I have received a letter from Vf advising my old Motorola cable modem will stop working from 10 July. It advised me to contact Vf to arrange a modem upgrade. I finally spoke with a human but he did not fill me with confidence that all would be OK and a Downer person would come and change the modem.
I have been on cable for 20yrs and it fits my needs. No need or want to change to fibre. It is at the boundary but a lot of concrete in the way.
My question is - will my modem stop working?

hazelthecat - 2021-06-14 09:30:00

hard to say, Telcos are known for spinning BS (bullying really) to get people off the copper network and onto their own provisioned 4G home connections, but this is a little different. I haven't heard anything about them shutting down the cable network, they're not really saying that are they and doesn't really make sense that they would...

Maybe just tell them that if they are going to force you to change you'll be looking at all options not just vodafone, maybe see how far that gets you...

king1 - 2021-06-14 09:39:00

might be to do with the TV
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124003695/changes-ahead-for
-6500-vodafone-customers-as-telco-calls-time-on-cable-tv

king1 - 2021-06-14 09:42:00

Aha, you might be right King1. I only have std internet access. No TV. Don't want to change providers as I will be moving at the end of the year and don't want to pay a break fee. I won't be using Vf at my new location.

hazelthecat - 2021-06-14 09:54:00

It's to do with DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade (started in 2015). Cisco modems don't support 3.1.

Edited by spyware at 10:31 am, Mon 14 Jun

spyware - 2021-06-14 10:30:00

P.S. No upgrade to fibre is involved.

spyware - 2021-06-14 10:48:00

Thanks Spyware. It's a Motorola Surfboard SB5100. Will this work with the new Vf system? I would ask them but it is virtually impossible to get thru to them

hazelthecat - 2021-06-14 11:22:00

i use a vodafone modem on slingshot with adsl 1 lol Find out what the supposed reason is? maybe the same bull$...t they poblished in media that landlines will be turned off.
The fact is what they do and have done is try and get you on to fiber and snip the copper line so you cant go back after.. That is what they do... do. Its all due to the fact that today its like 90% fake news to try and push what they can not do but trick you in to doing what they want.

intrade - 2021-06-14 11:26:00

king1 wrote:

might be to do with the TV
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124003695/changes-ahead-for
-6500-vodafone-customers-as-telco-calls-time-on-cable-tv[/qu
ote]

Interesting. We're a long time Saturn/Clear/Vodafone user with phone, internet and cable TV. I've stuck with the cable technology mainly because of the TV and if that is going, I may consider going to fibre and perhaps another ISP.

PS Our old T-Box died and Vodafone gave us a Vodafone-TV box. I have to agree with the Stuff article — the UI is effing awful.

PPS Having a closer look at the Stuff article — they say "It is offering to replace the Tboxes, which work similarly to Sky satellite set-top boxes, with Vodafone TV devices, which instead stream television over the internet."

The Vodafone TV service has always been over the Internet connection hasn't it?

Edited by wembley1 at 2:33 pm, Mon 14 Jun

wembley1 - 2021-06-14 14:28:00

Vodafone TV service with TBox was a combo of DVB-C (cable TV where RF TV spectrum is running over cable) and a multicast service via the Internet.

VTV is different again, ABROTT, adaptive bitrate over the top, unicast.

Edited by spyware at 5:42 pm, Mon 14 Jun

spyware - 2021-06-14 17:39:00

hazelthecat wrote:

Thanks Spyware. It's a Motorola Surfboard SB5100. Will this work with the new Vf system? I would ask them but it is virtually impossible to get thru to them

Surfboard given its age is DOCSIS 2.0 so would be replaced.

spyware - 2021-06-14 17:41:00

Just to clear things up, I'm one of the Downer Techs helping do this for Voda. The Docsis 2.0 system is coming to an end. All equipment that works on this eg, TBox and the associated Motorola Surfboard 5100 and 5101's are being replaced with Technicolor 4400 modems which work on the Docsis 3.1. I've personally been on a mission to replace all the ones in businesses for the last few weeks. As for the Tbox, it's either replaced with Vodafone IPTV or Sky Networks Satellite service.

gazvic - 2021-06-17 16:46:00

intrade wrote:

i use a vodafone modem on slingshot with adsl 1 lol Find out what the supposed reason is? maybe the same bull$...t they poblished in media that landlines will be turned off.
The fact is what they do and have done is try and get you on to fiber and snip the copper line so you cant go back after.. That is what they do... do. Its all due to the fact that today its like 90% fake news to try and push what they can not do but trick you in to doing what they want.

