Good news everyone! Bigpipe is doing modems!
But why modems?
Now that Bigpipe has been going for a while, we’ve had the chance to listen to a lot of customer feedback. One of the most common things we hear from our customers is that getting set up with Bigpipe would be a lot easier if we offered a modem. We like listening to our customers, so we’re very pleased to announce that you’re now able to purchase a brand-new Huawei HG659 when you sign up for Bigpipe. It’ll perform really well on any Bigpipe plan, including VDSL and fibre! (In fact, if you’re in Dunedin you can even use it on our Gigatown plan). It’s a seriously good modem and it’s only $99 when you sign up with Bigpipe, which is half what it’d usually cost. Once you’ve paid, it’s yours to keep, and do whatever you like with, forever.
But why modems?
Are you kidding? We just told you that, like, last paragraph.
Nice and easy
Once of the things we heard most often is that you want your MODEM! to be easy to set up. Well, we’ve sorted the Bigpipe modem so it works straight out of the box. There’s no complicated configuration or need to delve deep into the modem settings. You’re more than welcome to do that if you know what you’re doing and you like fiddling with modems – the Bigpipe modem is 100 percent unlocked and you can do whatever you like with it – but the we’ve made it as easy to set up as possible. We’ve even put a bunch of stickers in the box that you can use to write down those modem login details that are usually such a pain to find, and stick them somewhere convenient. Put them wherever you like – the front of the modem, or your fridge, or your forehead. It’s up to you!
You choo choo choose.
Of course, Bigpipe still works as a bring your own modem service, and you’re still more than welcome to bring or buy your own modem if you want – check out some of the recommended ones here. We’ll never make you buy a modem you don’t want, and our service hasn’t changed in any way – we’ve still got no contracts, no data caps, no throttling, and great online support. You can find out a bit more about the Bigpipe modem here. Or check out our unboxing video below!
Let us know what you think about the Bigpipe modem – follow us on Twitter and Like our Facebook page!
Wonderful. Nice initiative guys and I’ll definitely take that up. Will the modem cost $99 for the foreseeable future or is that an introductory price?
Thanks! The $99 price is an offer for either new customers or Bigpipe customers who are upgrading their plans (say from ADSL to VDSL or fibre.) Otherwise, it’s $199.
In my view this is not a positive step.
Bigpipe has been a plain-pack, barebones service with only one job. Make packets go.
The naked service, along with BYOD had externalised most of the support costs other ISPs charge for. It may be that Bigpipe was actually suffering from customers who don’t understand the service mistakenly expecting hand holding and other assistance which the email support model was a barrier against, along with the fact that a device supplied by a 3rd party could hardly be Bigpipe’s responsibility. That should have been nipped in the bud. Bigpipe’s monthly, no-contract model would mean that anyone not happy with the service should have been allowed to leave and find a more supportive and costly RSP. Unfortunately I suspect losing bad customers is not part of the telco ethos that perhaps still exists in Bigpipe.
This model was Bigpipe’s USP (unique selling proposition) and if potential customers wanted more handholding there are plenty of other services that offer that.
Now Bigpipe has assumed the cost and complexity of sales and fulfillment (and implicitly a higher level of support) for a tangible product. At least the choice implicit in the BYOD model hasn’t been removed, yet.
Following Lightbox streaming, what further dilution of the model can we now anticipate? Seems likely Bigpipe’s customers might want telephony services, or email hosting and so the slide into yet another bloated multiservice RSP indistinguishable from all the others begins.
I hope existing customers who did the yards with the plain vanilla Bigpipe won’t be expected to pay for these new initiatives with increased subscription costs.
The one-off price of the Huawei seems unlikely to be sufficient to cover future support costs.
Consultation with customers (and non-customers) is admirable, but I can’t help wondering if Bigpipes consultation included seeking out alternative views as to the wisdom of becoming a hardware supplier.
If you were looking for an improvement to the service, I’d suggest you canvas the desirability of a better upstream rate than 20Mbs. It seems weird that it’s not until the top of the chart the upstream shifts from 20Mbs to TEN times that at 200Mbs. I’d pay for something in the middle of that range, or is the spectre of Chorus’s telco past haunting symmetric speed except at the highest cost?
Hey Hamish, thanks for your comment.
You make a lot of good points. There’s a couple we’d like to address specifically, though:
You mention that – under our original, entirely BYO modem policy – a device supplied by a third party can’t be our responsibility. While we can see where you’re coming from, the reality is that, when we’re diagnosing problems for customers, we are always going to have to do some level of device troubleshooting to eliminate the device itself. And while we don’t *officially* support BYO devices, we do very often end up doing what amounts to device support to get people connected to our service. The pool of people who could manage this entirely on their own is vanishingly small – no ISP could make money serving just them. Even very tech-literate customers often need this sort of help.
Offering a Bigpipe modem is one way to alleviate this pain point. The device is configured out of the box to work with our service. So far, no-one has had any device trouble getting connected when using a Bigpipe modem. It’s been a plug-and-play experience. For the tech-literate, they’ve got every opportunity to dive into the modem’s innards and tweak settings if they like. For the average person, it’s one less barrier to what we aim to offer – a completely hassle-free Just Broadband experience. The bottom line is that with the Bigpipe Modem we do less support, not more.
To your other points:
– We’ve got no intention to remove the option to BYO device. It’ll always be a part of the Bigpipe service.
– We don’t offer Lightbox streaming as part of our service – we just offer a voucher for Lightbox’s (seperate) service, which the customer may redeem if they want to.
– We have no plans to offer telephony or internet hosting. As you say, this is bloat.
– We’ve kept our prices consistent since launch, and we don’t see any need to raise them at this time. We don’t need to raise costs to cover modem sales or service, as customers pay upfront for the modem.
– We’ve taken your feedback on board about the upstream rate 🙂
Thanks again for your time – we truly appreciate the feedback!