Hi to you all. As always life is busy around here and Christmas is looming up pretty fast. We are currently about half way through a massive upgrade of our core network that runs Inspire, enabling us to add some new services such as Global Mode for people to get to the likes of Netflix and BBC iPlayer, and Boost VDSL for high speed copper broadband to your house, read on for more info.

Closing for our staff Christmas Function

On Saturday 13th December we will be closing our office and helpdesk at 12 noon for our staff to head to our Christmas function. As always, one staff member “volunteer” is being left in town to monitor and maintain the Inspire Network and make sure everything stays running while we are away. The helpdesk team will be back on deck Sunday 14th at 8:30am to assist if you have any problems.

DSL price increases

Due to a change in the way copper lines are priced in New Zealand we are having to change the price of our DSL (broadband over your phone line) services. Prices will go up by $25/month for people with a standard phone land line, and prices will go down for people who are on “naked” plans (where you just have broadband, and not a phone landline). If you get your broadband delivered over your phone line, you will receive a separate, more detailed email after this one explaining all the changes and your options within the next few hours. It’s not great news going into Christmas, but unfortunately we need to pass on the new costs charged to us from Chorus.

Boost VDSL

We are introducing a new VDSL product called Boost. Boost VDSL is a faster form of broadband over copper, and available to about 60% of people in New Zealand that have copper running in to their house. Boost VDSL will cost a little more than Fibre, but gives a much more consistent throughput of internet traffic than traditional ADSL broadband over copper lines. Pricing will go on our website in the next few days under the Residential Bitstream Section. If you have fibre available outside your house as part of the new Government funded fibre network rollout, we recommend fibre as a cheaper, faster, all round better option, but if fibre hasn’t passed your gate yet, Boost VDSL will give you an increase in speed and features while you wait for fibre to make it to your area.

The end of dial up

After 1st December we will no longer be offering dial up services, this only affects around 90 customers, and we are working with them to ensure they have other options for connectivity, either by moving to a broadband connection, or helping them move to one of the last few ISPs that still does dial up access. Looks like the end of the dial up era in New Zealand is underway.

UFB Fibre update

The government fibre rollout has been continuing around New Zealand, and many more people can now get fibre to their home (or business). Currently we are offering fibre connections on the new fibre networks being built in Palmerston North, Feilding, Whanganui, Levin, Masterton, Wellington (including the Hutt and Porirua), Blenheim, and we are just bringing on line a new router in Auckland so we can offer fibre connections in Auckland also. If you have had the Chorus or Ultrafast people dig fibre past your gate, why not think about upgrading to fibre.

Global Mode

As part of our network upgrade we are going to be enabling Global Mode on our fibre plans, and also the new Boost VDSL plans. Both fibre and VDSL give you a much faster connection, allowing you to be able to stream high definition TV at good quality. We will be bundling this with fibre and VDSL connections at no extra charge. When Global Mode is enabled, you will be able to use online services such as BBC iPlayer, and sign up for services like Netflix.

Christmas opening hours

Our helpdesk will be available from 8am to 10pm every day except Christmas day, and our office will be open all the standard business days right through Christmas.

Over the Christmas period we have a network “brown out” from December 15th through to January 12th. During this time we will not be installing any new fibre or wireless connections, or changing any of our core network equipment as part of our upgrade program, and similarly many of our service providers such as Ultrafast and Chorus will not be doing new installations over this period. If you have an order in place for a fibre or wireless connection, please be aware that delivery timeframes will stretch out over this period.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, travel safe, enjoy whatever break you manage to get, and we look forward to continuing to be your Internet provider of choice in the New Year.

Regards

James Watts
Founder, Inspire Net