Today’s the day that Skinny turns off the internet service for anyone who hasn’t completed the firmware upgrade. This morning, we have already received calls from families in Kaikohe, Whangarei and Rotorua that their service has stopped and the Skinny Helpdesk has confirmed they are are having some problems.
Our advice at this stage is that Spark Jump families who have no internet service:
(1) go the Skinny website and follow the instructions for upgrading their modem’s firmware; we understand families should still be able to do this as the Skinny website is zero-rated (this is how families top up their accounts even though their data package has expired);
(2) contact the Skinny Helpdesk 0800 4754669 (08004SKINNY) for support; tell families to make sure they choose the right menu options, i.e.
- for Help, press 9
- then for Broadband, press 2
- then Spark Jump customers press 3
(3) contact the library or community centre where they set up their modems and arrange a time to take the modem in for updating. Partners will need to be able to use one of their computers to WiFi connect to the family’s Spark Jump modem to do the auto update.
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa 