Category: Jump Ciena

Did you read the whole Ciena article in our December Stepping UP Newsletter?

There’s a danger in just reading the headlines in news items, especially when the headlines reinforce what you really want to hear:

Headline from our December 2025 Stepping UP Newsletter

“Great news from Ciena! We’re thrilled to announce that the Ciena Jump for Students Fund has been extended for another 12 months.“

But reading on, you would have discovered that at this stage the extension is only for customers signing up before 31 December 2025. We hope that Ciena might extend their support for more new families in 2026, but we don’t know this yet.

The good news for 2025 is that we met our target of 600 new families – thank you to partners who pulled out the stops in December to sign up the remaining 50 or so families; they, along with the 550 who signed up earlier in the year will now all receive another full 12-months of the sponsored CIENA plan.

Until we know for sure whether the Ciena sponsorship is available for new families, please do not offer this option. You are welcome to keep a local register of interest from any Jump customers who inquire.

You are not too late!

Unlike the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland you are not too late to sign families up for Ciena Jump.

A number of partners are starting to ask whether it is too late to sign up families with school-aged children for Ciena Jump, but it is never too late! OK, I understand that families signing up in November will only get two months of support under the Ciena plan, but that’s still a saving of $60!

But the best news is that if Ciena extends their sponsorship to 2026, existing Ciena families will automatically receive a fully subsidised Jump connection for 2026 – that’s a saving of $360!

If the Ciena programme is not extended in 2026, anyone on the Ciena Plan will revert to standard Skinny Jump, which is still the most affordable internet connection available in New Zealand.

We are on track to sign up 600 new Ciena families in 2025 – we have 63 places left! 300 families with school-aged children sign up for Jump every month, so that’s 600 over the next two months. So go for it – ask every family signing up for Jump if they have school-aged children and if they do, offer them the free Ciena option. This will save them $60 this year and guarantee them a front-row seat if the programme is extended in 2026.

And one last thing – if you missed Sue’s email inviting you to complete our short Ciena survey – it’s not too late! Here is the link to the survey.

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 PartnerTotal Ciena Plan
Shirley Library26
Ranui Library17
Hastings War Memorial Library16
Linwood Library15
Flaxmere Library9
Matatiki Hornby Centre9
New Brighton Library9
Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-po Levin8
Glen Eden Library7
Glenfield Library7
Ashburton Library6
Mt Roskill Library6
Glenview Community Centre5
Marlborough Library5
Pukete Neighbourhood House5
Dargaville Library4
Glen Innes Library4
Highland Park Library4
Onehunga Library4
Otara Library4
Pakuranga Library4
Smart Newtown4
Avondale Library3
Kaiapoi Library3
Northcote Library3
Te Atatu Peninsula Library3
Havelock North Library2
New Lynn Library2
Papatoetoe War Memorial Library2
TaiTech2
Taupo Budget Advisory Service2
Waitakere Library2
Wellsford War Memorial Library2

Calling all CIENA partners…time to start your engines

In fact, some of you didn’t wait for the starting gun. Zoe Pascoe from Linwood Library took the honours with the first CIENA signup on 20 December, closely followed by Lisa Dam from Glenfield Library with sign ups on 22 and 30 December.

There are advantages in being first off the block – it helps us identify gaps in our processes so we can fix these before the floodgates open.

New CIENA Referral form

The CIENA Referral form has been updated and can be downloaded from the Stepping UP website:

Please do not use the old printed forms as these refer to the programme terminating on 31 December 2024.

Jump Profile Form

This has now been updated with some new options:

Note there are now two CIENA options, one we have called CIENA Standard and the other CIENA Hono Mai. Most partners will be choosing the CIENA Standard option. Hono Mai is a special programme being managed by the Greater Christchurch Schools Network (GCSN). This is only for families with children at Christchurch schools who have been referred by GCSN to a nearby Jump partner to collect their modems.

Email Confirmation

When families sign up for the CIENA Plan, their Jump account will initially be a standard Jump one (with the start-up 35GB data). When the Profile form is completed together with a signed Referral Form, their account will be changed to the CIENA plan with the first monthly allocation of 210GB. They will receive an email notification when their account has been re-provisioned from Standard Skinny Jump to CIENA; this will normally take a few days, hopefully before families have used their first 35GB. Please make sure that you use the parent’s email on both the Jump Profile form and the Referral Form, so that they receive this notification and any future communications about the CIENA programme.

Good news stories

Partners frequently report how appreciative families are to receive this free internet service. We would like to share these good news stories with the Skinny Jump team and CIENA, the programme sponsor. Please let Sue Kini know if you any special stories about what difference the support from CIENA is making (sue@diaa.nz).

