Jump ‘no coverage’

I received two inquiries yesterday from partners who are consistently getting the ‘no coverage’ message on the Skinny Jump address checker in some areas of their communities. Both raised the same question – how can we get the capacity boosted on the cell towers serving these communities.

The short answer is that this is outside our (DIAA) control and even outside the control of the Skinny Jump team. The Skinny Jump network is part of the Spark cell network and when towers reach capacity they must await their turn for upgrading.

The Jump address checker is updated with cell tower capacity information every night, and as the customer base is changing all the time, things can change literally overnight. So what can you do about it?

(1) When you encounter a customer in a ‘no coverage’ area, you can complete an online application and this signals to us there is demand at this location. We re-check the address and if it still has no coverage we transfer the application to a ‘no coverage’ database.

(2) We then recheck this address again 1-2 weeks later and if there is still no coverage we send an email to the customer, encouraging them to re-check themselves from time to time in case capacity becomes available.

(3) We aggregate the ‘no coverage’ data by location and share this with the Jump team, who in turn alert the Spark network team. But we know the Spark team will already be aware of towers that have reached capacity and will most likely already have an upgrade plan.

(4) Since the start of this year, we have had 411 customers register through this process, just 3% of all Jump requests. What of course we don’t know is how many customers are turned away without completing an online application form.

(5) The suburbs that have experienced the most cell tower capacity constraints are:

Suburb	No coverage
Auckland – Henderson	20
Auckland – Manurewa	16
Auckland – Papakura	9
Dargaville – Dargaville	9
Rotorua – Victoria	9
Auckland – Otara	8
Levin – Levin	7
Napier – Onekawa	6
Auckland – Papatoetoe	5
Auckland – Ranui	5
Rotorua – Glenholme	5
Auckland – Massey	4
Kaitaia – Kaitaia	4
Lower Hutt – Naenae	4
Rotorua – Owhata	4
Auckland – Mangere East	3
Auckland – Mt Wellington	3
Auckland – Pukekohe	3
Christchurch – Shirley	3
Hamilton – Claudelands	3
Kaiwaka – RD 2, Kaiwaka	3
New Plymouth – Marfell	3
Rotorua – Fairy Springs	3