I had no broadband internet for 2.5 years because I was waiting for the RBI to get to me. There was always the availability of Farmside satellite but it was prohibitively expensive. Neighbour 3kms away has Spark 4G but I couldn't get it so I did a bit more research and discovered that Chorus had finished their RBI in my area and I was just going to miss out. I didn't realise there was more than one RBI rollout provider. I rang Netspeed cos a girlfriend has it. I'm still w
aiting 9 weeks later. However I rang Velocitynet which is locally based and provides RBI. The lovely lady there(Nicola) said to me on the phone to come in and borrow a wireless router and plug it in and see what happens. I did and had it for the weekend. IT WORKED WOOHOO! Just plug and pay, didn't need a special and extra cost of antenna. I took it back and said I will get it in one month's time because I didn't have the $99 connection fee and first month in advance, another $99 and I said I have waited this long I can wait another month and pay you $50 per week until then, I was just so pleased to know I could finally have internet, which is great when living rurally. Well, the lovely Nicola said look don't worry about the money, just take this brand new wireless router and start having internet now. I was so amazed because she did not ask me for ID, do a credit check or demand some amount of money, mind you she had my address so I wasn't going anywhere. She took me at face value and I was so happy that someone out there still trusts in people just by meeting them. I did not let her down. I paid $50 per week and it's all paid up now and will drop to $25 per week now. I AM JUST SO HAPPY! I'm sticking with this company because they are local and saw a gap in the availability of rural broadband (lots of farms down here) and met that gap. Local business putting local people first. Please feel free to use this information to help other people in Southland with the same problem. ...read more
