This site is managed by the Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa (DIAA) and is intended for partner organisations delivering programmes endorsed and/or supported by DIAA. Currently this includes the following programmes:
Stepping UP
JUMP
DORA
Better Digital Futures for Seniors
Appy Seniors
Digital Wellbeing for All
The blog aims to address mainly operational issues associated with the delivery of these digital inclusion programmes. It provides a repository of information dealing with specific questions raised by programme delivery partners.
Yesterday, I received 33 Modem Returns forms; six of these had been incorrectly classified by the person completing the form (Jump Partners and Skinny Care Team). This is not that unusual, which suggests to me that there are different ways to interpret these classifications, so I thought it worth explaining what difference this makes.
There are 4 options in the Modem Returns form for classifying a ‘returned’ modem; only the first two of these should be used by Jump Delivery Partners – the other two are additional options for the Skinny Care Team.
So what do each of these mean?
Yes, this modem is suitable for reissue
This is for situations where the customer no longer wants the Skinny Jump service. Partners are expected to make the call on the physical state of the modem, i.e. is it in a condition that means it would be suitable for reissue. This means the modem would be not be broken or physically defaced, nor would it be dirty. It would also have an installed SIM card and the person returning the modem would advise it is still in working condition.
If the modem has just been dropped off, it is worthwhile starting with the assumption it is suitable for reissue. Skinny Support will delink the modem from the customer’s email and reset the modem with 35GB start-up data, ready for reissue, or they will advise that the modem cannot be delinked and needs to be treated as faulty.
If there are missing parts, e.g. power supply, ethernet cable, customer guide, then DIAA can supply these on request – see my earlier blog post about this. Also my post about the different power supplies.
No, this modem should be recovered for repair
This option is to be selected when the returned modem is known to be faulty or is otherwise unsuitable for reissue. This includes obsolete B315 and B618 Huawei modems – all these are to be recovered for recycling.
Customers are expected to report all faulty issues to the Skinny Care Team and if the modem is assessed as faulty, the Care agents will complete a Modem Returns Form. This results in DIAA couriering a replacement directly to the customer, along with a recovery bag for the faulty unit. The Form is also used by the Skinny Support team to initiate the delinking process so that the customer can use their same email address in setting up a new account when the replacement modem arrives.
However, we know that some customers do not follow this procedure and simply turn up at a Partner expecting a replacement. We have also been unable to prevent some Care Agents advising customers to go to a local partner to get a replacement. In these cases, Partners have the discretion to issue replacement modems, but they must alert customers that they will not be able to set up a new Jump account using their existing email until the faulty unit is delinked – this can take 24-28 hours, but sometimes longer.
Yes, this modem only requires a new SIM(this option is only for use by the Skinny Care Team)
This option is to be selected when the Care Team determines that a simple SIM Swap will correct the fault. This generates a request to DIAA to initiate the agreed SIM Swap process, which results in a replacement SIM being couriered to the customer, together with instructions on how to activate the SIM Swap while retaining the same Broadband number (albeit with a different Verification Code). Jump Delivery Partners can not use this option if the modem has been returned to them – it must then be classified as faulty.
No, this modem was stolen or lost(this option should normally only be selected by the Skinny Care Team)
Our agreed procedures require all lost or stolen modems to be reported by the customer to the Skinny Care Team. They can verify the identity of the customer and arrange to block the lost/stolen modem as well as delink the customer’s account. If the customer requires a replacement, the Care Team will request DIAA to send a replacement by courier. By the time this arrives, the customer’s email will have been delinked, so they can proceed to set up a new account using their same email.
What should Partners do when a customer reports a lost/stolen modem to them?
They must direct the customer to contact the Skinny Care Team. Jump Partners must never issue a replacement modem unless customers can produce the faulty unit, which clearly they can’t do if the modem has been lost or stolen.
Nearly every day, I see modems being returned because “Jump doesn’t have enough data”.
One of the 6 C’s (“Capped”) that we expect partners to discuss with new customers is about the data cap (which is actually 225GB, when you take into account the free 15GB). And in particular to explain that Jump is a pre-pay top-up service where customers buy plans in bite-sized, affordable chunks ($5 for each 35GB).
So when I see a modem being returned after just a few days or even a few weeks, with the explanation of ‘not enough data’, I do wonder if they have set up their Skinny Jump account before leaving with the modem and if they really understand the top-up process. Or have they just used the free start-up 35GB data and decided that isn’t enough for them.
The Skinny Jump team produced a really helpful flyer explaining the top-up process and we expect that partners take the time to explain this two-step process (‘top up’ and ‘buy your plan’) to new customers. And to make sure that every customer takes home one of the flyers with them (suggest they stick it on the fridge as a reminder!).
If you have run out of these, remember you can always order more online here.
We understand that there are situations where 225GB really isn’t enough, e.g. for households with lots of teenagers or for people who watch hours of movies every day, and of course they are welcome to move to other services. But we do encourage all partners to have this conversation when modems are issued – Jump may not be the right product for them – this might prevent disappointment when they reach the cap.
