Swapping Jump Modem SIMs is not the Solution!

We had two situations this week where Jump customers with faulty modems thought it might be a good idea to take the SIM card from their faulty modem and put it in their new replacement modem. This would mean they didn’t have to set up a new Jump account and link their new modem.

My first thought was that these customers might be onto something we hadn’t really considered since the beginning of the Jump programme, so we did a bit more investigation.

First of all we discovered not all Jump modems use the same size SIM card.

The Standard or Mini-SIM (also known as 2FF) measures 25 x 15 x 0.76 mm and is typically used in larger devices. Most portable devices such as today’s smartphones currently use a Micro-SIM measuring 15 x 12 x0.76 mm or a Nano-SIM, measuring 12.3 x 8.3 x 0.76mm. SIM cards are typically provided in sets of three, combining the Standard SIM (Mini-SIM), the Micro-SIM and Nano-SIM into one – it’s called the Triple SIM (or Tri-SIM). Users simply pop out the required size for their device.

We then checked out what size SIM is used in Jump modems and this is what we discovered: B315, Smart and Futura modems use a Micro-SIM, while the B618 uses a Nano-SIM.

Unaware of these differences, our enterprising Jump customer extracted his Nano-SIM from his B618 and inserted it into his new Smart Modem, and yes, you guessed it – the Nano-SIM simply disappeared inside his modem! So he now became the proud owner of a brand new faulty modem!

So that was our first lesson – never inset a Nano-SIM into a device expecting a Micro-SIM.

Undeterred, we followed this up with Skinny Jump specialists in Spark to get their view on this practice of swapping SIMS. They advised us that technically a Jump-provisioned SIM card can be swapped into new hardware (provided of course the SIM cards are the same size). BUT, and there is a big BUT, swapping SIMS might solve one problem but generate another. With a swapped SIM, the details printed on the modem sticker (broadband number and verification code) no longer match the SIM in the modem. So when it comes to reporting a fault and getting support from the Skinny Care Team, this creates huge confusion.

So our second lesson was simply to never swap a SIM.

A follow up on Jump waiting lists

I have been impressed by the partners who are taking my plea to get their Jump waiting lists in order before Christmas. As of today, we have 65 partners with waiting lists and a total of 309 people waiting (not much different to two weeks ago when we had 60 partners with waiting lists and 310 households waiting).

But it has also highlighted some confusion about who is responsible for removing customers from a waiting list. Our original approach was to get Alistair, who manages the transfer of Profile Form responses to individual Partner Gsheets, to remove waiters when he receives a Profile form from someone who is on a waiting list.

But what we have discovered is that this doesn’t solve the problem of waiters who fail to turn up within 7-10 days after you have notified them that you have modems in stock. Our agreed protocol for this situation is that waiters be removed from the waiting list when this occurs.

While Alistair and I will continue to help where we can, primary responsibility for waiting listing management must be with partners. Many partners use their Jump GSheets to record contact information for customers on their waiting lists and this is an excellent idea. But just as it is your responsibility to add people to the waitlist, we think you should also be primarily responsible for taking them off.

And while we are on the subject of waiting lists, I was especially impressed with the following response from Jess Thrower at Ranui Library; I suspect Jess didn’t need to rely on ChatGPT like me!

Here at Rānui,
Our waitlists aren’t clear,
But we are working on them
With full Christmas cheer.

A lot on our waitlist
Never answer their phone,
So we’ll keep trying
And get dial-tone.

We give extra time,
As much as we can,
If they don’t answer,
We make a new plan.

We reach out by email,
and we hope that they see.
When all of that fails,
We let the waitlist be.

We love to give modems,
And run out so quick!
When they ask for one,
We’re there in a tick!

What do I do with a returned modem that isn’t a Skinny Jump one?

I have had two questions from partners about this so far this week (and it’s only Wednesday), so that calls for a blog post!

The challenge that partners are facing is that the same physical modem is used by Spark and Skinny for a range of different services, some of which are wireless and others are for landline (fibre) connections. So it not always easy to identify which ones have been provisioned for Skinny Jump.

