Laurence Zwimpfer

Skinny Jump Address checker working again

I hope most Jump partners have discovered this for themselves by now. This was fixed late on Tuesday and all seems to be well. One little tip – I had to clear my cache before my browser would find the Jump site again.

ChatGPT’s response to my ‘cunning plan’

A Cunning Plan (Jump Modem Edition)

“Wait, my lord, do not despair,
For I have a cunning plan to share!”
So whispered Baldrick, full of pride,
With hope that fortune’s on our side.

The modems stalled, the shelves ran bare,
Partners waiting everywhere.
But last week marked a turning tide,
As 396 were set to glide.

No longer thirty in one big stack —
Just twelve or six in every pack.
High-turnover partners get smaller loads,
But restocked faster down the road.

The goal? To spread supply more wide,
To every partner far and wide.
No more giant boxy heaps,
No modem droughts, no stockpile weeps.

Let’s hope this plan will smoothly run,
Unlike Baldrick’s — which came undone.
But if it flops, as Baldrick’s tend,
I know you’ll tell me in the end!

“Wait my lord, do not despair. For I have a cunning plan.”

Fans of Blackadder will be all too familiar with this phrase that frequently popped out of the mouth of Baldrick. Most of Baldrick’s “cunning plans” ended up in disaster, but I am hoping for better things with my latest cunning plan to get Jump modems flowing again.

Last week was a milestone (I hope) in freeing-up the Jump modem supply chain. Orders were placed on CEVA for 396 modems and 204 of these had been shipped by Friday. But while these volumes still fall well short of our targets, we are trying a new approach (“cunning plan”) to keep more partners supplied.

29 partners have either already received a shipment from last week’s batch or will do early next week. This contrasts with an average of only 9 partners receiving shipments each week for the rest of May.

So what is our cunning new plan? Put simply, this involves limiting individual partner shipment quantities to no more than 12 (previously 30). So all last week’s shipments were for 6 or 12 modems, 6 for partners with low turnover and 12 for those with high turnover.

At month end (yesterday), partners were holding 1613 modems in stock; a few are well stocked having recently received a new supply of 30, while over 200 partners have 2 or fewer modems. So the new ‘cunning’ plan is to get modems flowing to more partners.

Those with very high turnovers will not miss out; it just means supplies will arrive more frequently in smaller quantities. Some partners might even think this is a better idea, avoiding the need to find storage space when five boxes of modems arrive at the same time!

So let’s hope this ‘cunning plan’ does not end up like Baldrick’s ones. If it does, I have no fear that you will let me know!

Jump Profile Form Updates

Some partners have asked for clarification about why the Jump Profile form is now asking for contact details of the person completing the Profile Form. This was implemented a few weeks ago because of recurring errors by people completing the form; we want to identify these people so that we can contact them and offer further support.

But some partners questioned the need for this, especially as a copy of the form was automatically being emailed to the customer. So this caused us to re-think why customers needed an email copy.

The form was created many years ago on the assumption that customers would be filling this in themselves, with guidance from a partner as part of the modem setup process. But after consulting with some partners it is clear that this is not the way things are happening; most partners have their own staff completing this form. So if we take this as the ‘norm’, we can make some changes.

As of this morning, we have stopped emailing a copy of the form to the customer.

This was originally intended for customers to check that the information they had provided was correct and on a few occasions, customers did do this. But this is very rare and there doesn’t appear to be any other benefit in sharing the form with them. So we have stopped sending a copy to the customer. You will notice that you no longer need to enter the email address of the customer at the start of the form; this was the entry that triggered the auto-send. We still need their email, but this now comes later in the form along with other contact details.

We have noted the concern of some partners about including staff details in the Profile Form. By not sharing these with customers, we hope this addresses the main concern. We are happy for staff to just use their first name (we understand with most library partners, staff display their first name on a name badge) and a generic email if they prefer.

The Profile Form is confidential to the DIAA Jump team. This is not shared with the Skinny Care Team nor with partners; we use this to update individual partner GSheets, so that we can track modem issues and arrange a resupply of modems when required. Most of the data collected, especially around demographics and target user groups is aggregated and used for high level programme reporting.

Jump Address Checker update

We have arrived at the start of a new month and it’s just as well everyone is taking a long King’s Birthday holiday break as the Jump Address Checker is still down. I know the Skinny team is trying to fix this, so hang in there.

Just one update for my earlier message about using the Skinny address checker. You can continue to use this but beware of the ‘fibre trap’ and the plan availability. Skinny offers both wireless and fibre solutions, so when you use this checker, it reports on the availability of plans for all services potentially available at this address (including fibre). So make sure you are checking the wireless options and scroll down to check that the plan is available.

Note in the example below from the Skinny Address Checker that:

(1) a Wireless Connection is available; and

(2) the wireless plan is available “CHOOSE THIS PLAN”. If it says “NOT AVAILABLE” as for the $55 plan, then this means there is no capacity at this address and you can not proceed with a Jump connection.

Hopefully, by the time you back from your King’s Birthday holiday, this will be old news and the Jump checker will be back in operation.

