Frequently Asked Questions

None! Aside from the fact that we like to think we’re faster and better!

Most people think of “normal” broadband as being supplied through the phone line, but in fact there are many different technologies that can bring internet to your home or office. Our service runs via radio waves at extremely high speeds and is completely independent of the phone line service. This means that we can provide a very high speed service irrespective of what ADSL, VDSL, or Fibre service is being delivered to your property.

Aside from the way in which we bring the Internet to your premises, there is no other difference to how it works. The service will be fast, it will be reliable, and it will be compatible with all the same devices that wired broadband supports. In fact, we aim to provide a better service than you would normally get through a phone-line based service.

If you live in the city you will be able to receive one of our “City Wireless” plans that run at either 50mbps down/10mbps up; 100mbps down/20mbps up; or 200mbps down/20mbps up. If you live outside the city area you will be able to receive our “Rural Wireless” plans that run at speeds up to 100mbps down/20mbps up. Customers who are more than 10km from our transmission tower will receive a weaker signal due to the distance and therefore may not be able to get the fastest service plan. If this is the case, we’ll let you know before you commit to buying our service.

Our broadband doesn’t use ADSL, VDSL, Fibre, or any technology that runs through your phone line.  We run our own microwave wireless network directly to your property and can therefore offer speeds unique to Ionica that traditional ADSL and VDSL service providers can’t provide.

All of our broadband plans offer the same level of service, so it doesn’t really matter which technology you choose; the main consideration is the speed that you want to receive. The biggest confusion with broadband plans is deciding how much “data” you need to buy. Fortunately, all our plans are uncapped which means you this is no longer an issue as all data is free – unlimited!

• If you live in the city…
  1. Choose UFB Fibre if (a) you are in a fibre enabled area; and (b) you need a speed greater than 200mbps.
  2. Otherwise, choose “City Wireless” as it’s cheaper, quicker to install, and involves less 3rd parties.
• If you live in rural Auckland…
  1. Choose “Rural Wireless”.

It means you can use as much data as you like without any restrictions. We don’t traffic shape your connection, and we don’t have a “fair use” limit.

We have a latency SLA of 30ms from your house to our internet gateway, although in practice this is likely to be much lower, typically under 10ms. We also target to have no more than 10ms of jitter from your house to our internet gateway. We aim to meet this SLA obligation 95% of the time.

Our service coverage area is displayed on our Wireless Coverage Map. If you cannot tell from our map if you are covered, then either complete the enquiry form on the coverage map page, or call our customer service advisers.

Yes. Our coverage is expanding all the time. If you wish to receive our service and we do not currently service your area, register your interest on our Wireless Coverage Map page. We often build out our network based on our users requests and in many cases, we have little or no minimum demand level.

You can also be part of our expansion.  If you have a property on which we can host our wireless “hub” then you’ll receive free ultrafast broadband.  See our hub hosting and rural hub pages for more details.

No. Because our Internet doesn’t use a phone line then we can provide our service completely independent of your existing telephone services or provider. All of your existing telephone infrastructure will remain in place and untouched by our service. In addition, you don’t need to have a phone line installed if you don’t already have one. This means you can also cancel your phone line if you don’t need it.

No. ADSL works via your phone line and uses specialised equipment to pass data over that line. Our wireless service doesn’t use the phone line at all (in fact, you don’t even need a phone line for our service). This means that if you have ADSL (or VDSL/Fibre) at the moment, simply install our wireless and cancel the old provider. Our service has no dependency on your existing service, therefore there is no need for a lengthy migration process.

No. Everything you need to connect to our service is provided by us. This includes the wireless equipment, installation, and a high speed broadband / wireless router (unless you opt to use your own router).

No. However it is important to make the distinction between traffic shaping and traffic prioritisation, as we do perform traffic prioritisation – which is a good thing!

Traffic shaping is used to limit the amount of data used by certain types of applications, such as downloads, video streaming, online backups, etc. This is often done by ISP’s to limit the amount of data their users consume. We don’t do this.

Traffic prioritisation is used to ensure that certain types of time critical traffic pass through the network quicker than non-time-critical traffic. For example, voice traffic has to pass through the network with great urgency to ensure your internet phone call doesn’t appear to have delayed or choppy audio. Such traffic is given priority over, say, a video download, where a delay of a few milliseconds on each packet will not make any difference to the overall download speed. We do perform traffic prioritisation and it will give you a better internet experience.

