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Purpose of this blog

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.

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Jump Partner Survey – Final Results

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

We can supply some spare parts for Jump Modems

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.

What happens when ‘no coverage’ is selected on a profile form?

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.

An update on accessing the Guide about how to avoid issuing more than one modem to the same person

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.

Something to learn every day!

Jump Demographic analysis available for Partners

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.

Reducing Duplicate Skinny Jump modem issues

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.

Feedback on Jump service sought from Jump Delivery 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.

Please click on this link to complete the survey.

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).

Spark announces 10 year anniversary for Jump

Spark has issued a media release celebrating the 10-year anniversary for Jump. What is stunning is that Jump has helped over 100,000 households connect to Jump since 2016. This has provided a lifeline for so many families, many of whom have moved on to commercial internet plans when they can afford it. Today 35,000 households continue to benefit from New Zealand’s only pay-as-you-go internet service. Pre-pay services revolutionised the uptake of mobile phones over 20 years ago; we have seen the same impact during the last 10 years with Jump.

Thank you to all our Jump partners who have made this possible.

Marty La’a, Digital Equity – Centre of Excellence Lead for Spark, did an interview with the Ryan Bridge Now show early this morning about the 10 year anniversary.

Some modems in 14 July shipment not provisioned for Jump

A few partners have been in touch reporting difficulties when signing up customers using recently shipped modems. It now appears that some shipments were sent without being provisioned for Jump.

The ones we know about are:

The Modem IMEI’s in the table above are indicative only; we believe the whole shipment may not have been correctly provisioned.

Other shipments made that day (14 July) might also have been affected:

If any of the above partners are experiencing problems with modems in these shipments, please set aside the whole batch and send an email to jump@diaa.nz

We have escalated this issue to the Skinny Jump team and they expect to be able to provision these modems remotely, so there is no need to submit a Modem Returns form. We will advise you when we have confirmation that they have been correctly provisioned.