Internet quality not up to speed

A photographer and her partner who both work from home are feeling hamstrung by their slow internet.

Te Marua-based professional portrait and fine art photographer Mandi Lynn has to have her partner Craig Thompson send photos out by disk because their Plateau Rd’s internet is too slow to upload photos.

‘‘A batch of high-resolution photos can take days to send,’’ Thompson said.

Lynn said she was often frustrated when being interviewed internationally about her art because Skype kept crashing due to what she labelled the road’s ‘‘technology black hole’’.

‘‘When we get really desperate we visit a friend in Petone and work from her home if there is something really internet intensive we have to do,’’ Thompson said.

‘‘It’s insane; this is our business and we have to leave home to use the internet,’’ Lynn said.

Her internet speed was faster when she was on an island in rural Thailand that had only dirt roads, her download speed was 3.3 MB/s and her upload speed was 1.4 MB/s

Their download speed in Upper Hutt is around 1.4 MB/s and their upload at 0.34 MB/s.

The couple’s teenage sons Sam Porta and William Thompson got 93 residents on their road to sign a petition and presented it to their local MP, Chris Hipkins.

The MP recently surveyed all those living in Mangaroa, Whitemans Valley, Kaitoke, and the Akatarawa Valley.

‘‘Internet service providers get an average satisfaction rating of just 3.69 out of 10,’’ he said.

‘‘I have been regularly following up these issues, but the Government and the service providers have continued to deny the true extent of the problem.’’

He has written to the Broadcasting Minister, Upper Hutt City Council and Spark, Vodafone and Chorus.

Chorus media and PR manager Nathan Beaumont said the company had completed everything they were contractually obliged to do under the Government’s Rural Broadband Initiative, which didn’t cover Plateau Rd.