With our residential broadband service, we do provide an optional phone line package for $10 per month.

Yes. We can port your existing number to the home phone service we provide. This is optional however – we can also provide you with a new number.

Yes. The home phone line that we provide is completely separate from any existing phone service(s) you may have. You can continue to use your existing services or you can cancel them and move entirely to our service.

No. The phone service that we provide is entirely routed through our network. We don’t offer the ability to route toll calls through a third party, or to use carrier pre-select services. You can keep an existing phone service alongside our home phone if you wish to continue using the tolls service from another provider.

A digital quality phone line is a phone service that doesn’t lose any audio quality due to old wires, electric noise, crosstalk, or other interference on the line. Your voice is transmitted across our network exactly as it is spoken in to your phone handset and no quality will be lost in transit. The same goes for the audio you hear from the calling party – no interference from line noise.

It is important to us that your internet performs well. Internet is our only product, and if it’s not working well, then you won’t be a happy customer! So we take great measures to ensure our network is running at peak performance.

However, there could be a few things beyond our control that could be causing your internet to run slow. For example, if there has been strong weather recently, your wireless antenna may have been blown out of alignment. Alternatively, you could have some unknown downloads or malware consuming all of your bandwidth.

The best advice is to contact our support team who can help diagnose the issue swiftly and provide the appropriate remediation.

The default wireless SSID and password is printed on your Ionica access point. If you have changed the SSID and/or password and have forgotten what they are, contact our support team to reset it.

If you need a static IP address, contact our support team who will be able to assist you.

Opening a port requires the configuration of a NAT entry on your wireless router. Our support team will help you do this if you are unsure how this is done. However, before you configure ports and static NAT, you must ensure you first have a static IP address (see above).

If dense foliage has grown in front of your wireless antenna, or another obstruction (such as a new building) has been constructed in front of your wireless antenna, then the microwave signal to your property may be degraded or blocked. We may be able to resolve the situation by moving your wireless antenna to a new location on your property where the signal is not obstructed. Contact our support team to arrange an engineer to visit your house and realign your antenna. Do not attempt to move the antenna yourself as it will be nearly impossible to correctly align without the correct tools.

If there has been damage to the cable connecting to the outdoor antenna, then it should be replaced to ensure the service is not degraded. Damaged cable will often lead to water entering and corroding the cable which will ultimately result in service failure. Contact our support team to arrange an engineer to visit your house and re-cable the antenna. Do not attempt to replace the cable yourself as we use special weatherised ethernet cable designed to withstand UV and harsh outdoor conditions.

Yes, although we don’t recommend it. Broadband is designed to be “always on” so that the internet is immediately available when you need it. By leaving your internet on you will continue to get background notifications on your mobile devices for email, instant messaging, voip calls, Facebook, etc. Also, if you take a phone service from us, turning off the router or outdoor antenna will disconnect your line until the equipment is turned back on.

The router and outdoor antenna use very little power, approximately 8 watts combined when operating at maximum capacity, and less when idle. We also monitor for faults on your service to pre-empt any issues you may have. If you turn off the equipment, we will not be able to do this.

If you suspect that a fault would be solved by rebooting the equipment (wireless router and/or outdoor antenna), then simply turn off the power to the equipment for 10 seconds. Turn the power back on and wait approximately 2-3 minutes before trying again.

Your first billed amount will include the installation fee (if any) plus the first months service (dependent on the plan you choose). This first bill is payable with your service order, and payment will be taken by credit/debit card, cheque, bank deposit, or funds transfer.

All of our residential plans include unlimited data, so there is no “cap” to worry about.

On occasion we may offer capped plans as part of a particular promotion or custom service. Unless otherwise stated in the service description, additional data over and above your monthly cap will be charged at $1.99 per GB (or part) used.

We bill on a monthly basis, 10 days in advance. You will receive an invoice via email to inform you of the upcoming charges. The service is paid in advance, so you always pay for the month ahead and payment will be taken on the last working day prior to its due date.

