I am committed to supporting the development of New Zealand as a digitally included nation, where everyone has equitable opportunities to benefit from the digital world.
As I have mentioned before, the most common question from partners is “when am I getting more modems?”. I thought it might be helpful to share the current order processing list with partners, so that you have some idea about when to expect further supplies.
The following modem orders have been sent today to CEVA for processing. This means that you can expect these to be delivered next week. Orders for another 100 partners have still pending, so if you are not on this list, then further supplies are at least two weeks away.
With Christmas coming soon, I’ll have a go at connecting this information to individual partner Gsheets, so that this “in processing” data is displayed dynamically.
Jylesza is one of our fabulous new Digi-Coaches who are emerging in many of our Jump partner organisations. She is based at Elma Turner Nelson Public Library.
All our Digi-Coaches are trained to become Jump Specialists, so they can hit the ground running when they start their work placements. On her first day, Jylesza got a hug from a customer, as an expression of appreciation for the help she had provided. Maybe our long-term Jump partners have just got so used to getting hugs from their Jump customers that they don’t see it as ‘news’ any more!
Jylesza as well as some other partners have also asked for clarification about the ‘rules’ around Jump partners issuing modems to customers who live outside the partner’s area or region. For example, it could be someone who has tried to sign up for Jump at their local partner, but discovered they have no modems, so they ‘shop around’ to find a partner with stock, or they could simply be moving to a new area.
It goes without saying that they must satisfy the Jump coverage check for the location where they intend to use the modem, but there are no rules that restrict where they can sign up. A bit like McDonalds, you can get a Big Mac from any outlet, not just the one in your own community.
Where the uncertainty sometime arises is for library partners, who have territorial rules about who can sign up for a library card and borrow books.
Jump, however is different. While we often use the library analogy for Jump, where you get something for free and when you don’t need it anymore, you return it, but we don’t restrict where people can sign up.
One thing we do discourage is for partners who have run out of stock to direct customers to other Jump partners unless they know the other partner has stock and is happy to accept referrals. We prefer that you use your waiting list (below the blue line in your GSheet). This also helps us boost the number of modems in your next shipment.
So, thank you Jylesza for asking the question and congratulations on your first customer hug!
Our hats off to Martha Manaena at REAP Wairarapa for bringing to our notice an interesting anomoly. She was trying to issue a new Jump modem and discovered it had the same IMEI number as one she had issued some time ago. To make matters worse, the modem had no Broadband sticker!
After a quick look in the box, she discovered the wayward broadband sticker attached to the inside of the box as many others have done during the last six months – this happens when the modems are thrust into the box too forcefully and the transparent broadband sticker decides to attach itself to the side of the box – remember, I raised this issue some months ago.
But modems with the same IMEI number??? This was news to me until I put on my thinking cap. Of course there would be modems with the same IMEI number. We have been using refurbished modems for the last 6 months and of course, a refurbished modem will have the same IMEI number as one that has been previously issued. The IMEI number is assigned by the manufacturer and relates to the modem hardware, not the Skinny internet connection.
There’s always a ‘good news’ side to the story. The IMEI number is something that we (DIAA) use to monitor modem supplies, but this is not relevant to Skinny – they rely on the Broadband number and Verification code, the two bits of information on the troublesome transparent sticker that sometime detaches itself.
So well done, Martha, for being the first person to notice this apparent anomoly, or at least the first person to raise it with me!
I am well overdue for a blog post on this topic. This is now the second most frequently asked question by Jump partners. What is the most frequently asked question you might wonder (scroll to the bottom to find the answer).
Back to the main topic of this post – some partners have been waiting for more than four weeks to get a return courier bag. The good news is that there is no great mystery here – it is simply a workload issue. Our goal is to get these to you so they are off your hands within 10 days of lodging a Modem Returns form, but that has been impossible over the last four weeks.
