On Monday, Vodafone’s last dial-up internet service will cease working as the digital services provider moves customers onto newer, more reliable and secure technology solutions.

Dial-up internet uses the old telephone network, and is finally being phased out as newer and better forms of internet connectivity have come to the fore - such as fibre broadband and wireless access solutions including 4G and 5G Broadband.

David Redmore, acting Experience & Commercial Director at Vodafone NZ explains, “Dial-up is old technology and is very rudimentary in today’s modern world. While we kept it going for as long as possible to support the shrinking number of customers who use it, it’s finally time to retire our dial-up service after almost 30 years and help those customers move to better options.

“Over the past few months, we’ve been contacting the final thousand or so customers who were still using dial-up to explain why we’re about to turn this technology off. It’s now crunch time, and Monday will mark the last day of Vodafone’s dial-up internet service.”

Dial-up is a type of internet access that was used before Broadband. It uses a 56k modem and a phone line to create a connection. The primary job of a dial-up modem is to take digital information and convert it back to an analog signal that can travel over a telephone line.

“There are a number of older services that are being retired now and over the next few years, including dial-up, the old traditional copper landline, and wherever we can older forms of copper, wireless, and cable broadband that are legacy technologies. We’re contacting customers to encourage them onto newer, more reliable, easier to support connectivity.

“Older telecommunications services like dial-up can be less reliable, difficult to support, and are steadily being shut down around Aotearoa, so we need to upgrade people onto future-proofed options either out of necessity, or to ensure we can continue to offer the value and reliability our customers expect. Change can be hard, and we’ve been trying to support customers as much as possible, including providing advanced warning that an old product like dial-up is being shut down.”

Access types that dial-up customers are being switched to use include fibre or wireless broadband, depending on where they live, the ease of being able to turn on a new service, or whether a fibre connection has already been installed.

All customers impacted by a pending product closure or who have better value, more reliable alternatives to old technologies are given advance notice with their options clearly laid out for them.

Redmore adds: “Customers often tell us they expect reliable, easy to install and fit for purpose internet, home phone and mobile solutions. We’ve set up a special team that customers impacted by old product closures can contact to get support, and we work hard to make the transition to newer tech is as smooth as possible for them.”

For more information or help upgrading to newer technology, please visit www.vodafone.co.nz/contact.