7 tips to avoid peak hour frustration

Typically, FIFO Villages house anywhere from 20 to 5000 people working on resource and construction projects, often in very remote areas with limited communications infrastructure. The load on communications is made worse when the operations do not have a night shift, so all residents finish shift and arrive back in the village at the same time.  This instant increase in users and usage soaks up the network, and you experience dropouts and delays.

You still need to keep contact with your family and friends at home.  You still need to pay bills and organise appointments for your time on R&R.  You still need to listen to music and watch TV.  You don’t care about technical challenges.  You want it to work.

Here are some handy ways of managing FIFO life in spite of the dropouts and delays:

1. Try contacting your loved ones before school/work, on your lunch break or as soon as you get into camp
2. Plan your entertainment before you head to site – purchase and download the movies, TV series, books, podcasts and music you want using your home internet connection
3. Create offline music playlists on Spotify
4. When you check your Facebook feed at night, save the videos you want so they’ll be in your list for when you have access to faster internet
5. Do your internet banking and general “life admin” before work, not after
6. Watch your favourite sports games on Foxtel in the mess, not on your iPad
7. Don’t try to stream Netflix, it’s going to end in frustration!!

If you’ve stayed in a FIFO village and have experienced the above, we can help. On the March IT network, every resident is able to watch Netflix, and Skype or FaceTime their family from their room, simultaneously, without interruption, without exception.