Skinny Jump modems – Page 13 – Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa

Track & Trace for Jump modems

After couriering 3500 Jump modems and experiencing significant courier delays, we grew to the realisation that there must be a better way to inform customers about delivery progress. I realise many of you, as our delivery partners, have been at the front end of this. Having helped people connect to Jump, the next natural question people have had has been: “when will my modem arrive?”, or even “has my application been approved?”.

Everyone does get an email copy of their application form which advises them that it could take a week to get the modem to them, but inevitably people do want to make sure their application has not been overlooked.

So we have signed up for eTXT, a service provided by Spark, to provide all applicants with a text message, including a link to the Post Haste tracker for their modem. The text will be sent when the modem is collected by the courier, which is generally around mid-day the day after the application has been submitted.

Normal courier times are overnight within the North Island and 2 days to the South Island, and for rural deliveries another day or so. But these have not been normal times, and congestion in the courier world means that it has been taking much longer. At times the modem gets as far as the recipient’s home but for some reason the courier is unable to locate the person the package is for and so it is returned to the local courier depot.

By giving applicants access to the courier tracker, they can monitor the journey of their modem themselves and if they find out it is held up in their local courier branch, they can contact them directly to arrange delivery.

We should have done this 8 weeks ago, but this has been a learning journey for us as well. And it is certainly not too late, as our home deliveries for Jump modems are continuing at around 40 a day.

We expect this to be operational from Tuesday’s courier run (2 June 2020). For those who don’t receive a text confirmation that a modem is on the way within a few days of their application, this probably means that there has been an issue with the address details or Skinny coverage. In this case, we contact all families by phone, text or email to get the missing information or explain why we haven’t sent a modem.

So if partners do get any queries about modem deliveries please ask your customers to contact Shelley on 0800 463 422 and she will follow this up. Please do not contact the Skinny Helpdesk with any issues about modem deliveries – they do not have access to this information. They take over once the modem arrives and provide assistance as required in setting up Skinny accounts and providing any technical support.

Invercargill onto it!

Lindsay King, the Learning Connections Coordinator at Invercargill City Libraries, and local coordinator for Skinny Jump, is the first Jump partner since the Covid-19 lockdown ended to request a courier sticker and address label to send faulty and returned modems for recycling. So I thought it might be timely to remind everyone of the process for handling returned and faulty Jump modems.

You may recall my earlier post about returning faulty modems. During the last 2 months, we have issued over 3500 Jump modems through our home-delivery process. Not surprisingly, around 4% of these (140) have been identified as ‘faulty’ when customers have reported problems to the Skinny Helpdesk and we have couriered a replacement modem. We included a note with the replacement modem, asking the customer to return the faulty modem to their nearest Jump partner after the Covid-19 lockdown ended.

Now that most partners have their doors open again, I am expecting the people holding faulty modems to return them to you. Please just assign them to your faulty/returns modem box and when you have a box full (5 or 6 modems) please contact us at jump@diaa.nz to get a courier sticker and return address label. Please advise the IMEI numbers of the modems you are sending for recycling, so that we can update our records.

Note that this applies to all returned modems; we no longer require you to contact the Skinny Helpdesk to request de-linking, so that the modem can be re-issued.

You are also welcome to send modems directly to the recycler if you prefer, but can you please advise us the IMEI numbers of the modems when you do this. Thank you.

The recycler is:

Sims E-Cycling (NZ) Ltd, 69 Aintree Avenue, Mangere, AUCKLAND Attention: Robert Herbert Phone: 09 275 1501

What happened to the Jump Participant GDoc Registers?

Things changed on 25 March (not just the Covid-19 lockdown!) with the expansion of the criteria for Jump. When we introduced the home-delivery option (that has now reached nearly 4000 people), we abandoned the Kawa of Care form that we used to update the Jump registers in GDocs and replaced this with a Stepping UP Profile form which is to be used by partners when issuing Jump modems. We also plan to progressively use this for other DIAA digital inclusion programmes, to create a more comprehensive picture of the people who are participating.

For the home-delivery Jump option, we created a new form (Skinny Jump Application Form), based on the Stepping UP profile form, but with some additional contact information, such as a physical address so that we can check Skinny Jump coverage and courier modems to applicants.

For modems issued by partners, we are continuing to update the individual partner Jump register GDocs, using information captured in the Stepping UP profile form, but we are only including name and date information (linked to IMEI and BB numbers). The remaining data is consolidated in a national database where we can analyse the profile of people participating. The advice we received from privacy lawyers was that we were exposing ourselves and our partners to possible privacy breaches by recording participant details in a GDoc that could be easily shared and copied.