This is a question that is frequently asked by Jump partners. A returned modem doesn’t have its box or “wires”, so can I reissue it? It most cases ‘no wires’ means no ethernet cables (the yellow and blue ones).
The modems normally come with two short ethernet cables, but most Jump customers never need to use them. So what are they for? In the old days before WiFi was invented, people used these cables to connect their devices to the internet modem, but these days, WiFi is so good that you hardly ever need a cable connection. In fact most new devices like laptops no longer have an ethernet port, so there isn’t even a slot that you can plug these cables into.
So again, you are probably wondering why do we need this cable with a Jump modem. The answer is on page 27 of the customer guide (“How do I change my WiFi password?”). For this, we recommend you connect a computer to the Jump modem using one of the ethernet cables.
But then you might be wondering why are there two ethernet cables in every box. Well, this really has nothing to do with Jump. The same modems can be configured for fibre connections and you then need an ethernet cable to connect your modem to the fibre ONT (Optical Network Terminal).
But to add further confusion, there is another cable in most Jump boxes – it is grey with telephone connectors and looks like the one in the photo below. This has nothing to do with modems configured for Jump, as unlike fibre connections, these don’t support telephone devices.
So, to cut a long story short, all you need with each modem is one ethernet cable and of course the power supply and user guide. We (DIAA) can supply spares if needed (just drop us a line at jump@diaa.nz).
But wait, there’s more – what about returned modems with no box? You are welcome to issue modems without boxes. We know that most Jump boxes are put in the recycling bin as soon as they are opened. Some library partners have bags for their customers to use in transporting books home and they use these for Jump modems. Others use one of the Jump “zero” bags – we can supply these on request.
As always, there is a moral to the story – let’s “reuse” Jump modems wherever possible and only return those that are faulty or obsolete.
A huge thank you to the 206 partners who responded to our survey. We have now consolidated the responses into a summary report and provided some comment on matters we are following up. We are also planning a Partner workshop in Auckland on 14 October to consider the many excellent suggestions put forward.
Some highlights from the report:
(1) 89% rated their overall satisfaction with 4 or 5 stars
(2) Many respondents were not using or aware of all the Jump resources available
(3) Email is the preferred and most effective communication channel for Jump updates
(4) Demand for printed collateral is low
(5) Many partners never access their Jump registers
(6) 95% rated their satisfaction with modem supply as 4 or 5 stars
(7) 68% rated their satisfaction with the modem return process as 4 or 5 stars, suggesting this is a particular area for improvement
From time to time customers return modems without their power supply and/or their ethernet cable. This does not necessarily make the modem faulty. We can supply spares if needed.
But what we do need to know is the IMEI number of the modem – or the type of modem, as the power supplies are different. Here’s a 1-minute refresher on the 4 types of modem used for Jump over the last 10 years.
First there was the Huawei B315 modem with a 1 Amp power supply, followed by the Huawei B618 modem with a 2 Amp supply. We consider both of these modems to now be obsolete, so when they become faulty we will recover them for recycling. But please note, there is no need to replace these modems if they are still working.
The third model to come along was the Smart Modem 2 and this uses a 3 Amp power supply. And our current Futura modem uses a 3.5 Amp supply.
We can also send spare ethernet cables; these are normally only required if customers want to change settings such as the WiFi password. We can also supply new copies of the User Guide.
When you need spares, please email jump@diaa.nz, providing the IMEI number of the modem (if a power supply is required) and any other parts needed.
We offer this option as a way to recognise Jump demand in congested 4G cell tower areas. We encourage customers to give us their contact details and permission to contact them if capacity becomes available. We don’t want to make promises about when we will do this; typically it would only be about monthly. If we do find the customer is now in coverage, we would contact them to check if they still wanted Jump and if so, get a modem on the courier.
From time to time we also aggregate all the ‘no coverage’ responses by location and share these addresses with the Spark network team. We expect that they will already be aware from their own information systems when a tower reaches capacity, as this triggers the ‘stop sell’ message on the Skinny Jump address checker (or ‘no coverage/capacity’ message, as we know it).
But they will not be aware of latent demand. So its’s good to wave this flag on behalf of potential Jump customers.
But regardless of what we are doing behind the scenes, we have no magic wand to upgrade capacity on cell towers; these are investment decisions that Spark alone manages. The good news is that Spark has has been investing an average of over $150 million each year on its mobile and 5G infrastructure and as wireless traffic moves to 5G, this frees up 4G capacity, i.e. more capacity for Skinny Jump.
We have had reports from one of our library partners that they are having difficulty accessing the recently published guide about how to reduce the number of duplicate Jump modems. For some reason the link in my blog post to the Guide, which resides on our GDrive, was being blocked for partners using their council emails.
However, thanks to the enterprising partner who brought this to our attention, she discovered a work around. The Guide can also be accessed through the Jump Partner Resources page of our Stepping UP website (scroll down to Skinny Jump support documents). Apparently this works just fine with Council emails.