Payment can be made via credit/debit card, via direct debit, or via standing order. We don’t accept ad-hoc cash or money transfer payments for home-user accounts.

Payment must be made no later than close of business the working day following due date. Accounts that are outstanding will be temporarily placed on hold by an automated process.

Yes, for residential services unless otherwise stated. Prices for business services are shown excluding GST unless otherwise stated.

Yes. We include this with our service, unless you want to use your own. If you cancel the service, our engineer will neatly remove the router and all service equipment from your property.

The early termination fee is equal to the remainder of the fees for the minimum contract period (e.g. 12 months). For example, if you terminate the service after 8 months have elapsed on a 12 month contract, then the termination fee will be equal to 4 months’ service fee.

We would be very sorry to see you go. If you are leaving because of an issue with the service, we would love for you to get in touch to see if we can resolve the problem.

None-the-less, if you wish to cancel, contact our support team to let them know of your request, and your service will be cancelled at the next due date provided we have 14 days notice. If you are within the initial contract term (e.g. 12 months) then you may be required to pay an early termination fee.

If you are moving house, let us know so that we can arrange to have your internet service migrated to your new property. We typically require 14 days notice before the move date, however we may be able to prioritise your request depending on workload of our field engineers.

A relocation fee may be chargeable and your service contract will continue as-is at the new property (i.e. you don’t have to restart another contract term). You may instead opt to renew for a further 12 month contract to waive the relocation fee. If the service you are contracted for is not available at your new property, you may change to a different service. If we are unable to provide service at your new address, you may wish to transfer the service to the new property owners, or failing that, terminate the contract.

We believe in offering you the best price first time – it keeps all the billing simple and gives you a great rate. Therefore we have already included all available discounts in to our service prices irrespective of whether you move your tolls to us or not. You can benefit from low cost toll calling if you take our home phone service bundled with your internet connection for an additional $10/m. This in itself offers are large saving as a regular phone line can cost nearly $50/m with other providers.

In our experience, internet and phone pricing plans have a reputation of being complicated and confusing. We don’t want our customers to be persuaded or confused in to paying for bundles they don’t want or need, so here’s a breakdown of any possible costs with our residential service:

• Installation fee $0-$99 depending on contract term
• Monthly internet fee $49-$129 depending on plan
• (Optional) Phone line $10/m
• (Optional) Phone call costs (as per usage)

Outdoor antenna, and on-site installation is provided as part of the service. Wireless router is an option when ordering the service, and is included in the monthly internet fee. There are no other installation or monthly service fees.

If something unexpected happens such as you move house or have to cancel the contract early, there may be one-off costs such as early termination or service relocation fees.

Typically, our residential customers pay $69/month which includes an unlimited 100mbps internet plan and a home phone (excluding any call costs). At the lower end, some customers pay only $49/month for our unlimited “City 50” package without a phone line. At the higher end, some customers pay $139/month for 1,000mbps unlimited UFB Fibre internet and phone.

All our residential plans are unlimited, so there’s no data usage costs to be wary of.

All residential service costs include GST unless otherwise stated.

There are no hidden costs.

Yes. Provided you upgrade before the end of the billing period in which you exceed the data cap, you can upgrade to a greater data plan (including unlimited data) and have the plan retro activated from the beginning of the current billing period. This means that if you exceed your plan by a large amount and incur data usage fees, then you can upgrade to unlimited to avoid paying the data usage fees.

Remember that all our residential plans are unlimited, so there’s no data cap to worry about. This mostly applies to bespoke promotional plans that have data caps, or some of our capped business plans.

Yes, provided your initial contract term has expired. We require 3 working days notice of your intent to downgrade and the service will automatically be billed at the new rate from the start of the subsequent billing period. Note that plan changes take effect at the date of monthly renewal and part month pro-rating is not supported.

For example, if your monthly renewal is on the 1st of the month, and you give notice to downgrade on the 31st January, the 3 working days notice expires 3rd February (or later if spanning non-working days) and the new service plan will come in to effect on the next renewal date (1st March).

You can only change to a plan of the same type (e.g. from one City Wireless plan to another, or from one UFB Fibre plan to another). If you wish to change from fibre to wireless (or vice versa) you need to re-order a new service and cancel the old service.

We are a New Zealand company privately owned and established within New Zealand.

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