Message from James
Where has the start of the year gone? It's hard to believe we're into the 5th month of the year, but as always it's been a busy time here, and we've been up to all sorts of things around the place...

Our team seems to be ever growing, and we've welcomed 3 new staff so far this year. We now have 36 team members and as we grow we want to ensure that we continue to focus on service to our customers, and not turn into one of those call centres everybody hates the thought of calling. Real people, real service is what we're all about, and we're refocusing teams into areas which will best suit both our client and business needs and help to maintain or even better the service levels we offer to you, our customers.

Another area we've been focusing on is our plans and pricing, and we're excited to announce that we have made some updates which may benefit you. Take a look at the upgrades below:

Residential Plan and Pricing updates

• Residential Ultra Fast Broadband
  - 100GB plans will all be upgraded to 200GB at no extra charge. That's double the data for free!
  - Flat Rate plans will become $10 cheaper than they are currently, meaning you might need to adjust your automatic payments, but you will be saving $10 per month. Direct debit customers will just see us debit $10 less per month after your next monthly roll over.
• Residential DSL
  - ADSL and VDSL are now merged as one product, yet stay the same price with added benefits.
  - 100GB plans will all be upgraded to 200GB at no extra charge. That's also double the data for free! Take a look at your account usage and you'll notice the extra data available!
  - Flat Rate will become $10 cheaper.
• We will be grandfathering our old 5Gbyte plan, so that means no new signups, and if you are on this plan you can stay on it for the near future, but if you upgrade to a bigger plan, you will not be able to change back down to the 5GByte plan. These days we have very few people on the 5Gbyte plan due to the change in the way people use the internet for so many more parts of their lives.
• Our Inspire Wireless plans will remain unchanged at this stage, however watch this space! We have put in a bid for some grant funding under the Government RBI2 program, and until we understand the outcome of this process around mid August, we are deferring any plan changes on our wireless network so that customers do not end up getting changed now, and changed again after the RBI decisions are announced.
• Inspire Business services, Voice over IP, and Virtual PABX services
  If you would like John Stroud, our sales guy, to call on you to talk about your business requirements, be it internet, fibre, wireless, VDSL, putting in a Virtual PABX for your business or anything along those lines, give the Help desk a call and they can put him in touch.

If you have any queries about any of these updates or you wish to change your plan after learning of these changes, give us a call on 0800 484 363, we'll be happy to help. We hope you enjoy the upgrades, and want to thank you for being a loyal Inspire customer.

Ronald McDonald House sponsorship
We were approached by a member of our community who had a child up at Starship hospital and they mentioned the need for easily accessible Internet access in the family accommodation, so that families could contact loved ones and keep in touch while away from home. We have worked with Ronald McDonald House around a partnership programme and will be heading to Auckland to install a managed WiFi network at the two Ronald McDonald House venues in Auckland in June. We will be sponsoring all installation and connectivity costs for the next 3 years and providing support through our Palmerston North Help Desk. We're excited about this partnership and hope that it will provide some comfort to those families.

Inspire Prepay
We have made progress at Trentham Camp and the first barracks are now online with our Inspire Prepay WiFi. Fergusson Hall and Mile apartments have been upgraded to newer faster WiFi equipment, and we have recently completed installs into the accommodation at Baxters and Palmy 31. We are now working through replacing legacy Student City WiFi with Inspire Prepay. Check out our updated Prepay website, which is now a whole lot more user-friendly and responsive on mobile devices. www.inspireprepay.net.nz Let us know what you think!

Fibre into subdivision updates
We're expanding "Inspire land", and below are the subdivisions that we're installing our own fibre into!

Woodgate: We have a cabinet there and are busy signing up customers as new houses are built.

Hiwinui: We are awaiting some easements to get started, the new subdivision is underway and the new roads are expected to be starting before the end of April, we are hoping to liven our first customers in May.

Waitarere Beach: New subdivision underway, signed and sealed for us to connect.

Halcombe: New subdivision with roads just starting to be formed, will be getting our fibre to every section.

Cheers,

Founder, Inspire Net

Message from Paul, our General Manager
Firstly, I would like to welcome our 3 new staff members, Raymond, Aimee and Kevin.

Raymond is the latest member of our Help desk team, and is quickly learning the ropes.
Aimee looks after the Inspire Net Wireless bookings and the Infrastructure team from the workshop, and
Kevin has just joined out Outside Infrastructure team. Welcome on board!

Another highlight this month is the celebration of Wades 10 years' service with Inspire Net.
"Wade spends much of his time building and looking after some of the most remote parts of Inspire's network. He has made it his mission to venture fearlessly into new parts of the country in a valiant effort to expand Inspire Net's borders into areas previously untouched by the Internet." (so he says). He started in the Help desk, then moved into wireless installs and is now part of our Network Operations Team. A huge achievement, celebrated with Japanese curry in the office. Awesome effort Wade. Interestingly we have a number of staff that have been with us for over 10 years with a few more coming up this year and over the next couple of years.

Due to our growth, we have relocated our Infrastructure team to our Workshop in Campbell Street. If you have driven down this street recently you will have noticed the new Inspire Net signs on the black building. Before Xmas we refurbished the offices, ready for the team to move in after the New Year and they are now all settled in and busy growing and maintaining our network.

And last but not least, our Inspire Net offices on Main Street have a new look!
A new design concept was created by Karina our Design and Brand manager, a new colour chosen and the result, a much more modern look for our building which allows our signage to really stand out.

With the new design, some extra building work was needed to make enough room to showcase our large new LED logo out the front. If you're driving past at night you should notice the big lit up LED Inspire Net logo! A huge effort from everyone involved.

Cheers,
Paul Watts

General Manager of Operations

An update from Pete, our Help Desk Manager
We've been busy sprucing up our office too. An updated Help desk, with brand new office furniture has seen the guys pretty chuffed, and although it's not quite the Help desk cave they were after, we think it looks pretty smart! Check it out!

We've been sending out letters left, right and centre regarding a service upgrade to better broadband. Every day more and more New Zealanders are getting access to better broadband, and we want to help you on the upgrade path to fibre. If you are an Inspire Net customer, and haven't received a letter, but are interested in finding out if you're able to upgrade, and why you should make the move, click here to register your interest www.inspire.net.nz/fibreupgrade

Better yet - at the moment it's free to make the change! Available for a limited time. Don't get left behind, grab this offer while it's free, and reach the world a whole lot faster, from your place.
Receive: Your first month free, a free rented router, no set-up costs (UFB install costs may still apply) and if you have VOIP, you'll get your phone number ported for free.

An upgrade to VDSL
We've got something coming up for a VDSL promo too, but there are still a few bits and pieces to iron out before we can officially roll it out. Stay tuned!

Just a reminder that we also offer a Voice over IP service. Inspire Voice is available as an add-on service to most Inspire Net plans. There's no need to keep paying your "landline tax". You can ditch your existing landline provider and keep your existing local number if you choose, with plans starting from just $15 per month. Give us a call to find out more. 

As always, if you need help with anything, you can call us (0800 484 363), or call in to our office at 325 Main Street.

Cheers,
Pete

Helpdesk Manager