This is really interesting, since the link in my blog post and link in our Stepping UP website both go to exactly the same GDrive. Time to call in Chat GPT for an explanation – while I thought I was linking directly to the same document, my blog post was taking a rather circuitous route through Adobe Cloud and in doing so, added a few security blocks along the way.
But all should be well now. I have updated the link in my original post and also made sure my blog post link above goes directly to our GDrive.
One of our Auckland partners had an interesting request this week – could we provide (a) historical data for their modem issues and (b) demographic analysis of recipients. The answer is yes, and this is dynamically updated every time a modem is issued. The question then is probably – where can I find this information?
Historical Data
This includes monthly issues for the current year, as well as historical annual data, for each Jump partner. You can find this in your Jump register by scrolling across the first GSheet in your Jump Register (with your partner name in the tab) to:
Line 4 in columns I to T record the number of modems issued each month. Don’t be confused by the headings in Line 3 – the months are in Line 2.
Line 4 in columns AD to AM record the number of modems issued each year from 2017 to 2026. Don’t be confused if there is a number in the 2027 column; this will be updated in due course.
Demographic Data
If your Gsheet has a tab called Demographics, then that probably means you can get summarised demographic data for your Jump customers – gender, ethnicity and age. This has been activated for all Auckland and Christchurch library partners, and can be set up for other partners on request to jump@diaa.nz
Comparative Data
The library partner who requested this was pleased the above data was already available, so he threw a curved ball and asked if he could also get comparative data for another similar sized library. With a little bit of GSheet magic this has now been added. So if you want this facility, you just need to tell me the name of the partner you want to compare with and I can add that for you (with stage 2, you will be able to do this yourself, by selecting the name of the partner you want to compare with). I tend to keep the demographic tab locked for editing, to protect the magic formulae, but stage 2 will give you the option to choose a comparative partner in the main GSheet.
Skinny Jump exists to provide affordable internet access to households that need it most. Every year Spark NZ invests millions of dollars in the programme, with one of the largest costs being the purchase of new modems. Every modem that is returned when no longer needed can potentially be refurbished or reissued, helping more families access affordable internet while making the programme more sustainable.
Recent analysis of Jump records has shown that many customers have been issued with multiple modems without any record of earlier modems being returned. This year alone, we have recorded 560 instances. While some of these cases have genuine explanations, others suggest opportunities for improving our processes and reducing unnecessary replacement issues. 22 partners were invited to provide feedback on why this occurs and how it might be reduced. Their responses revealed many common themes and practical ideas.
Most partners are not asking for more complex systems – they are asking for a more consistent process:
ask the customer if they have already had a modem,
check the Jump Register if in doubt,
verify replacement requests or ask the customer to contact the Skinny Care Team,
do not issue a replacement modem unless the faulty modem is returned,
reinforce these practices regularly with staff.
Partner feedback presented a very clear message:
The prevention of duplicate issues depends more on consistently following a few simple processes than introducing new rules.
We have developed a Partner Guide, based largely on the feedback from partners. This Guide outlines a simple 5-step process for use by all Jump partners when issuing replacement modems. You can also find a link to the Guide on the Skinny Jump Partner Resources page on our Stepping Up website.
And you can check how you are doing by keeping an eye on line 5 of your GSheet. Cell A5 records the number of duplicates issued so far this year – note this excludes ‘legitimate’ duplicates, such as faulty replacements, or replacements for lost or stolen modems. And if you want to drill a bit further, scroll along line 5 to find the number of duplicates issued by month (cells I5 to T5). Line 5 is shaded turquoise blue, the colour we use to identify duplicates.
And another note, if you find your Line 5 is not shaded turquoise, that means we haven’t updated your GSheet yet – this is a work in progress – with 264 sheets to update, this takes a while, and we have prioritised the most active partners.
This is a pretty special year being the 10th Anniversary of Jump, so we thought we should check in with all our Jump delivery partners (all 289 of you!).
If anything, the Jump journey has never stood still – things are always changing and even though this has been a huge part of our lives in DIAA, we still seem to be discovering new things.
It appears the same is true for you as a Jump Delivery partner – staff changes seem to be the norm and your customers keep asking new questions that we often don’t have an immediate answer for and when asking the Jump team at Spark, they often have to dig deep to find solutions.
So we are launching a survey of all our Jump partners to help us keep up to date with your changes and for us to listen carefully to your feedback about things we need to do better during the next 10 years. We are also keen to get your feedback on the impact of the service for your community.
We will also be sending an email invitation to the person that we have listed as the primary point of contact for Jump at each partner location. This will normally be a Jump Specialist, who has completed the Partner Pathway training and is familiar with all aspects of Jump, including promotion, modem management, signing up customers and handling modem returns.
Our goal is for at least one person from every partner organisation to complete this survey by 31 August 2026.
Your responses will be confidential to DIAA, but aggregate data may be shared with Jump stakeholders (Partners and Skinny Jump).
