Rural Broadband
Discussion
I have no real issue with the conscious decision to move to the sticks and regard slow broadband as a fair payoff for not living in that London.
Simple supply and demand, and market forces. Fast broadband is absolutely available in the sticks, you just would not like the install and run costs for your own E1 line into the router. Fast, cheap broadband is NOT a human right. Yet.
Simple supply and demand, and market forces. Fast broadband is absolutely available in the sticks, you just would not like the install and run costs for your own E1 line into the router. Fast, cheap broadband is NOT a human right. Yet.
You'll go mad. Two things you'll need to do:
Have a broadband connection for general browsing. Even 2mb is enough for PH and the Telegraph website. The latency on satellite broadband is really annoying for day to day light internet browsing as there's always a wait while it sends it all up and down. Stuff like Google predictive results is a good example of this, it simply won't work.
Install satellite broadband for iPlayer, Apple TV etc. It's expensive but you should get 10-15mb most of the time and you can set it up as a second network.
This is obviously not a cheap way to do it (budget on upwards of £70 a month for satellite, plus £200-odd set up) but it's the only way not to go crazy.
Have a broadband connection for general browsing. Even 2mb is enough for PH and the Telegraph website. The latency on satellite broadband is really annoying for day to day light internet browsing as there's always a wait while it sends it all up and down. Stuff like Google predictive results is a good example of this, it simply won't work.
Install satellite broadband for iPlayer, Apple TV etc. It's expensive but you should get 10-15mb most of the time and you can set it up as a second network.
This is obviously not a cheap way to do it (budget on upwards of £70 a month for satellite, plus £200-odd set up) but it's the only way not to go crazy.
Is anyone using a WISP? Rural Essex here with no chance of fibre (thanks BT). We are lucky in that we get broadband - most of the village doesn't get any and it does make some house sales fall through. At best it's 6 up 0.35 down but it's horribly temperamental and unreliable. The parish council are looking at getting some sort of wireless broadband for the village - probably by bouncing it in to receivers on our two churches.
The blurb looks good but I'm wondering what it's actually like in terms of speed and reliability? They claim that there is no downtime (unless there is a power failure), even if there is thick fog (which we get a lot of). Price is good (starts at £10/month for 6 up 6 down) so I'm wondering if it is a viable alternative to our current BT broadband.
The blurb looks good but I'm wondering what it's actually like in terms of speed and reliability? They claim that there is no downtime (unless there is a power failure), even if there is thick fog (which we get a lot of). Price is good (starts at £10/month for 6 up 6 down) so I'm wondering if it is a viable alternative to our current BT broadband.
croyde said:
Are we to start seeing discrepancies in house prices due to broadband availability like we currently do with houses in catchment areas for decent schools?
Clearly an issue for some people...I'll confess my choice of house will be more about school catchment than how fast my Broadband is though. Found this http://www.connectedcounties.org/home specifically for Herts and Bucks so help may be at hand....going to view the house on Sat (wife has already seen it) so will be asking questions and trying to find out more.
Love the belt and braces of "traditional" broadband and Satellite.
As somebody posted one of the key issues is "future proofing".....IPTV will be the dominant format which is what the Sky and BT battle for Premiership rights is all about. If you don't have decent speeds it is going to become more and more of an issue.
boy said:CheesyFootballs said:
GetCarter said:
CheesyFootballs said:
Rural Notts here, but only about 8 miles from the city.
Best I get is 0.5 - 0.75mb, no 4G, no 3G and only really Vodafone has any decent reception.
I've been told it's highly unlikely we'll get any decent broadband to the village (fibre optic?) as not enough people to warrant the cost.
I have to avoid the pages on here where people post hi-res images...
I'm in the north west Highlands, a village of 100 people. We get 6.5 mb at the moment but are just being connected to fibre. Expect to get 100mb+ later this year.Best I get is 0.5 - 0.75mb, no 4G, no 3G and only really Vodafone has any decent reception.
I've been told it's highly unlikely we'll get any decent broadband to the village (fibre optic?) as not enough people to warrant the cost.
I have to avoid the pages on here where people post hi-res images...
Ah, Scotchland you see - that's the British Government helping you out so's you don't bugger off
My village is probably the same size (no pub, no shop but a very very old church).
te service. Do you live in a village beginning with 'W'?
Cheib said:
Currently live in London and enjoy Virgin's 60 MB broadband......we're moving out to the sticks this summer. Just been doing a bit of research on a village we have seen a house in that we like....it's got 2MB Broadband (they are campaigning to try and get faster broadband). Am I going to kill myself?!?!?
If services like streaming video are important to you, then throughput available with consumer broadband should be as important as catchment areas / number of bedrooms / garaging / whatever in your choice of home.Few people seem to be able to think that way though!
