Kapiti Coast broadband speeds

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martyyn

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#96535 30-Jan-2012 12:05

Im interested to hear from anyone who lives (or even better, works from home) in and around the Kapiti Coast. Otaki Beach in particular.

My wife has been keen to move out there for a while now and my head is starting to turn to the idea. But I have to be sure we can get a decent internet speed as I would be looking to work from home. Weve been out there regularly the last couple of years but only have experience with Vodafone 3G which is patchy to non-existent. In fact I would go so far as to say it doesnt work at all anywhere near the beach.

Ive looked at all the relevant websites and whilst they all say 'oh yes, you'll get coverage' its the real-world I need to know about. Otaki Beach has no Telstraclear, Vodafone say I would get 'something' and Telecom say I would need to call to see what can be done. The Chorus service availability tool has it covered with an exchange but doesnt say where it is so I cant be sure how far away we might be from it. If its in the center of Otaki then Id guess it could be as far as 2, maybe 3km.

Ive done a search on GZ and most results are a few years old now. Maybe things have changed.

If anyone is already doing this Id love to hear from them.

[e] Ive now found the exchange is 3km from the beach so a reasonable distance.

Klipspringer

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#574890 30-Jan-2012 12:17

I live in Waikanae, and we have ADSL2+. We get about 13 MBit/s and Snap is my ISP. I cant fault the speed.

With regards to 3G, It works very well in Paraparaumu/Waikanae etc. I never have any issues connecting.

That said, further north there seem to be problems with Vodafone 3G as you described, no signal near the beach. But can't comment on the home broadband fixed connections.

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cyril7

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#574895 30-Jan-2012 12:20

Hi, I used to live and work from home in Waikanae, and used to deal with broadband issues as a job. Obviously if your in an HFC area then its the way to go but the network stops at Waikanae. As for Telecom DSL, the southern end of the coast (Piakakariki to Waikane) is pretty well serviced now as a result of cabinetisation, but the Chorus service availablity tool will give you a good idea of where coverage is or not.

Otaki beach is not well covered, the exchange is on Mill Rd back across from Otaki School (about 104 Mill Rd) so its approx 3km to the beach then upto 1km either way along the beach, so speeds will be at best ADSL1 (ie 5-8Mb/s).

Cyril

nickb800

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#574907 30-Jan-2012 12:39

I think slingshot has gear in the Otaki exchange, so if you go with them you could get adsl2+, but that introduces the issue of slingshot-quality internet, and any speed advantage would be dependent on the actual length of your phone line.

Edit: And as everyone else has said, ADSL2+ coverage is pretty good now since cabnetisation in Paekak - Waikanae. We get excellent speeds in Raumati Beach on Telecom DSL. Also there are a good cell site coverage in Paraparaumu Beach/ Waikanae Beach from 2d/VF/TCom so mobile broadband speeds are also pretty good in that area.

cyril7

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#574909 30-Jan-2012 12:41

Hi nick, Telecoms equipment in Otaki exchange is ADSL2+ also, its just the 3-4km of cable to the beach means any service provided to there from that exchange will have faded to ADSL1 speeds regardless of who;s DSLAM is connected.

Cyril

martyyn

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#574915 30-Jan-2012 12:53

Thanks everyone,

The house were looking at is exactly 3km from the exchange (according to google maps) if you follow the road (and its straight down one road too). But its whether the lines go directly to the beach and then 'fan out' or if they 'fan out' from the exchange in the first place.

Id be interested to know what the XT connection would be like. I have a t-stick somewhere, Ill have to put some credit on it and go out there for a test.

sbiddle

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#574918 30-Jan-2012 13:07

There are new cabinets beingdeployed in Otaki as part of the RBI but not until 2015.

mclean

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#574925 30-Jan-2012 13:21

Hi Martyn

I live close to the beach at Paraparaumu. Neither XT nor Vodafone 3G work at my house. We can get a signal from both using a high gain yagi at about 6m high, but of course you need extra gear to make this work. There are lots of holes in the coverage like this, although the telco's and phone sellers won't acknowledge it. Its the little hills and valleys in what used to be the coastal dunes.

