We knew we would spend the first month of our stay in a Wellington apartment that had no phone line. We also knew that our UK-sourced mobile phones would work fine in New Zealand. Furthermore, being addicted to fond of Internet access, we knew we would want to get online as soon as possible (OK, "we" in this context means Bruce). More than two-thirds of New Zealanders have home Internet access—and you can't go back to dial-up once you've tasted the broadband fruit. So what were our options?

What is Project Koru? The code name of our "great escape" from our adopted home in the UK to spend a year living and working in New Zealand. You can find an introduction to the project here together with an explanation of why we chose the koru as the symbol for our journey.

Short-term Internet options

Internet cafés virtually litter the streets of Wellington. As for wireless, prepaid cards for access to Telecom WiFi hotspots are available in Starbucks and other stores ($NZ10 for an hour). CaféNET is a cost-effective alternative (from $NZ10 for 24 hours) with numerous hotspots in downtown Wellington. As things turned out we didn't need to utilize these options, since we were (semi-) online in the apartment the day after arrival.

Wireless options

Woosh use a "3G" UMTS network that has geographically limited coverage (most of Wellington is served). A 1.6Mbps/ 125 Kbps (downstream/ upstream) connection with a 5GB monthly data and phone rental costs $NZ69.95 $NZ59.95 from 1 Nov 2006 ($NZ198 activation fee, 12 month minimum contract term, excluding call costs which are competitive to the UK & Germany at 10 cents per minute).

Vodafone 3G broadband launched recently with similar technology to Woosh, but without the phone service. Their small USB modem (vodem) is Mac and PC compatible, providing a single computer with "up to 3.2Mbps" broadband. If like us you need to share the connection, the Vodafone 3G broadband router and datacard will set you back $NZ928. A 800Kbps-1.4Mbps/ 200-300Kbps (average downstream/ upstream) connection with 1GB monthly data and no phone service costs $NZ59.95 ($NZ429 for the vmodem with no minimum term contract).

Telecom's rival T3G service is not Mac-compatible, requiring a PC card slot (which no current Macs have), and likewise does not include a phone service. It's barely broadband, with average peak time data speeds of around 500Kbps, although Wellington has good coverage.

Wellington is also served by GASP from nzwireless. An unlimited 3 Mbps connection for $NZ70 + GST sounds reasonably attractive although their website is not very forthcoming about service details, such as equipment required, contract terms, etc. Nor has it been recently updated (the last news update being Dec 05 when checked Oct 06), and again there is no phone service.

The cable option

TelstraClear is New Zealand's number two telecom company, and much of Wellington is cable-ready. A 2Mbps (downstream & upstream) connection with 5GB monthly data and phone rental costs $NZ71.90 (no minimum term contract if you pay a $NZ198 connection fee, excluding call costs that are similar to those from Woosh). Unfortunately we're soon moving to a street that isn't cabled.

ADSL options

Telecom New Zealand, the top dog, sells ADSL connections nationwide via Xtra (co-branded with MSN in NZ). Various other Internet service providers resell connections over Telecom ADSL lines. I tired asking about their service in two Telecom NZ shops. In the first I'm not convinced the girl knew any more than I did, and walked out of the second after being ignored by two sales assistants engaged in apparently uninterruptible conversation.

Orcon came recommended. A 2Mbps/ 128Kbps (downstream/ upstream) connection with 5GB monthly data costs $NZ49.95 (12 month contract term). Add to this the obligatory Telecom landline (minimum 1 month rental) for $NZ42.20 and you pay $NZ92.15 per month (excluding call costs).

Tomorrow (Oct 26) Xtra "unleash" their Go Large plan, offering a "maximum" (restricted) Mbps/ 128Kbps (downstream/ upstream) connection with unlimited GB costing $NZ49.95 (12 month minimum contract term for new customers; you'll need to rent that Telecom line as well).