It is because 10+ years ago Telecom (now Chorus) were given approval by Govt to stop preventive maintenance on the old copper network in most places as govt was funding a fibre upgrade.

The fibre network is way more reliable and much higher bandwidth.

And this situation is not unique to NZ, most developed countries have or are switching to fibre for residential communications.

tony9 - 2021-06-17 19:29:00

tony9 wrote:

It is because 10+ years ago Telecom (now Chorus) were given approval by Govt to stop preventive maintenance on the old copper network in most places as govt was funding a fibre upgrade.

That's not really true.
https://www.chorus.co.nz/help-and-support/our-network/chorus
-investing-fibre-instead-maintaining-copper

and maybe a couple of years back they upgraded the VDSL to include vectoring

king1 - 2021-06-17 19:49:00

king1 wrote:

That's not really true.
https://www.chorus.co.nz/help-and-support/our-network/chorus
-investing-fibre-instead-maintaining-copper

and maybe a couple of years back they upgraded the VDSL to include vectoring

You missed my "most places"...

https://www.chorus.co.nz/copper-network

tony9 - 2021-06-17 20:17:00

tony9 wrote:

You missed my "most places"...

https://www.chorus.co.nz/copper-network

don't see how that helps your cause. There is no evidence they have stopped maintaining the copper network as you stated - to the contrary there is evidence they are still maintaining it and indeed upgrading it.
How long it lasts, who knows? But stating it hasn't been maintained for 10 years is patently wrong

king1 - 2021-06-17 21:20:00

Thank you Gazvic.
This answers all my questions.

hazelthecat - 2021-06-18 10:36:00

hazelthecat wrote:

I have received a letter from Vf advising my old Motorola cable modem will stop working from 10 July. It advised me to contact Vf to arrange a modem upgrade. I finally spoke with a human but he did not fill me with confidence that all would be OK and a Downer person would come and change the modem.

My question is - will my modem stop working?

Probably.
So just accept the new one, they're contractors, they'll come.

lythande1 - 2021-06-18 11:41:00

I have got a new lap top and i want to be able to chromecast on it...the chromecast device I have is about 6 years old and it is set to the old copper wire wifi number i had. i have now got wireless connection (4G) so i have to change the wifi code on the chromecast device... I have windows 10 but I use google chrome as my default system..
Could some body please walk me through downloading the chromecast app, and/ or how to change the wifi code on my chromecast device..

penni2010 - 2021-06-18 12:33:00

penni2010 wrote:

I have got a new lap top and i want to be able to chromecast on it...the chromecast device I have is about 6 years old and it is set to the old copper wire wifi number i had. i have now got wireless connection (4G) so i have to change the wifi code on the chromecast device... I have windows 10 but I use google chrome as my default system..

Just been through this. It seems that the new chromecast app will not install on a normal computer but only on phones and tablets. To add insult to injury they also demand a "subscription" to make it work at all.

Edited by headcat at 1:11 pm, Fri 18 Jun

headcat - 2021-06-18 13:10:00

guess I'll go back to using the HMDI plug

penni2010 - 2021-06-18 15:26:00

Put the old router back in circuit as an access point. Networking for Dummies 101.

spyware - 2021-06-18 19:49:00

headcat wrote:

Just been through this. It seems that the new chromecast app will not install on a normal computer but only on phones and tablets. To add insult to injury they also demand a "subscription" to make it work at all.

you will need a google account to set it up, but no subscription is required to use a chromecast at all - not sure where you got that idea from, signing up to netflix maybe?

Edited by king1 at 9:00 pm, Fri 18 Jun

king1 - 2021-06-18 20:59:00

Hello Gazvic
With 6 days to go I am getting worried. I have been given a new account number to include broadband and phone (VOIP only as I don't have or need a cell phone). Do you have any idea when a tech will turn up, or call? I am in the Newlands area of Wellington.

hazelthecat - 2021-07-04 11:19:00

After a month of trying I finally got thru to someone who could do something. My new modem will be installed on Saturday 10 Jul in the afternoon, a few hours before the system shuts down. Bl**dy off shore call centres.

hazelthecat - 2021-07-06 15:34:00

if all fails remember skinny sim and telecom phones with 36 bux prepay best via skinny app from google play store you can hotspot or usb tether to computers. will slow to 1mb speed unlimmited like i am posting This message i got 3 divises on hotspot via this

intrade - 2021-07-08 11:11:00

I have no idea what you are talking about intrade.
Mr Downer came this morning, two hours and a cup of coffee later I have high speed broadband and VOIP phones.
All good.
Thank you Downer.

hazelthecat - 2021-07-10 14:32:00