Warnings sent over connections
Spark has written to some customers who signed up to broadband and mobile plans that offered ‘‘free’’ Rugby World Cup passes to warn them their broadband is not good enough to watch the event.
‘‘When we cross-checked with broadband performance, there were a very small number of customers whose home broadband may not be ‘streaming ready’,’’ spokeswoman Althea Lovell said.
Lovell said Spark had credited customers in that situation with a sum equivalent to their free RWC pass, which they could still use, for example at a different address that had better broadband.
‘‘We’ve made it clear for more than a year that while the vast majority of New Zealanders should be able to watch matches via their broadband, a small proportion live at locations where their current broadband connection may cause quality issues when streaming live matches,’’ she said.
Spark has also broken bad news to wireless broadband customers in Coromandel town, Tairua and Havelock North, where its plans to build additional cell sites in time for the RWC have been delayed because of ‘‘strong community opposition’’.
‘‘The absence of these new cell sites means we have less capacity to cope with RWC demand.
‘‘Although some customers in these locations may still be able to watch matches, we thought it was important to be upfront and set expectations accordingly,’’ Lovell said.
Lovell said the customers Spark had written to who fell into those two categories did not run into the thousands.
Spark had sold them their broadband plans ‘‘in good faith, based on the information we had at the time’’, she said.
Spark has separately sent out reminders to people who it previously warned did not have good enough broadband to watch the RWC, and to customers who had bought RWC passes from Spark but who it believed would fall into the same category.
Spark has said people would need an internet bitrate of 6 megabits per second to watch the RWC in full HD resolution at its maximum frame rate of 60 framesa-second.
People with ultrafast broadband, cable or good quality copper or wireless broadband connections should have broadband speeds that are good enough, but tens of thousands of households, particularly in rural areas and on urban fringes may not.