Our choice

Things got off to an inauspicious start when the sales assistant at Dick Smith said he hadn't seen a Woosh sign-up yet that had gone smoothly. We paid the activation fee and signed up on the phone in-store (the Woosh website wasn't cooperating), letting Woosh know the MAC address of the Phone Connection Kit and the IMEI number of the modem. Following several (freephone) tech support calls, a modem upgrade (since the software tool was apparently not compatible with Intel Macs), and the fitting of a (complimentary) booster antenna, we had a usable system. Bandwidth is not great but we attribute this to a weak signal (being near the bottom of a building surrounded by other towers); we expect this to improve once we move out of the CBD.

After initially having just the laptop online, followed by a stint of computer-to-computer Internet sharing over AirPort (WiFi), we bought an Apple AirPort Express: a fantastic piece of kit that practically configured itself via the AirPort Setup Assistant. This device takes the WAN cable from the Woosh equipment and wirelessly shares a single IP address to our Macs and printer using DHCP and NAT. Our "mobile office" setup thus looks like this:

Going mobile

Primarily since we were with them in the UK, we hooked up with Vodafone NZ. Each Prepay SIM card cost $NZ35, and we slotted these into the (unlocked) GPRS mobiles we had used in the UK. Topping up is easy; there are Vodafone stores all over the City where you can get Recharge vouchers (available from other stores as well). Once purchased (minimum $NZ20) you just TXT the 12-digit code on the voucher to 887; there are several other ways to do it if you prefer.

We also kept our Vodafone UK PAYT (pay as you talk) SIM cards and brought them with us to NZ (using them to stay in touch while in China).

Tip: PAYT SIM cards will go dormant after 180 days of no-charge activity. They can be reactivated by making a charged phonecall just once; after another 180 days (or if not reactivated) your number enters circulation for reuse. We addressed this by setting up a diary entry to prompt us to TXT each other using the UK SIM every 3 months. We wanted to keep them for our return because it's hard learning new phone numbers; people have our existing number; and because we can still receive voicemail or fax via e-mail (I believe at same rate as voice call).

What about Skype?

Some of our friends and family also use Skype, a voice-over-Internet (VoIP) service. Calls from computer-to-computer are free, but require both parties to be signed in simultaneously. The few Skype calls we've made and received so far worked well over our wireless Woosh Internet connection. In the UK we used SkypeOut to make calls from our computers to ordinary landlines in Germany and NZ (only the last part of the call uses the local phone service, making for cheap call charges). Although we retained this service, to make it easier and economical for folk in Europe to call us, we purchased a UK-based SkypeIn number. This comes with a voicemail facility that works with both ordinary Skype calls and calls made to our SkypeIn number. Unfortunately it is not (yet) possible to purchase a SkypeIn number for New Zealand.

Tip: If upon trying out your new SkypeIn number you hear "The other person has hung up", did you change your privacy prefs? For incoming calls to succeed your privacy settings must be set up with a tick in the Anyone box next to Allow SkypeIn calls from: in the Privacy tab of the Skype Preferences pane. Took me days to figure that out!

Update 14.11.06: Due to ongoing signal quality issues and our move to a new flat, Woosh offered a two week trial extension. Eventually we determined that the best signal could be had with the booster attached to the attic skylight, which gave us a strong signal of good quality (see graphic). Unfortunately despite this sometimes the phone worked and sometimes it didn't; Woosh said the answer-phone will kick in without ringing the phone when the signal drops. Not good enough. We have never experienced broadband; various speed tests give wildly different readings (peaking at around 300 Kbps), but our connectivity felt like little better than dial-up. This impression is supported by poor quality Skype voice calls, and "insufficient bandwidth" errors when we attempted video conferencing using iChat. Streaming an iTunes preview was interrupted by constant re-buffering. Full of promise, but this technology just ain't ripe. It turned out our street does have cable, but it takes 3 weeks to install and involves drilling holes through walls (not something were keen on as tenants). So we've ordered the most expensive option—Telecom/ADSL.

Woosh signal: green bars mean nothing

Update 22.11.06: Traffic management on Xtra's Go Large plan causes us (and many others, according to reports) to experience slow connection speeds—typically peaking around 1.5 Mbps. It's frankly misleading to refer to this as "maximum" speed ADSL.

Update 22.01.07: We gave up on Xtra. Orcon are so much better.

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