December 30, 2021

Hub Home

Do you want free high speed internet?

We are looking to expand our service in to new areas in the Auckland city, sub-urban, and rural areas. Our service is transmitted wirelessly, so we need to place hubs in select locations that have a good view of other properties in the neighbourhood in order to bring you and your neighbours faster broadband. If you are interested in hosting a hub and you have a property or land that overlooks other properties, then continue reading...

 

hubhome+antenna

Can you host our hub?

If your property overlooks or is overlooked by other houses or businesses in any direction, we would like to discuss hosting an Ionica hub.

You've probably already been contacted by us or have received a flyer indicating that we are interested in hosting a hub on your property. This is because we believe your property would be a potential location where we could place our hub and extend our service in to your neighbourhood. In return we will provide you with our high-end unlimited broadband package for free.

What does it look like?

The first question we get asked is what the Ionica hub looks like. Our typical installation consists of our standard internet access antenna plus the additional Ionica hub antenna.

Backhaul AntennaOur standard internet access antenna is a circular device, 19cm in diameter (pictured right) that is attached to a point on your property that has line-of-sight to our main tower - normally under a roofing eave, on a chimney, or at some other high point on your property. This is the same antenna that all Ionica customers use to receive our broadband service.

omni
The Ionica hub antenna (pictured left) is a 60cm pole antenna that is fitted to a high point on your house that has a good view of the neighbourhood. It therefore needs to be above the roofline typically on a chimney, existing TV mast, or on a mast attached to the apex of your roof. Only the top 30cm of the hub (the antenna part) needs to protrude above the roofline.

We will also install an electrics box (approx. 30x20cm) on an outside wall or under the house void.

The antennas come in white by default, although we have a variety of alternative colours that can be used to match your decor as desired.

What you need to do

The second question we get asked is what you need to do to run the hub. In short, nothing - we will do everything. Infact, it's a requirement of ours that you don't do anything to the equipment. We just need your permission to use your property to mount the hub.

Although not mandatory, we do ask that you keep an eye out for any obvious issues such as damage, wear and tear, or notify us if there is a power outage. None-the-less, our operations centre continually monitors the equipment and power status, so we will be automatically notified if there is a service impacting issue.

We do require you to commit to at least 2 years of hosting the hub. Ideally, we'd like to extend the agreement on an ongoing basis for many years.

What do you get out of it?

The third, and arguably most important, question we get asked is what will you get out of the arrangement. In return for being a hub home we will provide you with our high speed unlimited broadband service free of charge. We also cover the cost of electricity used by the equipment (approx. $50 per year).

Maintenance and site visits

Although the equipment is self managing, there may be circumstances where we need to visit your home to perform maintenance on the hub. We need to stress that these are normally quite rare and are only necessary when there is an issue we can't resolve remotely. For example, if there is a fault with the equipment, or if there is an extended power failure that has depleted the batteries.

All maintenance can be performed from the outside, so we don't need access to the inside of your house. We will always notify you if we need to make a maintenance visit.

Rural High Speed Broadband

There are many areas in New Zealand where fast broadband isn't available - mostly in rural locations. If you live in such an area and want to improve your broadband service, Ionica can solve this problem by installing a hub to bring our wireless service to your neighbourhood. Typically we install a hub on a suitable building (house, barn, silo, etc), or install a special solar/wind powered hub on a hill or field.

 

Next Steps?

If you wish to become a hub home, the next steps are as follows:

  1. Contact us (0508-IONICA) to let us know of your interest
  2. Book a qualification inspection
  3. Sign a 2 year agreement
  4. We install the Ionica hub

The whole process from start to end typically takes 1-2 weeks depending on any external factors. Remote / rural locations may take longer due to additional construction and access requirements.

 

Or fill out our form...

Got Questions?

In exchange for being a hub home we will provide you with free unlimited high speed internet. We will also pay for any electricity the equipment uses (approx. $50 per year).

The hub-home equipment will be installed at a high point on your property. Normally it will be attached to an existing TV/satellite mast or a chimney. Where no other appropriate attachment is available, we will install a small mast close to the top of the roof-line.

