Rural Broadband Options?

[Tuvra]

Well the day has come where we have waved goodbye to our Virgin Super Fast 150mbps broadband, moving 2 miles up the road means that we are moving into an area without fibre, Sky predicts a speed of 0.3-0.9mbps and friends in the area seem chuffed when they get anything above 1.2mbps.

What other options do I have? I assume satellite internet is the obvious choice but friends in the area experienced poor service from the local supplier when they tried them, also massive reliability issues in poor weather. One person also claims his son is having his internet "bounced off another property down the road and is getting 100mbps".

Are there any websites I can try to assess what services are available to me? Satellite or any other options? It seems like I have to commit to something and take a blind leap of faith otherwise.

Open to any suggestions and cost isn't really an issue providing that I have unlimited internet.

[randlemarcus]

If cost isn't an issue, get yourself a nice E1 pipe into the server cupboard. Ah, it is an issue?

Have a look at BT - although the theory is that they are firewalled from Openreach, liberal application of tea and biscuits to my (third) engineer got me connected via the other cabinet, resulting in 6 Lbs rather than 1.5.

Failing that, have a look at wireless I.e. wimax, rather than 3g, in your area.

[Tuvra]

Wimax looked the perfect answer until the "Sorry, we don't cover your area" message popped up

[Luke.]

Have you tried a Mifi thing with a number of different sim cards from different networks?

My broadband is only about 1.2mb. But with the wind blowing in the right direction I can get 8-10mmb with my Mifi on 3. Though oddly still seems slower than my broadband. Def less snappy.

[karona]

I live in the arse-end of nowhere, 50 miles from my ISP and any semblance of a telephone exchange, yet my connection is a guaranteed 12 Megabits download and often reaches 20. I, and several other households, connect wirelessly to a village hub, which has a microwave dish pointing at a distant hilltop. The equipment cost us something in the low hundreds, shared among us all, and monthly costs are the equivalent of fifteen quid. Surely it's within the capability of UK ISPs to provide something similar.

[Bikerjon]

Hope it's a nice house - can't imagine giving up fibre broadband now that I have it!

I deal with quite a few people in the same situation. Generally satellite broadband should be the way forward if no other local sharing arrangements or wide area wifi is in place. It generally works well but the installation is crucial and bad weather will affect it at some point. Not cheap though.

[randlemarcus]

I don't suppose you have line of sight from your old house to the new one, do you?

[Randomthoughts]

Luke. said:

Though oddly still seems slower than my broadband. Def less snappy.

That's called latency.

[megaphone]

randlemarcus said:

I don't suppose you have line of sight from your old house to the new one, do you?

This, or the house of a friend in a 'fibre' area? A point to point link is pretty easy to set up, as long as you have line of sight.

[egomeister]

A mate of mine has a connection from these guys: http://www.gigaclear.com/ There were a couple of initial teething troubles but it seems fine now.

Maybe there is something similar in your area (or if you can get some of the locals together you may be able to persuade them to roll out the product near you)

[TheExcession]

randlemarcus said:

I don't suppose you have line of sight from your old house to the new one, do you?

This^^^^

You need to 'phone a friend' who has fibre broadband and line of sight to your new place - then buy a couple of Ubiquiti radios..

A few hundred £ of kit (radios, brackets, cables, APs etc) and you could likely have full fibre broadband speed at your new place.

See this thread for an example of how well it can work with a bit of effort. (The last few posts are the most relevant). It turned out when we'd played with this link the Wireless was faster than his 100Mb Ethernet!

There's a few of us here that are very experienced in solving these types of issues and most are only too willing to help with advice and ongoing support in getting you up and running.

It's a rural area you are in, so likely if you can 'see' back to somewhere that has the fibre broadband you're home and dry.

Feel free to PM me or contact gizard.

HTH

[bingybongy]

If you're in Derbyshire.
http://www.w3z.co.uk/about-w3z/coverage/

[Tuvra]

Thanks guys.

Unfortunately there is no line of sight to my previous house or the area that has the super fast broadband

I am not sure I know anyone well enough from where I used to live to allow me to use their internet, mount aerials on their house etc either

For reference, the area I am in is Neath Port Talbot, South Wales.