My advice is to lodge ALL returned modems that look like a Skinny Jump modem through our Modem Returns Process. The Skinny team will advise us whether the modem has been provisioned for Jump or not.

Any ‘non-Jump’ modems will then be treated as ‘faulty’ and this will result in us sending you a recovery courier bag. We return these to CEVA, the company that manages the supply of modems, and it is their job to arrange the repair of faulty Jump modems or the transfer of other modems to the right party, or in case of very old or damaged modems, they would most likely be sent for recycling.

Jump This Week – Going UP!

I suspect many of you a familiar with the Sunday Star*Times regular column about what’s going up and what’s going down.

From time to time we get “Going Up” feedback from Jump partners and I felt that one we received this week was worth sharing.

This came from a community partner in a rural town that prepares a Skinny Jump Accountability Report for their trustees; this summarised barriers they faced and their achievements.

Not surprisingly, amongst the barriers they identified:

  1. limited supplies of modems, delaying the delivery of Jump;
  2. cell tower capacity, limiting the availability of Jump;
  3. customers with old mobile phones that didn’t support the Jump app;
  4. incorrect email addresses and forgotten passwords when registering for Jump.

But despite these barriers they reported a stunning achievement:

Completing 529 Jump registrations since March 2020, reaching over 16% of all households in the district!

Overall they summed up their experience with Jump as:

  1. Skinny Jump has played and will continue to play a vital role in the community.
  2. With the advancement IT and recently AI, by today’s standards, the ability to have connectivity is inevitable.
  3. We continue to get positive feedback from the community for they appreciate the time and effort taken during the registering process.

I know other partners provide regular updates to their managers and governance groups. Please keep doing this. One wise manager that I used to work with decades ago encouraged me to budget for ‘promotion’ as part of the project: “What’s the point of good works if no-one knows about it,” he said.

New Jump Partner guides – coming this week

As discussed during the recent Jump webinars, new copies of the Jump Partner Guide are being shipped this week, along with a new supply of the ‘Stopped Using Your Jump modem’ stickers.

Some partners will be receiving more than one copy of the Partner Guide – one copy is for general use; the others are individual copies for each Jump Specialist.

So if you are the person opening the courier pack, please make sure these extra copies find their way to your specialists – while they have completed all the Partner Pathway modules and received a Jump Specialist badge, it is especially important that they continue to have access to the most up-to-date information.

You will also find a few copies of the new Customer Guides. These are to be used when returned modems are reset and become available for re-issue.

Let’s clear those Jump waiting lists

🎶 You better get ready,
To bring homes online,
310 households
Are waiting in line!
Let’s clear those lists for Christmas time! 🎶

🎶 With 60* great partners,
And modems in store,
We’ve got what we need,
To connect even more!
Let’s clear those lists for Christmas time! 🎶

🎶 These households are waiting,
For a gift that’s so dear,
An internet connection,
To start the new year! 🎶

🎶 So rally together,
Let’s give it our best,
With Skinny Jump’s mission,
Let’s meet every quest!
Let’s clear those lists for Christmas time! 🎶

*60 partners have customers on their waiting lists (at least that we know about because they have been recorded in your Jump register).

Not really a Friday Quiz, but a little bit of encouragement (of course with help from Chat GPT) to clear your Jump waiting lists. Remember our waiting list protocol – partners should alert customers on their waiting lists when they have modems in stock and if they don’t respond within 7-10 days, then zap, they are to be removed from the waiting list.

We have also discovered some partners do keep a waiting list but this is not shared with us. This means that when we ship you new modem supplies we can not take into account your waiters, so you quickly run out of modems again.

We also know that some partners are unable to add waiters to their Google sheets because they don’t have editing rights. Thanks to Rida Malik from Hamilton Libraries, we now have a solution! It’s all about how we share your Jump GSheet with you. To date, you have needed a Gmail account to get editing rights, but Rida has shown us how we can share this with your regular email. This is a real breakthrough for partners who have IT departments that are nervous about linking Gmail accounts to their corporate networks.

