86% not happy with internet

FASTER BROADBAND: Bono Johnstone, of Northpower sub-contractor Hutton and Cameron, works on a UFB installation at Pukenui Estate. PHOTO/JOHN STONE

Almost 86 per cent of Northlanders are unhappy with their internet services, a survey shows.

Only 4 per cent of the 1466 Northlanders surveyed were on ultra-fast broadband (UFB), with 75 per cent on copper broadband and 1.29 per cent still on dial-up.

The survey data is part of a Northland Inc bid for further regional broadband central-government funding.

Northlanders who are already on UFB are being advised to check whether they need a Wi-Fi router upgrade or plug-in Wi-Fi extenders if they are to enjoy the full benefits of ultra-fast broadband.

Just one year after the roll-out of UFB in the district, about 4000 properties have been connected, however, the system may be a victim of its own success.

Northpower network general manager Graham Dawson has been leading the UFB project in Whangarei. While the Northpower fibre had ample, even "idle", bandwidth capacity, some homes were overloading old Wi-Fi routers with the high-speed system.

"We have well over 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) ... multiple 10 Gbps circuits are available."

Telcos connect to Northpower fibre via a number of long-distance fibre cables running from Auckland to Whangarei. But Northpower was exploring the use of Carrier Class Wi-Fi routers, which had only just been released into the US market and had eight tuned antennae to boost the speeds on a number of devices, regardless of their distance from the router.

"Some of the old Wi-Fi routers may not be able to cope with the speeds that UFB provides. This can be particularly noticeable when you are streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube," Mr Dawson said.

Before customers spent any money, they could buy a Wi-Fi extender, or try moving their router away from obstructions and making sure it was not near metal items.

Northpower Fibre was contracted by Crown Fibre Holdings to carry the infrastructure to the optical network terminal (ONT) inside buildings, but the internet service was provided by telcos - Spark, Vodafone and Chorus - and often through older broadband routers.

If copper broadband was a winding, dirt road with speeds of 1 Mbps, ultra-fast broadband was more like Western Hills Drive, with a maximum capacity of 200-1000 Mbps.

Broadband acts like a laser Morse code, darting data in a flashing, high-speed but non-continous motion. Northpower Fibre acts like a traffic-light system at the intersection, allowing connections to stop and start at lightning speed, to let internet traffic pass.

Slower speeds were being experienced on the new super-fast road as some were using routers that were like scooters when sportscar routers were needed to feel the full UFB experience. Some households were using five or six Wi-Fi-activated devices and sometimes at a distance from the old routers.

Mr Dawson advised customers to check speeds on each device and in various locations in the house, on speedtest.net: "We are trialling new equipment to upgrade, which is designed for gigabit service."