The NBN

[jody]

My mother was told she had to change over to the NBN as everyone has to...I find this bullshit, I am right?

[KTJ]

The copper landlines are on the way out in many parts of New Zealand.

By law, Chorus (who operate the national copper wire network along with a rapidly expanding fibre network) only have to continue to support the copper wire network until 2020 in areas where fibre has been installed. In practice, they are allowing the copper wire network to deteriorate in areas where fibre has been laid out and brought into use.

I got pissed off with the continual outages in the copper wire network in my neighbourhood whenever we got heavy rain. Whenever I complained to Spark (my phone and internet provider), they passed it on to Chorus who came and fixed it, but each time it only lasted until the next lot of heavy rain. One of the Chorus faultmen told me the cabinet around the corner which feeds my street is stuffed, but management won't authorise replacing it, hence the ongoing problems.

So, a few weeks ago, after yet another outage, I decided I had had enough. I ditched the copper wire and went over to 4G mobile broadband for both internet and phone. It actually costs me $40 per month less for the same services, including 120GB of internet data per month (most months I only chew through 40-50GB) and no toll charges for phone calls anywhere in NZ. Virtually any phone call I make in NZ is a local call, and in NZ we don't pay for local calls as it is part of the monthly service fee. I also managed to retain all the same smart-phone services I had before too. Plus, I can phone my brother in Australia and talk to him for up to two hours for only five dollars.

The only downside is that in a power cut, I lose my home phone until the power comes back on, but I can still use my mobile phone; plus I have a portable 4G mobile modum which I can use to access the internet during a power cut, so long as I keep it charged up.

[jody]

She's on it from today and hates it already...phone isn't working, internet slow.

[jody]

I'll let her know, thanks