Skinny Jump address checker offline today

Vanessa Tedesco from the Fingertip Library in Christchurch alerted me at 8.46am this morning that the Jump address checker was not working. Since then, I have received numerous alerts from other partners.

Usually with issues like this, the software team at Spark is onto it like a shot, and before I can get around to a blog post, the problem has been sorted. But here we are over 8 hours later and when I checked a few minutes ago, the address checker was still not working.

I have been advising everyone who contacted me to use the Skinny Wireless Broadband address checker as a backup.

Skinny Jump uses the same wireless network as Skinny Wireless Broadband customers, so this should be pretty reliable.

I’ll provide an update when Skinny advises me that the Jump address checker has been fixed.

Oh dear – another ‘annus horribilis’?

2025 is rapidly becoming for Jump modems what the late Queen Elizabeth II referred to in 1992 as an ‘annus horribilis‘. In a speech marking the 40th anniversary of her accession to the throne she said: “1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an ‘annus horribilis.'”

Now, the Queen was not referring to Jump modems in 1992 – the internet had only recently been invented. She was in fact referring to troubles within her own family.

But we also have troubles within our Jump family. We have reached an all-time low with the supply of Jump modems; it was bad enough during the Covid years when suppliers in China closed their factories and international freight was disrupted.

We currently have 179 Jump delivery partners waiting for just under 3000 modems. 40% of these partners have no stock or almost no stock. So far this year, the supplier (CEVA) is 2000 modems short of their agreed shipment levels (1400 per month).

One of the reasons for the lag is that CEVA is refurbishing modems and while that in itself is a good thing (and good for the planet), it is taking a lot longer than simply provisioning new modems.

We are doing the best we can to prioritise deliveries to partners with no stock or only 1 or 2 modems, so it is more important than ever for partners to make sure their Google Sheet record matches reality.

Check the top of your GSheet for these cells. ‘Actual Stock on hand’ is the number of modems we think you have available for issue, including delinked modems, and this controls your delivery priority; so if this number doesn’t match the number that you actually have, please email jump@diaa.nz the IMEI numbers of the modems you are holding so that we can get your GSheet back in order.

The Queen got through her ‘annus horribilis‘ and lived for another 30 years, so we are hoping to do the same.

Topping up is easy to do!

And for those of you who like Friday challenges – what is the tune for this jingle?

Always Navigating Digital Realms, Online Insights Daily

What’s this got to do with Jump, you might well be asking. Well this is a test for those of you who like Friday afternoon challenges – find the hidden code!

Now what I really wanted to update you on is a problem that some Jump Partners have been discovering with the App – where the ‘Forgot Password’ link was sending a reset password email with button links that didn’t work.

The good news is that this was fixed earlier this week (the morning of 5 May 2025, to be precise) by the App development team.

If you receive a visit from a customer with this problem, can you assist with the following troubleshooting steps:

(1) Open the ‘Google Play store’ app > search for ‘Skinny Jump App’ > tap ‘Update’ if available and then attempt to log in via the app.

(20 Uninstall and reinstall the Jump app, then restart the device before attempting to log in or use the reset password link.

(3) Check the device system software for any updates.

And for those of you still scratching your heads about the puzzle, here’s a clue – this ‘Forgot Password’ problem has only been experienced on Android devices.

Ciena – and the winner is….

Ashburton Library, with their stunning Ciena display! I understand some goodies will be winging your way soon.

A reminder to all our Jump partners – you too can be a winner and sign up families with school-aged children in your community for the Ciena plan – free internet for the rest of the year.

All Jump partners can be Ciena partners; you just need to register with Sue (sue@diaa.nz) or Shelley (shelley@diaa.nz) and they will explain the process.

216 new families have already joined the Ciena family this year, but we still have room for another 384! 45 partners have already signed a family up so far this year – the leaders are in the table below. Over 25% of all the signups are in just one city – it probably isn’t too hard for you to work out which one this is! And I am sure they won’t mind me sharing their secret weapon – everyone signing up for Skinny Jump is asked if they have school-aged children and if so, would they like the Ciena plan (210GB free data every month).

Jump Partner	Total Ciena Plan
Shirley Library	26
Ranui Library	17
Hastings War Memorial Library	16
Linwood Library	15
Flaxmere Library	9
Matatiki Hornby Centre	9
New Brighton Library	9
Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-po Levin	8
Glen Eden Library	7
Glenfield Library	7
Ashburton Library	6
Mt Roskill Library	6
Glenview Community Centre	5
Marlborough Library	5
Pukete Neighbourhood House	5
Dargaville Library	4
Glen Innes Library	4
Highland Park Library	4
Onehunga Library	4
Otara Library	4
Pakuranga Library	4
Smart Newtown	4
Avondale Library	3
Kaiapoi Library	3
Northcote Library	3
Te Atatu Peninsula Library	3
Havelock North Library	2
New Lynn Library	2
Papatoetoe War Memorial Library	2
TaiTech	2
Taupo Budget Advisory Service	2
Waitakere Library	2
Wellsford War Memorial Library	2