Rural broadband speeds - 10mbps... how bad?

[MarkL73]

Current Internet we are used to is around 600 MBPS – as such, we never have any issue with connectivity. However, looking at moving to somewhere more rural and have realised superfast Internet can actually mean speeds way below 100 MBPS.

What's the reality of living with something like that nowadays? One property, that was otherwise perfect, had Internet of 11 MBPS - if I am trying to hold a zoom call, while my wife is watching 4K Netflix, or I'm uploading to YouTube, etc, etc is that sort of speed just going to create non-stop problems and frustrations?

We are on the verge of discounting properties based on this issue, but don't want to do that. If we are overreacting based on the perception we need more speed than we are actually using now anyway.

Oh, and some of them seem to use 4G/5G – to me that is just mobile telephone speed Internet. Can you really run a house on that?

ML

[MarkL73]

is starlink a viable solution? I really need a good solid connection – people talking about zoom calls going fuzzy isn't really going to work!
I am uploading to YouTube on an almost daily basis and conducting things like online podcast, that obviously require a reasonable connection speed.

[MarkL73]

zedx19 said:

I sit in meetings and it works fine, albeit the picture can go fuzzy at times and screen sharing takes 5-10 seconds before it shows up for others.

Yeah, that isn't gonna work for me

[MarkL73]

Castrol for a knave said:

though 4k can be a bit of a gamble.

hmmm.. Rural living not seeming quite so cool!

[MarkL73]

xeny said:

MarkL73 said:

What's the reality of living with something like that nowadays? One property, that was otherwise perfect, had Internet of 11 MBPS - if I am trying to hold a zoom call, while my wife is watching 4K Netflix, or I'm uploading to YouTube, etc, etc is that sort of speed just going to create non-stop problems and frustrations?

You need to consider upload vs download speeds. You know how big your YT uploads are, so decide how long you are happy with them taking to upload, and that tells you the minimum upload speed you are happy with.

I'd suggest a working minimum download speed for 4K streaming and a zoom call is somewhere around 50-60 Mbit/sec.

Ok - so the place is with 100 MBPS are back on the list and the place with 11 is off. There is only so long I could stare at the tranquil stream rolling through the garden before not being able to get online did my head in

[MarkL73]

Lefty said:

No cable broadband here and pretty crappy 3G/4G signal so we have starlink. Varies from 30-150mbps, ping usually 50-100ms. Never had any downtime in the couple of years we’ve had it.

Interesting – I assume because satellites are up in space, it doesn't really matter whereabouts in the UK you are, as long as you can see the sky you're going to get a decent signal?

[MarkL73]

The satellite broadband is looking really interesting. There is no way I am going to cope with 10 MBPS. The only TV we ever watch is 4K streamed stuff onto an 85" that has to then upscale to 8K. Standard HD is going to be a bit rubbishy. And for business we need to be able to upload to YouTube quickly and easily as well as download content, fast and seamlessly. Not to mention rock solid connections for doing things like podcasts, etc.

The idea that we can get 50 MBPS and above via satellite, while being somewhere remote, sounds really appealing. Almost makes it sound like wireless broadband is going to be the best option for most people long before wires ever get to the countryside in some places!