The Situation

Kowhai Residential School of Riding is located in Oxford and has been in business since 1969. The riding school had Farmside broadband Internet installed in 2005 after getting frustrated with the slow dial-up connection. “Many of our guests email us their photographs once they are home and our dial-up service often get disconnected when somebody tries to send more than 5 MB of photos. We used to contact our previous Internet service provider to delete the old emails for the new ones to come in the mailbox”, said Chris Thomas, Director of the Kowhai Residential School of Riding.

Broadband Internet Access via IPSTAR

“Broadband Internet via IPSTAR is the only viable solution and it turns out to be very reliable over the whole period of time that we have used it", informed the director. For Chris, running a riding school and farmstay that serves a significant number of international guests has been made easier by the installation of IPSTAR. In addition, having a satellite broadband connection frees up the school's phone line, which could have been tied up for hours at the moment somebody gets online – in the case of the dial-up.

“Because our business is more into providing farmstay and backpacker accommodations, our guests expect to have Internet access to keep in touch with their families and friends at home. In addition, 99% of our reservations are now booked via online, so it is better to have a reliable service for us to respond quickly to guest questions and to confirm bookings”, he said.

Chris also uses the Internet on a daily basis to check weather forecasts. “We are really glad on having a more efficient, faster and reliable Internet service, and the only way that we could get it is via Farmside's IPSTAR broadband Internet”, he added.