Friday, March 29, 2024

Why Woi works better for farmers

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If you live outside one of New Zealand’s major urban centres (and let’s face it, not a lot of farming takes place in town), you probably already know that satellite is the hot ticket when it comes to fast and reliable broadband.
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If you live outside one of New Zealand’s major urban centres (and let’s face it, not a lot of farming takes place in town), you probably already know that satellite is the hot ticket when it comes to fast and reliable broadband. 

So how do you choose the best one? What do you look for? Try these seven questions. 

1: Availability: Is the service available where you live? 

Woi connects to the #Kacific1 Ka-band satellite, which covers every square kilometre in NZ (well, almost: not the Chatham Islands or the Auckland Islands) with near-fibre speeds. And the signal is as strong in the South Island high country as the central North Island as it is in Whitford or Kaitaia. If a satellite services provider talks vaguely about being available in selected areas, check it out. 

Rural farm

2: Installation: Who will set it up?

It’s great to have some expertise, especially when it comes to installation.

If you’re technically competent and confident and can tell a mux from a modem, you may well be up to installing your own kit and troubleshooting any issues on your own. 

Otherwise, having a qualified local technician, like Woi, to help you select the plan that’s best for you, install and configure your connection and be there, at the end of a local phone, to support you wherever you need help, saves you a lot of time and effort and gives you a peace of mind at the end of the day.  

installing dish on roof

3: Performance: How fast is fast? 

When it comes to speed, there’s often a world of difference between promise and performance. Not so with Woi. They offer you a choice of plans that consistently deliver fast and reliable broadband, unlimited and uncongested, using Kacific1’s high-throughput spot beams. Woi 1 gives you 12Mbps download and 10Mbps upload and Woi 2 gives you 30Mbps down and 10Mbps up. And those are real, what-you-actually-get speeds, not theoretical ones. 

Want more? Woi’s got more, all the way up to 70Mbps/20Mbps. That gives you enterprise-level connectivity, high-quality video calls, VoIP, music and video streaming (up to 200 hours HD per month, everything a large, complex farm needs.

4: Local support: Who you gonna call?

You’re all watching the game. Someone gets excited (not naming names) and spills his beer onto the router. Or the kids kick the ball onto the roof and knock the dish out of alignment. Who you gonna call? Woi, of course. Because they’re local. They do house calls. And they carry spares. 

5: Track record: How do I know I can trust them to deliver?

Customers tell it like it is and Woi has hundreds of happy farmer customers throughout NZ who are happy to testify to the great service they have received. Rotastock Farms, at the base of Franz Josef Glacier, runs 500 dairy cows and produces 13,000 litres of milk each day. Woi mounted a 1.2-metre satellite dish on the farmhouse and a 75cm kit on the woolshed. Wag Tail Bees Farm crafts Natural Mānuka Honey in the ‘Winterless North’ and exports it to customers across the globe. Michael Gaunt, a former telco man, relies on Woi’s stable, fast and unlimited internet service to connect all their systems from accounting to sales and marketing, email and document storage. Carlos from Agrotrust Kiwifruit Orchard has 20 acres planted in red kiwifruit and relies on Woi to stay in touch with customers and suppliers. These are all real farmers who needed reliable connectivity and chose Woi. Check out Woi’s Facebook page for more stories about how well Woi works for farmers

6: Work-ready: Is it better for business?

We don’t want to get too technical, but every device has an IP address. Some are permanent (static) and some are allocated by the system as you need them (dynamic). Both work, but one does the heavy lifting better than the other. Think of vehicles: the Suzuki Swift is a popular car and perfect for a dash to the supermarket. But on the farm, you’re better off with a Hilux. It’s the same with your connections: if you just want to check your emails, post on Facebook or stream videos, a dynamic IP address works just fine. But if you want to run a business with remote access, VPNs, VoIP and video calling – maybe a web or email server – you probably certainly want a static IP address. And Woi provides this secure connection for you.

user with laptop

7: Price: What will it cost me?

There are two costs to consider when you’re installing satellite broadband. The first is equipment. Woi has just introduced a new lightweight modem, the MDM2010. It’s a two-way, high-throughput modem supporting a wide range of IP services like internet/intranet access, VoIP and multi-casting services and it comes in a kit complete with a paired iLNB transceiver and a small, easy to install 75cm VSAT dish. It can easily connect 4-5 average users simultaneously, making it suitable for farms, households and small businesses. 

The MDM2010’s easy point-and-play setup reduces installation time. Its low profile minimises the visual impact of the dish on your rooftop. And it really brings down the cost of ownership: you can get the full kit from Woi for $495. And that’s without sacrificing performance: the MDM2010’s high-performance modulation techniques mean Woi can offer fast broadband services over Kacific’s Ka-band network more cost-effectively. Plans start from $169/month for Woi’s 12Mbps down/10Mbps up Woi1 service. 

That’s the magic seven. But there’s always one last question: Can I get a deal? Again, the answer is yes. 

If you include the code <Woiconnectsfarms> when you place your order, you’ll get a Farmers Weekly exclusive of 5% off your upfront cost. That’s from now till 31 December only. So, get better connected this Christmas. Get Woi.

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