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.


Beccara

1469 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#93031 11-Nov-2011 13:46
Send private message

We just released this today

 
Media release
11 November 2011
Northland’s wireless broadband provider Uber Group takes issue with Vodafone’s claim to “break
the digital divide” Northland-based wireless broadband provider Uber Group is querying claims by Vodafone that the beginnings of its rollout under the Government’s $285 million Rural Broadband Initiative is providing “thousands of families with the first opportunity to get good quality broadband”.

Uber Group has been providing wireless broadband in rural communities since 2003, and covers Northland from Te Kao to Warkworth and Snells Beach from over 100 transmission sites (see
http://www.ubergroup.co.nz/cov/wireless/)

Managing Director Hayden Simon says that despite the recent rhetoric, many rural dwellers have been
enjoying the same or faster speeds than those available in the cities for several years now.
“Time and time again I hear that there has been no coverage in rural areas and it’s simply untrue. We have been working with rural communities since we began, as have other providers around the country.”

Mr Simon says his company’s service is faster and cheaper than what is proposed by the large competitor. “Our customers enjoy the benefits of stable, symmetric 5 Mbps internet access with optional phone services, compared to the Vodafone offering which has peak speeds of 5 Mbps – and that is only on download, while their upload speed is considerably slower. 

“Our installation and setup fee is cheaper, as are our monthly package plans, and our maximum data cap is 100Gb compared to their 10Gb.”

As well as this, Mr Simon says the enterprise-grade technology Uber Group uses means that in almost all
cases, the company is aware of a customer fault before the customer notices it, and often has it resolved without the customer ever being aware of it. “As a result, customers rarely need to call us, which saves them time and means we can put our time and resources into constantly improving our service,” he says.

While Mr Simon acknowledges the effort and investment being put into making sure that all New Zealanders have access to fast broadband, he says that he and other regional wireless providers like his company are frustrated that their larger competitors are claiming to offer something that has never been available before.

“More importantly, taxpayers may be paying for broadband infrastructure to be duplicated in areas where
there is existing coverage – often better than what is being proposed – that has the capacity to handle all the traffic likely to be generated.

“Small companies like ours – and there are a number of them throughout New Zealand – have taken the
risks, raised the money and set up the infrastructure to bring wireless broadband services to where they are most needed, and now we have what in our view is government-funded competition which is not in either ours or the taxpayers’ best interests,” he says. “At the very least we want to let people know that there are alternatives and that in many cases they are faster, more cost-effective, and more reliable.”

For more information:
Hayden Simon, Managing Director, Uber Group
Phone 09 438 5472 | Mobile 021 0707014 | hayden.simon@ubergroup.co.nz
 




Most problems are the result of previous solutions...

All comment's I make are my own personal opinion and do not in any way, shape or form reflect the views of current or former employers unless specifically stated 

Create new topic
Zeon
3916 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #544276 11-Nov-2011 14:32
Send private message

Haha fair enough - its always funny when the big Telco PR lacky makes some far reaching statement without doing 5 mins of research.

Is ubergroup's wireless wholesaled though?




Speedtest 2019-10-14




NonprayingMantis
6434 posts

Uber Geek


  #544292 11-Nov-2011 15:11
Send private message


It?s pretty simple. If what uber says is true then they must already have all the customers in that area what with being the only provider.
That being the case, why is Vodafone evn bothering to roll out their product when uber?s is faster, better quality, and cheaper. Surely nobody will bother switching to Vodafone if they already have a superior cheaper product with uber.
Either voda are wasting millions rolling out a wireless service where there will be zero customers, or uber are just talking BS. I don?t know.

DonGould
3892 posts

Uber Geek


  #544412 11-Nov-2011 21:55
Send private message

VF have to provide a wholesale margin in this product don't they.

I think this is not really bad news for WISPs. Yes, WISPs are going to have to do some marketing, but it should grow service demand as well.

What we do need is to see some TrueNet stats on these providers and more consumer education by all of us.

I personally suspect that Telecom and VF will really just put the product out there but not really expect to sell that much of it. What they will sell is mobile broadband.





Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz




raytaylor
4014 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #545809 15-Nov-2011 23:28
Send private message

Same here in Hawkes Bay.
Im already able to provide a 2-15mbit connection to my rural customers and could build 10 transmission sites for the same cost of one cell tower.

Just did a speed test for a customer in Whirinaki today. 8.6mbit download speed.
Vodafone sticks and telecom sticks dont really work out there because of the multipath effects caused by the ocean during bad weather.

In most other areas that are already deemed covered, its just the reliability that people love more than the speed. As long as they can get 2mbit without loosing signal then they are happy.





Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here


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.