So any partners who still have ‘secret’ waiting lists in your top drawer, let me know the email you would like to use and I’ll connect you up so that you can add these waiters to your Gsheet (email me at jump@diaa.nz).

PS – if any partners would like to demonstrate their Chat GPT skills and respond with a rhyme about how they handle their Jump waiting lists, then who knows, Santa might come early!

Diwali and more winners….

As Sue Kini pointed out, this was a really unfair quiz. You really had to be “in the know” as Dianne Langitan from Te Atatu Peninsula Library clearly was:

“It is a beautiful creation made of recycled Skinny Jump box. It’s a model of Ram Mandir or Rama Temple in Uttar Pradesh India. Down the centre of the temple you can spot a small image of god Rama. It’s located at Waitakere Central Library Henderson, created by one of the librarians, Dipali.“

Dipali Kaduskar is the Jump coordinator at Waitakere Library and according to Dianne, this is not her first creation. Fortunately, Dipali and the team at Waitakere Central still find time to sign up Jump customers – 175 so far this year.

But Louise Gribbon from Tasman District Libraries had the most creative response:

“Kia ora, this looks like a Diwali display to me. In my community, some of the people who celebrate Diwali are recent migrants, and ‘Refugees and migrant communities’ are one of the groups eligible for Skinny Jump. Diwali is also associated with lights and ‘dispelling the darkness of ignorance and welcoming the light of knowledge and wisdom’. Skinny Jump helps to reduce digital exclusion, i.e. brings the light, knowledge, and new (IT) skills to those in need.“

Thanks Dipali, for sharing your creation with us, and for shining a new light on Jump (in more ways than one).

And the winner is…

It is Friday and I have been promising to tell you who the winner was in our Friday Quiz from a few weeks back.

Congratulations to Wendy Brock from Picton Library “I can only think of one thing – logging on! Logging on to their email, their skinny account, and modem password! Don’t know if this counts as one or more answers.” But Wendy also suggested a solution: “If they can’t remember their email password (as their phone has a cracked screen and cannot be used) they use one of our laptops and we help them set up a new email and write their passwords down on a piece of paper (which will probably get lost). That is after giving up on resetting their password as they don’t have the same phone number…. LOL.“

I was also impressed with the suggestion from Shantel Hennessy at Taitech in Gisborne. She nearly had the right answer, like many of you, but what impressed me was how she helps people remember what to do when it comes to top-up time: “I’m guessing the answer would be payment options. I’ve had a few come to me for help with  payment or renewing plans. I’ll ask the customer to pop into Taitech and we will do it together. I’ve ended up making a print out of step by steps on the payment options that I give them, I think they forget that there is that info in the booklet they first get when signing up for skinny jump.”

And here’s the handout that Shantel gives them:

So well done Wendy and Shantel. Thanks for your helpful responses. Now a visit to Moore Wilsons to see what treats I can find for you both.

PS. Thanks to everyone who responded to my quiz.

Ooops – it’s Monday

I promised everyone that I would give you the answer on Friday to my question posed on Friday 4 October concerning what Jump customers find to be one of the most challenging things about being a Jump customer. 

Most of you sort of got it right – something to do with top-ups using the app. But that wasn’t the exact answer I was looking for. What I wanted to know is what the particular barrier was that caused nearly 300,000 failed attempts last year and what partners can do to address this.

A couple of you really hit the nail on the head with the correct answer – people simply couldn’t remember the email they used to set up their Skinny Jump account or their password!

And what was even better, these partners had some excellent strategies for addressing this (I’ll share these with you when I get back to my office).

The Jump partner guide does recommend that you advise all customers to write down the email they have used for their Jump account as well as their password. What the Guide doesn’t say is where to write this down.

We strongly suggest that during the sign-up process, and before customers leave with their modem, you insist that these details are written down on the inside cover of their Partner Guide – the little booklet that is supplied with every modem.