of good feedback about WombatNET. The problem with Whitemans Valley/Mangaroa is that while its close to Upper Hutt its geographically separated by a big hill with limited telco infrastructure.

Upper Hutt may be well served by UFB but most people in Whitemans Valley/Mangaroa are on crappy ADSL connections (<5mbps and frequent outages). I dont think RBI is any better over there.

I suspect the tower sites are in Upper Hutt but they are relaying into the valley which is where the problem is.

nztim

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#2698871 27-Apr-2021 16:47

I have a customer using them north of Upper Hutt who cant get anymore than 3mbps DSL despite trying to get them groomed to a Cabinet 700m away

we lost them as a client but UFB will be available in 1 years time and they Wombatnet will be gone and we will get them back

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

CYaBro

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#2698889 27-Apr-2021 16:58

How long will these WISPs last now that Starlink is starting to become available?

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snnet

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#2698906 27-Apr-2021 17:43

CYaBro:

How long will these WISPs last now that Starlink is starting to become available?

You'll probably find a few people won't want to join Starlink just yet because of the install fee - especially if they're renting and the landlord won't front the fee.. but it's going to be great for some people who don't want to pay 200k for fibre who are stuck on 1Mbit or less on fixed line because cell coverage is rubbish etc

quickymart

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#2698938 27-Apr-2021 19:13

sbiddle:

And nothing has really changed in a year.

I'm not knocking his business or his idea - but there are WISPs all over the country doing this that don't get annual feel good stories written by Stuff saying about the great job they're doing. Looking at his page the coverage footprint suggests maybe 3 sites now in Upper Hutt and Kapiti, with the vast majority of that coverage footprint being urban and already well served by UFB.

I always thought (even as I was creating my other thread) the interest in him was only really there because of his age.

Looking at the comments on the article, quite a few people there saying Starlink is rubbish and expensive, and his system will be so much better - but I guess time will tell on that one.

If he had decent coverage to more rural areas, my personal opinion is he would have more of a sporting chance, but covering the Hutt Valley, which has ADSL, VDSL, cable and fibre, as well as probably a whole raft of other WISPs? Sorry I don't see him standing out from the crowd.

Tim - what makes you say he'll be gone in a year? According to him (in that article, anyway) demand is going through the roof.

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nztim

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#2698949 27-Apr-2021 19:25

quickymart:Tim - what makes you say he'll be gone in a year? According to him (in that article, anyway) demand is going through the roof

Wombat will be gone at the client un UH where UFB will be present in 2022

we only lost them as we couldn’t do better than 3.5mbps xDSL

But that changes is a years time

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sbiddle

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#2698951 27-Apr-2021 19:30

tchart:

sbiddle:

I'm not knocking his business or his idea - but there are WISPs all over the country doing this that don't get annual feel good stories written by Stuff saying about the great job they're doing. Looking at his page the coverage footprint suggests maybe 3 sites now in Upper Hutt and Kapiti, with the vast majority of that coverage footprint being urban and already well served by UFB.

Not sure about Kapiti @sbiddle but I am part of the Whitemans Valley/Mangaroa group on Facebook where there has been plenty of good feedback about WombatNET. The problem with Whitemans Valley/Mangaroa is that while its close to Upper Hutt its geographically separated by a big hill with limited telco infrastructure.

Upper Hutt may be well served by UFB but most people in Whitemans Valley/Mangaroa are on crappy ADSL connections (<5mbps and frequent outages). I dont think RBI is any better over there.

I suspect the tower sites are in Upper Hutt but they are relaying into the valley which is where the problem is.

I know the limitations of Whitemans Valley, but the issues aren't with everybody there. The Katherine Mansfield area (and Mangaroa) where a significant number of houses are have fantastic VDSL2 coverage and performance.

I was actually looking at the Chorus system today and it's amazing in an area with VDSL2 how many people are stuck on ADSL2+ and probably complaining about performance as upload saturation is such a massive issue these days on ADSL2+, you can spot so many cases of people with 18-20Mbps sync rates surrounded by people on VDSL2 who are seeing 50 - 60Mbps and they will probably have 5 - 10Mbps (or potentially even higher) upload.

nztim

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#2698976 27-Apr-2021 20:14

sbiddle:

I was actually looking at the Chorus system today and it's amazing in an area with VDSL2 how many people are stuck on ADSL2+ and probably complaining about performance as upload saturation is such a massive issue these days on ADSL2+, you can spot so many cases of people with 18-20Mbps sync rates surrounded by people on VDSL2 who are seeing 50 - 60Mbps and they will probably have 5 - 10Mbps (or potentially even higher) upload.

Those users are probably with RSPs that want to shove their FWA product down their throat and aren't going to offer VDSL as an alternative, people need to shop around

Also there are those people that could get 130mbps VDSL and only get 10-20 because of a lack of a master filter on their line - this is the case poking around addresses in pauatahanui

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quickymart

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#2698994 27-Apr-2021 21:35

A lot of the comments on that article also state that he should expand here, or there, or everywhere - but I'm curious to know how he's going to make all that work when he only charges barely $39 a month for his service - and it's uncapped too.
Edit: looks like the pricing determines what speed you'll get: https://www.wombatnet.co.nz/airfibre-pricing

His coverage map looks the same as when I checked it last time - mostly Upper Hutt and the Kapiti Coast, both of which are fairly well served already, AFAIK, but as tchart points out there's possibly a few areas that aren't covered by existing networks that he could reach out to.

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#2700427 1-May-2021 11:52

quickymart: His coverage map looks the same as when I checked it last time - mostly Upper Hutt and the Kapiti Coast, both of which are fairly well served already, AFAIK, but as tchart points out there's possibly a few areas that aren't covered by existing networks that he could reach out to.

I know a chap in Whitemans Valley who has crap internet. He's considering Star Link because he got nowhere with WombatNET.

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#2700435 1-May-2021 12:04

What happened? No/limited coverage?

nztim

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#2700494 1-May-2021 15:25

quickymart:

What happened? No/limited coverage?

There are parts of Upper Hutt that internet speeds are like its 2004

4mbps ADSL at best, some of those areas are due to get Fibre by 2022 but others its going to be 4mbps for the forseeable futre

Starlink should change all that though, if the service becomes affordable, and caps are of a decent size

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Dratsab

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#2700502 1-May-2021 15:50

quickymart: What happened? No/limited coverage?

He's outside of the WombatNET coverage area so initially they didn't bother responding to his query. When he sent another one, about 6 months later, and indicated they could put a repeater on his land (he has some good elevation which would give coverage to around another 32 houses) they wanted $6k.

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