Just realised that Spark/Skinny have this service. I might take them up on this if I ever move back to NZ (I'm a poor jobseeker).
You can renew as many as 5 times per month, each giving 30GB for $5 renewal for a total of 150GB/$25.
Hope this helps someone stuck at home without a lot of $$.
Stay safe everyone!!
According to 2018 census data from Statistics New Zealand, 211,000 homes around the country still don’t have access to broadband. Research from Internet NZ indicates that cost is the biggest barrier to this access. With the fast-developing COVID-19 situation, this issue is more pronounced than ever.
Prior to the onset of the pandemic, Spark was in the process of relaunching our subsidised and not-for-profit broadband product Skinny Jump – which aims to bridge the digital divide for New Zealanders who don’t have access to broadband at home.
Since we first launched the service in 2016 we have connected close to 5,000 families with school-aged children to broadband.
The Skinny Jump service is available through a community partner network, which is overseen by Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa (DIAA) and includes 130 contact points nationwide spanning community libraries and budgeting services, amongst others.
Skinny Jump will now be available to a wider range of people who find that cost is a barrier to having a broadband connection at home – including families with school aged children, job seekers, senior citizens, refugees, new migrants, people with disabilities and people living in social housing.
The service is provided for $5 for 30GB of data (with the option to renew up to five times a month) and comes with a free Wireless Broadband modem. It is entirely prepaid, so there are no long-term contracts or credit checks needed.
All it takes to get set up is to register through a partner and plug in the modem. Note, many local Jump partners have closed temporarily. But some are now working on a phone based sign-up approach and these details have been updated on the Skinny Jump website. If you currently do not have a broadband connection at home, please visit the website at skinny.co.nz/jump to check your address and find the details of your nearest local partner to get set up.
Good on Skinny although from looking at the FAQ and T&C seems like automatic renewal options are limited. You can add credit to your account, and if you have enough credit it will renew monthly. But no option to automatically add credit. Nor for that matter automatically renew when you run out of data. (You can use cards, but need to do it manually.)
While I understand automatic crediting can be a problem for some people especially on an extremely low budget where even $5 suddenly coming out of their card can cause problems, there are some especially seniors where the lack of automatic renewals especially monthly automatic renewals is likely to make this a bit of a hassle. Even though it's possible to renew without data it's a recipe for confusion IMO. Especially since the widespread use of HTTPS means captive portals often don't show up. (Yes the OS may detect them, but you still have to notice it.)
I have an older relative on NZ super and in social housing. They're currently sing the cheapest option I could find at the time, Skinny's 60GB plan. (Well a normal mobile data plan is cheaper, but although their usage isn't that high with Windows updates and the like 1.5GB or whatever is a little too low.)
Thinking of helping them move to this once it's possible but the automatic renewal situation makes me ponder. Since it's only $5 and I don't think they're likely to exceed 30GB a month (they don't watch videos or anything) except maybe when I go to help them with new software or something, may consider getting them to put $60 or something on their account every year. For those who use a bit more data, even this won't really work since even if your average is 40GB that means you need to renew in a month and it won't be automatic as I understand it.
IMO they should reconsider. As said, I understand for some people on a low budget, it's not a good idea. But for others especially seniors, it's probably better. With only 5 renewals a month, there's already a barrier to people blowing through their money unintentionally and Skinny could also add other options e.g. only renew every month or fewer than 5 times a month or only every X days to help or just completely disable the ability if the partner says they should.