We so often hear about bad news stories with ISPs, but rarely hear about the good news stories.  There seem to be even fewer stories about the just plain ordinary.  I thought I'd fix that.

My mother-in-law, recently moved from Napier to Palmerston North, needed to get hooked up with a phone and internet at her flat.  We looked at the options and settled on Orcon Genius 30GB (ADSL), as it was the best value option for her situation (not technically-minded, needed a simple solution that just worked). 

We filled out the online form last week (Tuesday night).  The following morning, the new email account was active.  On the same day, we received two emails - one confirming the delivery of her modem, and one advising the provisioning date of Wednesday 24 October.  By Thursday, the Orcon Genius arrived.  By 3pm yesterday, the line was active.  I went round and connected the Genius, and everything worked, first time.  The included handset worked, and the phone was active.  The internet connected without a hitch, and returned a speed of about 13.5Mbits (at 7pm) - I only get 5Mbits max at home (on Xnet)!

Overall, I was very impressed.  Everything went precisely according to plan.  Orcon delivered exactly what and when they promised.  The provided equipment and instructions did the job (though the Genius itself feels a bit plasticky, but that's just me I guess).  The whole experience was nothing out of the ordinary, but I thought it might be reassuring to some people who hear horror stories about ISPs - that sometimes (hopefully, most of the time) things just work.

Well done Orcon.