Bit the bullet tonight and bought another one of these…prepaid only…so that I can stay connected when I am on the road and so Carmen can do the same with our other one: also means that when I am home alone, I can be connected for work and stuff as well (still no landline broadband options in Raurimu) although we might do the Farmside thing if I can arrange to be doing more full time work from home again (if the Ohakea Mess can survive a big drop in its house red consumption!!)…anyway, prepaid mobile broadband gives me the option of loading the stick up when I need it…I bought it from this outfit…

…which a few years ago, even last year, would have surprised me as Telecom here always been the monolithic unresponsive unfriendly mega(by local standards) corp which has done little to really satisfy consumer demand or concerns…but…I have to say that, since its big XT network meltdowns in 2009, not only does the CEO, Paul Reynolds, still have his job but he has managed to steer the organisation to the point where it is providing excellent mobile coverage, especially for data which is the only way that we ruralites have been able to break free from the constraints of dial-up internet access…when Telecom rebranded to its new logo last year, I would have offered that it represented the asterisk that referred to the contractual fine print that no one ever read but which granted Telecom an out from any obligations to provide anything resembling service…

With a firm hand at the helm, it has certainly turned around its mobile services with high speed coverage over most of the country and certainly putting its two closest rivals to shame…

I’m really looking forward to this C2ISTAR conference for the next week or so…it has been a ‘challenge’ to set up and certainly a good learning experience…and, in previewing some of the presentations this afternoon, I am fascinated by some of the developments that have been going on in the last year…