The electronics box will be installed at ground level, often in an inconspicuous place such as a side alley, under the house void, or adjacent to existing utility boxes. We will discuss with you the best location that suits you.

If you need to change the appearance / colour of the equipment to suit your property decor, please let us know. Do not paint or cover the equipment yourself as most paints will interfere with the signal.

If you need the equipment moved, let us know and our technicians will perform the relocation for you. Do not attempt to relocate the equipment yourself as the antenna alignment is very precise and nearly impossible to perform without the correct tools.

In the event of a power failure, the equipment has backup batteries that will provide approximately 12 hours of standby power. If the power failure is extended, we may need to visit your house to replace or recharge the batteries. Please let us know if you are aware of any power failure or if work is being performed on your electrical supply.

Also, please don't turn off the power to the equipment without first contacting us.

Normally a resource consent is not required to install our equipment. However we will ensure this to be the case, and if not, we will obtain the resource consent from the council.

Installing a hub in to a rural location is much the same as installing in a city location. We will normally try to locate a building that has good views of the surrounding area as well as line-of-site to one of our main relay towers. If such a building is not available, we can also install in to a field or on a hill by deploying a solar/wind powered hub.

There are a couple of additional requirements for rural installations that differ from urban installations.

  • Solar/wind powered sites are more costly to install and operate so we need to make sure there is a minimum potential market for such an installation. Typically we need around 10 customers to make it viable.
  • We need to have line-of-site to another Ionica tower so that we can link the new hub in to our network. We will discover this during our qualification inspection.
  • The resource consent process may take longer for solar/wind powered sites. We may also need you to join-in with the application to provide information and consent to use your land.

Otherwise, rural hubs work just the same as urban hubs.

rural-hub2

A typical solar powered rural hub

If you are aware of any new feature on the landscape that could obscure the view from the hub to the neighbourhood, please let us know. For example, if a tree or foliage has grown in front of the antennas, or a new building is being erected.

If you are doing some work to your property that may interfere with the equipment, please let us know before hand so that we can take the necessary precautions. For example, if you're having building work done, electrical work, exterior cleaning / painting, etc...

If you notice that the equipment has been moved or damaged by extreme weather, let us know. The equipment is completely weatherproof and able to withstand the most harsh conditions. However, weather is unpredictable!

If the equipment is damaged, let us know. Even if this damage was caused by yourself, please just let us know so we can fix it.

If you need something to be done to the equipment, then call us. Don't touch or attempt to modify the equipment yourself, even if you're attempting to correct a problem.

We need you to give us a 2 year initial commitment to become a hub-home. This will be renewed 3 months prior to the end of each term and if renewed, you will be committed for a further 1 year. If you wish to stop hosting our equipment, you will be given the opportunity at this renewal point to exit the contract at the end of the current term. You can notify us that you wish to terminate our contract at any time before the 3 month renewal point, although the contract will run to the end of the current commitment period.

If you are relocating / moving house, let us know as soon as you know. Ideally, let us know when you are considering the move / terminating existing rent / marketing existing property so that we can make provisions for relocating the hub.

The hub equipment will be connected to the mains power at your property. The power requirements are very low (around 18W) and the cost of electricity would be approximately $4/month (which we pay for). Any specialist electrical work will be carried out by a certified electrician.

Some of our customers will be using the hub you host for their primary internet and telephone service. Obviously we don't want them to have their service interrupted which is why we're very strict on non-interference with the equipment once it is installed.

We hold insurance policies to cover the equipment and any liability caused by the equipment or our staff during its install / maintenance / decommission.

Our hub equipment comprises of wifi access points, network switches, network routers, batteries, and battery chargers. All equipment is certified to New Zealand and international electrical and emission standards and has been designed by the respective field experts to meet best practices for safety. Aside from the battery charger, all equipment utilises low voltage DC.

The antenna emits about the same low level of radio signal that your broadband router, laptop, or tablet emits. It's therefore safe to be near the antennas.

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