Our main reason for maintaining the individual partner GDocs is for stock control purposes, so that we can re-issue modems as required. Partners are welcome to continue to have access to this if they find it helpful.

Too early for libraries to start providing Jump modems

I think this is a pretty universal position that it is too early for libraries and other public facilities to start issuing Jump modems. Since my last post on the Level 2 restrictions for Jump, our library partners seem to agree that while their facilities are officially open, social distancing, cleaning requirements and in some cases, limitations on the length of time people can stay in the facility, make it simply too difficult for group activities. However, the good news is that everyone seems very happy to keep operating in the same way as the have been for the last 8 weeks, i.e. accepting Jump inquiries from their community and where necessary, assisting with the completion of the online application form. Modems are then couriered directly to applicants’ homes, with a user guide explaining how to set up the Jump modem and open a Skinny account.

So our proposal is that from next week most Jump partner sites listed on the Skinny Jump map will be updated to read:

Contact us during normal business hours to sign up for Jump.

A contact name and normal business telephone number will then replace the personal mobile number of the staff member working from home.

Our proposal is that this will become the default information, but individual partners may choose slight variations to this wording if required. For example, some library staff have approval to continue working from home and managing Jump inquiries by phone. The Partner map information will then read:

Jump classes suspended until further notice. Phone us to sign up for Jump.

We ask all public Jump delivery partners to review the information on the Skinny map and advise us of any changes required (jump@diaa.nz).

In Auckland, 31 libraries are opening on 20 May and the other 24 immediately after Queen’s Birthday weekend (2 June).

We expect these updates to be made by Wednesday 20 May.

Managing Jump accounts for whānau and small groups in managed communities

The extension of the Jump eligibility criteria to other digitally disadvantaged groups such as seniors and people with disabilities, as well as the Covid-19 constraints that we have all had to face during the last seven weeks, has made us think about more flexible options for delivering Jump. Two particular situations have come to light.

35 year old Jake takes responsibility for setting up a Jump account for his elderly Mum who lives in another town and has health issues. Jake completes an online application for his Mum but uses his own email address, so that he can check all the details such as the courier address were entered correctly. The home delivery service kicked in and arranged for the modem to be couriered to his Mum. When the modem arrived, Jake proceeded to set up the Skinny account in his Mum’s name but with his own email address so that he could verify the account when the Skinny email arrived. The only thing Jake overlooked was that he would need the modem broadband number and the verification code to set up the account, and as the modem was now some hundreds of kilometres away, he could not easily check this. So he called his mum and asked her for the codes on the base of the modem, but his mum was a bit confused by all the numbers and wasn’t what ones to give him. Lightbulb moment! “Mum, take a photo of the base and rear of the modem and send them to me!” Jake was now able to complete setting up the account. Roll-on 30 days and Jake gets an email from Skinny reminding him that he needs to top up his Mum’s account and renew the $5 plan. Jake’s Mum lives alone and she uses less than 30GB during the first month, so $5 a month is not really a financial burden for Jake. Remembering to top up every month is a bit of a pain for Jake, so he loads $20 onto his Mum’s account; each month $5 will be deducted, as the plan automatically renews. Now how easy is that for Jake and his Mum.
Leona works for an organisation that provides support to people with disabilities and wants to provide (and pay for) a Jump connection for 10 people in her community. She has already procured 10 Chromebooks to set up a library of devices that people can borrow while under Covid-19 restrictions. The people she wants to support are living at different locations so she opted for the home-delivery service. However, she asked DIAA to provide her with a schedule of the modems allocated with the IMEI and Broadband numbers, as well as the Verification codes. This enabled her to set up individual accounts for each recipient. She also elected to set up a new email and password for each recipient, so that she could initially manage the accounts by paying for the top ups and renewing the Jump plans for each of the 10 people being supported, as required. Her plan is to eventually hand over the accounts to the individuals involved for them to self-manage. To simplify the process of accessing and topping up accounts she selected the Skinny Linked Accounts option. While this was originally intended for parents to manage their children’s Skinny accounts, it can equally be used for managed community situations like the one described above. Another organisation similar to Leona’s is happy to arrange for the delivery of the modems to their constituents, but the process is effectively the same. We are referring to organisations like these as Community Connectors.

Now we are at Level 2, what’s the story with Jump delivery?