Families who change their minds

From time to time, families on the CIENA Plan ask to switch back to Standard Jump. The main reason appears to be that parents lose some of the control over family internet usage. With a monthly top-up of 210GB on the first day of each calendar month some families can reach this data cap before the end of the month and then they lose their internet connection until the start of the following month. While the data allowance is similar to Standard Jump (6 top-ups of 35GB = 210GB),some families prefer to ration this by only topping up when a parent approves this. We ask CIENA partners to alert families to this situation when signing them up, but reassure them that they can switch back to Standard Jump if necessary. The only downside in doing this is that they will not be able to change their minds again and re-sign for CIENA in the future.

Replacements for faulty modems can be re-provisioned for Ciena

A partner has raised a question about whether a Ciena customer can continue on the programme if their modem becomes faulty.

The short answer is, YES.

There is a provision on the Modem Return form to indicate if the customer reporting the faulty modem is on a sponsored plan, such as Ciena or OCHT. Partners should make sure this option is selected and this will trigger an action to get the replacement modem re-provisioned for Ciena or OCHT.

Skinny Jump Ciena Plan no longer available for new applicants from 1 June 2024

As indicated in my earlier post, it is time to start applying the brakes for new applicants to the Ciena plan. We have nearly reached our target number of new sign-ups since the extended sponsorship was announced in December 2023.

The Skinny Jump team has agreed to continue supporting any applications received until 31 May 2024, when the Ciena Plan will be removed as an option in the Jump Profile form.

Please make sure that all staff involved in Skinny Jump sign-ups are aware of this, so they don’t inadvertently offer this option to a new family after 31 May 2024.

Please withdraw all the Ciena Jump for Students Fund referral forms and any Ciena Jump signage so that frontline staff do not offer this by mistake. You may wish to store these securely, in case the Skinny Jump team is able to secure any further sponsorship.

Just to confirm, the offer of a free internet connection continues until the end of 2024 for all families signed up to Ciena before 1 June 2024. At this stage we have no indication whether the scheme will be continued in 2025; the default is that all customers on the Ciena Plan will revert to standard Skinny Jump on 1 January 2025, unless advised otherwise.

451 Ciena signups and counting!

What an amazing effort – you have signed up 451 new families to the Ciena plan since the start of the year. So, we are now on the countdown to our target of 600 for 2024. At the current rate, we’ll reach our target in about 4 weeks.

And who are our Ciena Partner champions? 68 partners have signed up a family to Ciena; the total number of issues since the start of 2023 is 1296. Here are the top 30%.

681296
Total Issues
Linwood Library13711%
Hastings War Memorial Library1088%
Shirley Library1038%
Ranui Library846%
Hornby Library595%
Wairoa Library504%
Otara Library453%
Glenfield Library443%
Manukau Library433%
Kaikohe Library423%
New Brighton Library413%
Te Takere Levin413%
Rotorua Library353%
Papatoetoe War Memorial Library333%
Manurewa Library322%
Onehunga Library302%
Mangere East Library292%
Te Paataka Koorero O Takaanini282%
Glen Innes Library212%
Flaxmere Library202%
Porirua Library202%

Jump Ciena Plans vs Top-ups

What is it that ‘Water and Oil’ have in common with ‘Ciena Plans and Jump Top-ups’? Yes, you’ve got it. They don’t mix!

Families opting for the Ciena Plan get 210GB data loaded to their accounts on the first day of each calendar month. The good news is that this is free until the end of the 2024 school year; the not so good news is that some families use all this data before the end of the month and then lose the internet.

Regular Jump customers pay $5 for 35GB data with a maximum of 6 top-ups every 30 days. 5 x 35GB = 210GB. Regular customers also get a bonus 15GB of free data on the first day of each calendar month.

This week, we received a cry from a Jump customer on a Ciena Plan:

“My plan isn’t the same. I signed up for Ciena in August last year but my dashboard now says I have to pay $5 to purchase another 35GB.”

A bit of investigation revealed two areas of confusion:

(1) the customer claims the partner who helped them set up their Jump modem told them that they could top up when they used the sponsored 210GB allowance. Sorry, WRONG advice! Not true. When customers use up their 210GB data, that’s it for the rest of the month. No more internet! So how do you stop the kids gaming or netflixing away all the data before month end? Frankly that’s a bit of a challenge that the technology can’t solve, nor can Chat GPT! But perfect for pre-pay services like regular Jump.

(2) the customer called the Skinny Care Team and were advised that they could either wait until the end of the month and get the next 210GB data package (so far so good) or top up their account, which would then change them back to standard Skinny Jump. Can you hear alarm bells ringing? More WRONG ADVICE!! A year ago this was possible, but not anymore. Sometime last year, the option to top-up and purchase a standard Skinny Jump Plan was removed for customers on sponsored plans like Ciena.

So like oil and water, you can’t have a bob each way. One or the other. No mix ‘n match, I’m afraid.