I live in deepest Devon and have 38Mb connection.
There is a massive fiber rollout happening down here at the moment.
Take a look at this http://www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk/
There is a massive fiber rollout happening down here at the moment.
Take a look at this http://www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk/
onomatopoeia said:
Cheib said:
Currently live in London and enjoy Virgin's 60 MB broadband......we're moving out to the sticks this summer. Just been doing a bit of research on a village we have seen a house in that we like....it's got 2MB Broadband (they are campaigning to try and get faster broadband). Am I going to kill myself?!?!?
If services like streaming video are important to you, then throughput available with consumer broadband should be as important as catchment areas / number of bedrooms / garaging / whatever in your choice of home.Few people seem to be able to think that way though!
Bandit said:
I live in deepest Devon and have 38Mb connection.
There is a massive fiber rollout happening down here at the moment.
Take a look at this http://www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk/
I spent a week camping at Hope Cove last year - could hardly get a phone signal!There is a massive fiber rollout happening down here at the moment.
Take a look at this http://www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk/
Paul Drawmer said:
Village in Oxfordshire. 76Mb download.
OK, I'm showing off - the village has been made a FTTP pilot. OK for me, but I hear that the recently planned new estate of 85 houses won't get the fibre to the premises that we have.
Another village in Oxfordshire - I think my record for hopeless speeds was about 300KB. Last night I tried to download a film from IPlayer and at one point the download time estimate was 28,000 minutes. That's about 19 days! In the morning it's actually acceptable for some reason (usage I guess), but past about 6pm it just gives up. I really wish that companies would have to compensate you if they couldn't supply what they claim, but I can't see anyone agreeing to that, ever.OK, I'm showing off - the village has been made a FTTP pilot. OK for me, but I hear that the recently planned new estate of 85 houses won't get the fibre to the premises that we have.
...
Luke. said:
How do you find the latency?
Once you're used to it its not a problem. I use it for RDP and netmeeting and it causes no issues.Once a connection is made the download speeds are worth the initial wait.
I have a bt line (~1meg) for the phones and tablet (surprising how much allowance they use up - auto updates of apps etc.)
Edited by BertB on Thursday 29th January 21:47
Prawo Jazdy said:
Paul Drawmer said:
Village in Oxfordshire. 76Mb download.
OK, I'm showing off - the village has been made a FTTP pilot. OK for me, but I hear that the recently planned new estate of 85 houses won't get the fibre to the premises that we have.
Another village in Oxfordshire - I think my record for hopeless speeds was about 300KB. Last night I tried to download a film from IPlayer and at one point the download time estimate was 28,000 minutes. That's about 19 days! In the morning it's actually acceptable for some reason (usage I guess), but past about 6pm it just gives up. I really wish that companies would have to compensate you if they couldn't supply what they claim, but I can't see anyone agreeing to that, ever.OK, I'm showing off - the village has been made a FTTP pilot. OK for me, but I hear that the recently planned new estate of 85 houses won't get the fibre to the premises that we have.
I'm getting mine installed next week, and by the time I ditch the BT line and install Vonage, it's not much more for 20mb up & down.
tjassist said:
Doesn't suit Voip apparently.I'm getting around 9mb in Devon currently which is an enormous improvement on the <1 I was getting 18 months ago when BT fked it all up and denied any problems. To those that say it doesn't matter, the problems with our BB meant I couldn't work remotely, so that's a 60 mile trip and 2 hours of commuting instead.
If you can't get mobile signal for calls look at signal boxes , EE supplied me one for free, it connects to the router and I now get full signal, no more balancing on the chest of drawers in the back bedroom window to get the phone to work! Probably not life changing but close to it! The operators seem reluctant to publicise their existence.
ked it all up and denied any problems. To those that say it doesn't matter, the problems with our BB meant I couldn't work remotely, so that's a 60 mile trip and 2 hours of commuting instead. If you can't get mobile signal for calls look at signal boxes , EE supplied me one for free, it connects to the router and I now get full signal, no more balancing on the chest of drawers in the back bedroom window to get the phone to work! Probably not life changing but close to it! The operators seem reluctant to publicise their existence.
theboss said:
If you're in South Shropshire it would be worth speaking to Airband... they are giving me 40Mbps symmentric and <10ms latency on a 5GHz Wifi link. As Wenlock exchange has just been FTTC enabled I'm now getting 15Mbps on the downstream for my backup connection.
Its not always that bad in the sticks if you can find alternative service providers or there are communinity driven projects.
They don't cover my area, FTTC is coming soon apparently.Its not always that bad in the sticks if you can find alternative service providers or there are communinity driven projects.
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