A few weeks ago I posted about what might happen to the home-delivery Jump service once we moved to Level 2. I suggested that this really is in your hands as our delivery partners; we hope that you can continue offering assistance with Jump signups and progressively move back to delivering the modems as well. But there is no panic. We realise tomorrow is a new day and for many of you, your first day back in your premises after nearly two months. While I would like to think that Jump signups are on your priority list, I suspect your managers (and their managers) might have other priorities, like managing social distancing and keeping all your surfaces clean. So, as I mentioned in my previous post, we will continue to provide the home delivery option. This means you can continue to help sign people up in your communities and we will courier the modem to them. However, if you are willing to recommence with local modem deliveries, do let us know at jump@diaa.nz and we will turn on your auto-restocking trigger.

Just one important thing to remember, if you are issuing the modem, please complete the Stepping UP Profile Form. If you want us to send the modem please complete the Jump Application Form.

Will we be continuing a national home-delivery service for Jump when we move to Level 2?

We recognise that with the move to Covid-19 level 3 today many Jump partners are starting to think about the impact of moving to level 2. While it is expected that public venues, such as libraries, will be permitted to open under level 2, the one metre distancing rule will make it difficult to offer a full range of services.

Whether or not Jump partners wish to resume offering Jump to their communities under level 2 will be a decision for them to make. We are able to continue to offer the national self-service Jump option as long as it is required, but we also look forward to the day when all partners are able to resume providing the additional face-to-face support that so many people still require.

I had a message from one of our self-service recipients the other day. He said in a brief email “OK, I’ve got the modem. What now?”. While the Skinny Helpdesk is providing this follow up support, we know many people would much prefer to talk with someone they know in their local communities.

Jump modems – B315 and B618

B315 First there was the B315, the Jump modem we have all become very familiar with during the last 3 years. These are still flying out the door and will continue to do so until supplies are exhausted (probably within the next 4-6 weeks). DIAA, together with our Stepping UP partner network, is the exclusive distribution channel for this product. Which means we are also the exclusive distribution channel for replacement modems. B315 customers must report any modems they suspect as faulty to the Skinny Helpdesk. The Helpdesk team will attempt to fix any faults remotely, but if not, they will log the modem as ‘faulty’ and this triggers a request to DIAA to ship a replacement. The faulty modems cannot be repaired and customers receiving a replacement modem are requested to return the faulty unit to their nearest Jump delivery partner (when they open up again after the COVID-19 lockdown). They should be added to the recycling box and eventually returned to Sims for recycling.

B618 Welcome to the B618. This device is initially being used as part of the Ministry of Education’s internet support package for students without a home broadband connection. Approximately 3500 of these have been shipped directly from Ingram Micro (Spark’s hardware supplier) to student homes, using a mailing list supplied by the Ministry of Education. As for the B315’s, customers are to report any faults directly to the Skinny Helpdesk. They will be logged and a request issued to DIAA to issue a replacement. Unlike the B315’s, a return courier bag will be sent with the replacement modem. The modems will be returned to DIAA and then forwarded for repair to Telegistics (Spark’s hardware repair company).

We do not expect partners to provide any support, at least at this stage, for the B618 modems. If you receive any inquiries or requests for support from households with these modems, please direct them to the Skinny Helpdesk (0800 475 4669).

Can the delivery address for the modem be different to the customer’s address?

The short answer is yes. In fact this has become such a common request during the COVID-19 lockdown that we have added an extra field in the Application Form to cover this situation. Applicants must still enter the address where they intend to use the Jump modem, as we need this to verify that they do have Skinny wireless coverage, but we have added an optional field as a preferred delivery address.

There are many different circumstances where people may choose a different delivery address, but one of the most common has been in rural communities where gates are locked or there is no delivery letter box. To make life easier for the courier, people in these situations have suggested a more accessible address belonging to a family member or friend.

Can one person apply for Jump modems on behalf of someone else?

The short answer is yes, but when we receive more than one Jump application from the same email address, this raises a flag in our system for us to investigate further. In a number of cases we have received a separate email from a representative of an organisation checking out that this is OK. For example, one situation involved a small retirement village, and another, special housing for people with disabilities. In both cases, an administrator or support person was preparing the applications on behalf of the people they were caring for. But as the people are living in separate accommodation and will be responsible for managing their own Skinny accounts, we are happy to supply individual modems.

However, when it comes to activating the modems and setting up Skinny accounts, individual emails will be required for each user. This email and password must be accessible by the person who will be responsible for topping up the Jump account each month. Normally this would be the person who is using the Jump service, but we have encountered situations where children are taking responsibility for setting up (and paying for!) Jump internet connections for their elderly parents.