I am sure you are all wondering how this story ends. We have to be a bit cautious about families playing the system using the sponsored 210GB, switching to standard Jump for the rest of the month, thereby securing another 210GB and then switching back to Ciena, etc. A friendly call to the customer quickly sorts this; in this case a genuine problem of confusing advice. Also an opportunity to fully explain the limitations of sponsored plans. The customer asked for Ciena to be reinstated, but also indicated that they would start investigating commercial unlimited broadband plans if they find the 210GB an ongoing constraint.

So, a sort of happy ending for all.

THE END

Briefing for new Ciena Partners to be held on Thursday 15 February

I have had a few inquiries from partners about offering the Skinny Jump Ciena plan to their communities – remember this gives families with school-aged children free access to the internet for the rest of this year. I have scheduled a briefing for these prospective new partners for Thursday 15 February at 11am. You can sign up here.

Existing partners are welcome to join in as well if they would like a refresher on Ciena. 38% of our partners have signed up less than 5 families during the last 12 months, so I can understand if our processes are a bit fuzzy.

The most important thing to remember is that a Skinny Jump Profile Form must be completed for all Ciena sign ups, whether a new modem is being issued or whether a family is transferring from a standard pre-pay Jump connection. The form initiates the modem provisioning process. And of course we do need a scanned or photographed copy of the Ciena Jump for Students Fund referral form.

Existing partners should receive the new pad of referral forms (with 31 December 2024 as the end date) today or tomorrow. We will send a pad of these forms to any new partners after the Thursday briefing.

Updates for Ciena Partners

What a fantastic start to the new year – by 8 February, 139 more families with school-aged children were benefitting from a free internet connection for the 2024 school year. So a few things to note (mainly for Ciena partners) but if you are not already a Ciena Partner and really want to offer this to your community, please send an email to jump@diaa.nz.

  1. We would love to reach our target of 600 new families by the end of March. Families will then get the maximum benefit with at least 9-10 months of free internet. Those who have already signed up will be getting 11 or 12 months.
  2. All families who signed up in 2023 have had their Ciena plans automatically extended until the end of 2024.
  3. We have just received supplies of the 2024 Ciena Referral Forms and will be couriering these out to Ciena partners over the next few days. Please consign any old forms that you are holding to your paper recycling bin.
  4. When scanning the Referral Forms to jump@diaa.nz it would be really helpful to have the parent/caregiver name in the email subject line; we struggle at times to read handwritten names on the referral forms. Some partners already do this – thank you.
  5. There is some confusion about how customer accounts are provisioned for Ciena. This is not an automatic process. First of all we must have a Profile Form completed, whether this is for a new customer or an existing Jump customer customer transferring to the Ciena plan. This then triggers a request to the Skinny support team to provision the customer’s account for Ciena – this can take 1-3 days. We (DIAA) receive a notification when the account is provisioned and send a confirming email to the customer (see text of email below). This can also take a couple of days, depending on our workload. But even though it could take up to a week from the time the customer gets their modem, they do have their start up 35GB to keep them going and when their account is provisioned they immediately get a full month’s data allowance of 210GB.
  6. The text of the email that we send to customers to confirm that their modem has been provisioned is as follows: 
    • I am pleased to confirm that your Skinny Jump modem (Broadband number {{Description}}) has been provisioned for the CIENA plan.  This means that your account has 210GB data that will expire at the end of this calendar month and a new 210GB data added on the first day of next month.  This will now continue until December 2024. Ciena approved this extension for another year on 15 December 2023.
    • Please note that as this is a sponsored plan, it is not possible to top up your account – if you use your whole data allowance in less than a month, the internet will stop working and you will have to wait until the first day of the next month to get another 210GB data, so we do encourage you to keep an eye on your data usage on your Jump Dashboard or App.  If you find that the data allowance really isn’t enough for you and your family, then you might want to check other ‘on account’ plans, but of course you will have to pay for these.   There is no penalty if you do choose to change to another service.
    • If you do wish to cancel your Ciena Jump service for any reason during the year, please return the modem to your nearest Jump delivery partner, so that we can reset it and reissue to another family.
  7. We have had some requests from customers on the Ciena Plan to revert back to standard Skinny Jump. You might think this is rather strange – why would anyone want to give up a free connection for a paid one – well we did get an explanation from one customer. With the Ciena Plan, 210GB of data is loaded onto the customer’s account on the first day of each calendar month. The customer explained that her kids managed to use all this data within the first couple of weeks, and since there is no option to top up sponsored accounts, she didn’t have any internet until the start of the next month. She preferred regular Jump where she could manage her children’s time on the internet and top up as required. If you do find any customers asking to revert to standard Skinny Jump, you should use the Modem Returns process to get the modem reset; your customer will need to set their modem up again and establish a new account, but they will be able to use their same email as the modem reset process delinks their email from the modem.
  8. Another thing to watch out for is when a customer on the Ciena plan returns a faulty modem; make sure you always complete a new Profile Form, clearly stating that the customer is on the Ciena plan and wishes to remain on it. This will then trigger the Ciena provisioning process as for new signups. The only difference in this case is that these customers do not need to complete a new Ciena Referral form.