Our DIAA team has been a tiny bit preoccupied during the last month launching three new Digi-Coach programmes in the Waikato, Northland and last week in The Top of the South Island. Next week we are in the Central North Island and a week later in Wellington. With five new Digi-Coach cohorts in operation, that means 50 new Jump Specialists become available in libraries and community organisations throughout these regions five days a week for the 12-week work placements. Take a look at the stunning impact videos featuring Digi-Coaches in the Wellington region during the pilot programme earlier this year.
BUT, I digress. The really good news for return courier bags is that all partners should receive their bags this week. We had 50 on the courier yesterday and we are expecting the remaining 30 or 40 to be out the door this week. We have a new cunning plan to keep on top of this in the future and avoid such a huge backlog.
This has also impacted updates to your Gsheets for delinked modems. Normally these updates happen at least weekly, but they have suffered the same fate as the return bags. This is not such a problem, as partners receive a direct email notification from the Skinny team whenever a modem is delinked and reset for re-issue. So you don’t have to wait until your GSheets are updated before you issue delinked modems. They (your Gsheets) will catch up eventually, as this impacts your stock levels.
And the answer to the most common question is ‘When am I getting more modems? The answer to this question is much more complicated and varies week by week. But as some partners will have noticed, we have now exhausted supplies of the refurbished Smart modems and the latest shipment of over 700 modems was mainly the new Futura modems. The backlog of orders has reduced to 1600, which is the best it has been for most of this year.
From courier bags to modem supplies, the road ahead is looking brighter.
Further to my post earlier today, I have been advised by Skinny that the provisioning issue raised by some partners has been sorted and that all the new Futura modems received this week shouldnow be correctly provisioned.
If Cadbury chocolate fish still existed, a box would be winging its way to the Jump teams in Ashburton and Otara Libraries for alerting me to this issue.
My cautionary “should” means to take care when issuing these new modems. Remember the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So please let me know if you discover anything unusual.
60 Jump partners were the first to receive the new Futura modems this week. But as these partners are discovering, the modems appear to have been provisioned for Standard Skinny, not Jump.
Now we don’t know how widespread this is and whether all 732 modems are affected, but it would be prudent to hit ‘pause’ in issuing these. My rule of thumb is that when more than one partner reports a problem, we pause sign-ups until the problem is understood and resolved.
Every few days we get a call from someone who works for one of our Jump Partners with the comment “Hey, I’m new to Jump, can you help me?”
Our response of course is “YES!”
With a partner network of 278 Jump partner organisations, it is pretty inevitable that people came and go or change their roles. So I asked our team – what are the 6 essentials that someone new to Jump needs to know and hey-presto, with a little bit of Kini magic, out pops a new poster.
We actually tried this out on a someone who was new to Jump and within the hour she had signed up to my blog! Of course I was most impressed.
The challenge we know for partners is how do you find this when you need it? My immediate response is to laminate it and stick it to the staff noticeboard, but maybe that doesn’t work for you.
If you do have an empty spot somewhere near where your Jump team gathers, you can download a copy from the ‘Skinny Jump Support Documents’ section of the Jump Partner Resources page on the Stepping UP website.
Send us a photo of your ‘6 Jump Essentials’ poster on display and you are in the draw. The draw for what you might ask. Well the new world of Lububu dolls suggests you don’t get to ask – it’s all about the surprise of blind boxes.
I had a call today from a couple of Jump partners asking about our Waiting List process and how this “affects the price of fish”. Well to be fair, they didn’t actually use this expression, but I think what they wanted to understand was why do Jump waiting lists matter. If you want to know more about the origins of ‘the price of fish’, ask ChatGPT.
First of all where do you find your Jump waiting lists? I know some partners like to keep these in their top drawer, and this might be helpful as a local reminder, but the down side is that we (DIAA) have no access to your top drawer and therefore your waiting list has no impact on modem deliveries.