If you're looking at a house in the beach area the only way to know is to test inside the house, in each room, at various time of the day.

Our kids have regular "phone runs" - take all the phones to the end of the street, wait, then home again with all the messages!

allan

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#574942 30-Jan-2012 13:57

Recently while having weekend break at Otaki Beach, we attended an Open Home in Konini St (north-eastern end of the beach) and I can confirm that the owner definitely had an ADSL modem/router set up. They weren't there at the time of course, so no idea of speeds (and we weren't serious about a potential purchase).

There was definitely a Telecom mobile signal, but I wasn't doing anything with data, so can't help re 3G speeds sorry.

johnr

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#574951 30-Jan-2012 14:28

mclean: Hi Martyn

I live close to the beach at Paraparaumu. Neither XT nor Vodafone 3G work at my house. We can get a signal from both using a high gain yagi at about 6m high, but of course you need extra gear to make this work. There are lots of holes in the coverage like this, although the telco's and phone sellers won't acknowledge

What do the Telco coverage maps show for your address? The coverage map should reflect coverage up to the road side and not inside houses or property that can't be drive tested and mapped

John

cyril7

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#574959 30-Jan-2012 14:51

Hi john both Voda (900 3G) and XT maps show poor coverage over most of the beach area, and my experience with both supports that, useless at best.

Cyril

mclean

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#574968 30-Jan-2012 15:22

johnr:

What do the Telco coverage maps show for your address? The coverage map should reflect coverage up to the road side and not inside houses or property that can't be drive tested and mapped.

Vodofone map says 2/2.5G Yes, 3G No, 3G Extended Maybe. Telecom map says Good. So perhaps it is not entirely fair to say that Vodofone doesn't acknowledge it.

I doesn't alter the fact that no mobile phone of any sort works at my address. Even if Martyyn was planning to run his business from the road-side he'd be out of luck if he bought my place.

But then we're spoilt with Telstra Clear cable

martyyn

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#656173 15-Jul-2012 20:43

Bringing this back from the dead in case anyone is interested, we are finally here !

I'm getting 6mb on Telecom, with patchy 3g at best on vodafone and little to no connection on 2degrees.

how will we cope !

samdouglas

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#663451 28-Jul-2012 22:30

Martyyn I live I'm raumati and found the Vodafone coverage wasn't fantastic, especially in my house where I was getting dropouts or when traveling up north. Moved to xt afterwards and it was significantly better.
Disclosure: I currently work for telecom, but didn't at the time of swapping over and did so because it was better, not because I get it free now ;)

chevrolux

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#663575 29-Jul-2012 13:05

I have been doing some contract work for a Wireless ISP and just recently did an install at Waikawa beach. I didn't think we would have any chance as the closest repeater site is up Gladstone rd in Levin. But I got the radio up and was able to bind to the AP with great signal strength. They offer symmetrical speed plans of 3/5/10Mbps. I think they want to scrap the 3Mbps plan and offer a higher speed above 10Mbps but only for people in really strong coverage areas. Also the plans are all going to change as they are quite expensive at the moment. If there were enough people who might be keen for a faster broadband connection they would definitely look in to building a repeater site.

martyyn

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#665977 2-Aug-2012 10:56

Hi Sam, thats interesting. Before we moved I sat outside the house with my wifes 2D phone, my VF phone and an XT stick on the laptop and there was little to chose between both VF and XT. Obviously being at the extremities of coverage will give varied results but I find I need to be at one end of the house to be sure of my VF connection.

Another thread has been started in the 2d forum where the person has identical issues to my wife where she often has no connection at all for extended periods of the day.

Chevrolux, I did see some wireless ISP's in my research before moving but didnt go any further once I knew Id get speeds around 7Mb. Thats plenty for what I need (although neither iplayer nor netflix believe its enough to stream nicely) but the lack of 2D coverage is starting to become a problem.