Alert on Jump Modem Deliveries

On 22 February, we transferred to a new delivery process to get modems to partners. Since the start of the Jump programme, we (DIAA) have provided a national distribution centre for Jump modems to partners; modems have been couriered to us in large quantities (up to 500 at a time) and we have arranged distribution to partners in more manageable lots, typically 5 or 6 or at times up to 14. This gave us the opportunity to scan the IMEI number of every modem distributed into your individual Google registers.

For over a year, the Spark Foundation has been working with their Jump modem supplier (Ingram Micro) to try and streamline this process by shipping modems directly to Jump delivery partners and this was finally implemented on 22 February 2021.

But unfortunately, all is not yet well.

(1) We no longer have access to the individual IMEI numbers of modems being shipped, which means we need to use ‘dummy’ numbers in your GSheets to indicate that modems have been ordered. When we receive Profile Forms, we replace the dummy numbers with the actual IMEI number. Some partners have decide to do this themselves and that is fine if you have a bar code scanner, but it is almost impossible to record these numbers accurately if you are entering the numbers manually. If you do want to do this, please enter the IMEI numbers in Column W ;the IMEI number in column D (grey shaded column) will automatically update, as this is formula driven. You must also overwrite the dummy numbers – these are easily recognisable by their short form, typically 862901 – 862910. We hope to sort this soon and get access to the IMEI numbers at the time of shipment.

(2) Some modems are being returned to sender (Ingram Micro) because of inadequate addressing. This is simply human error by Ingram Micro, when they incorrectly key in shipping addresses. We would appreciate a photograph of any courier labels that do arrive with you, but with an incorrect address. Hopefully this will improve over time if we keep referring incorrect address labels back to Ingram Micro.

(3) Some partners are receiving Skinny modems that have not been provisioned for Jump. This means that when you try and set them up, you will get an unfamiliar dashboard response. And of course they can’t be used as is for the Jump service. If you discover one modem like this in a box, then it is highly likely that all the modems in the box will be like this. These can be remotely provisioned for Jump. Please scan the Proof of Purchase document that comes with every Jump shipment to us (jump@diaa.nz) and we will arrange for the modems to be provisioned correctly ready for issue.

We think it is worth persevering with the new modem distribution process as this is more efficient in the long run. We just have to fix the glitches along the way. So please get in touch with us whenever you discover something that doesn’t appear right.