So scroll down your GSheet to the blue line. Waiters should be added below the blue line, as in the example below:
And how does affect the price of fish, I hear you ask. Well, we count the number of dates below the blue line in column E and take this into account when placing new orders. We aim to supply you with enough modems to cover your waitlist as well as enough for the next 4 weeks, based on the number issued over the last weeks.
If customers hang around on your waitlist for too long (over 3 months), we assume this is because they no longer want Jump, and as such they should be removed for the waitlist, or if you do want to keep a record of their interest, the application date must be moved from Column E (we suggest you put this in Comments – column H – along with any other relevant notes). Some partners like to keep the customer’s contact details here as well and you are welcome to do this – please use columns I to N.
Do I include customers who don’t currently have Jump coverage on my waitlist? Another good question. You are welcome to do this, but you must not include any date in column E (use column H), as dates here do affect the price of fish, or in our case, the delivery of modems. If we ever find dates in column E with a note in column H, saying this customer does not have coverage, we transfer the date out of column E.
We do encourage partners to actively manage their own waiting lists in their Partner GSheets, but if when processing the Jump Profile Forms we discover a modem has been issued to a customer who is on the waiting list we will delete them from the waiting list.
Just imagine, you are sitting in your cosy office on a cold Matariki weekend holiday, packaging modems for all those lonely souls without a Jump internet connection and you are confronted with this:
Two Broadband stickers on a Jump modem!! What a dilemma! What a How-de-do! (If this is a new term for you, let me politely suggest it is time to brush up on Ko-Ko’s dilemma in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado.
Now some of you might be familiar with Kahoot- the best place to go to get answers. What to do? Choose from the options below:
Stop issuing modems immediately;
Decide that this is a faulty modem and race to complete a Modem Returns Form;
Call the Skinny Care Team for help;
Remove both labels so that your customer doesn’t get confused;
Of if all else fails, have a hissy fit.
OR maybe you might stop and think about this for just a minute. Maybe one of the broadband labels is correct and the other one has inadvertently attached itself. But here’s the next ‘How-de-do’. Which is the right one?
Aha! let me take a look to see if the Broadband number is on the SIM card. Carefully remove the SIM card and inspect (only suitable for those with excellent eye sight). No BB number, but there is another number, not one that we normally use – the SIM ID number. Can we get a match with the bar coded number on the BB sticker. Bingo!
Oops, another modem with two stickers (and not immediately visible as in my photo above – they have been attached on opposite sides of the modem). Bit of a pain having to remove the SIM card every time. Take another look at the photo and it is clear the two stickers are different sizes. If you have been particularly observant in recent months you will have noticed that the BB stickers are now smaller than they used to be.
And another Aha! moment. Consider that we have been using refurbished modems for the last six months and just maybe some of the CEVA team are having a bad day and forgot to remove the old sticker.
Here comes modem number 3 and yes, Bingo again, the SIM card matches the number on the smaller BB sticker. So now I am up to the fifth modem with two stickers and without even checking, I am simply removing the larger sticker and because I have trouble throwing things away, they are lining up neatly on the side of my monitor (just in case I have got this horribly wrong).
And if you are fed up with broadband numbers, have a sing along with Ko-Ko, Yum-Yum and Nanki-Poo. The Mikado was first performed at the Savoy Theatre in London on 14 March 1885, and who hasn’t been part of a school performance!
KO-KO: Here’s a how-de-do! If I marry you, When your time has come to perish, Then the maiden whom you cherish Must be slaughtered too! Here’s a how-de-do!
YUM-YUM: Here’s a pretty mess! In a month, or less, I must die without a wedding! Let the bitter tears I’m shedding Witness my distress; Here’s a pretty mess!
NANKI-POO: Here’s a state of things To her life she clings! Matrimonial devotion Doesn’t seem to suit her notion — Burial it brings! Here’s a state of things!
ENSEMBLE (together): With a passion that’s intense I worship and adore, But the laws of common sense We oughtn’t to ignore. If what he says is true, ’Tis death to marry you! Here’s a pretty state of things! Here’s a pretty how-de-do!
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa 