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Author Topic: Broadband speeds  (Read 2482 times)

Soundman32

  • Joined Jan 2019
Broadband speeds
« on: January 08, 2019, 01:38:36 pm »
Hi All,

I'm looking at buying a farm that currently has 1mb average (3mb max).  This is a bit of a drop from the 100mb that I'm currently getting, so it could be a deal breaker if I can't find an alternative.

I've looked at 4G (seems too expensive for the amount of data required) and Satellite (not found a supplier yet). 

Is there anything else you can suggest?

I'm in the North West (near Rochdale).

TIA
Neil

Scotsdumpy

  • Joined Jul 2012
Re: Broadband speeds
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2019, 07:44:35 pm »
Theres a website that you can put in your postcode and it will tell you when cable is due in your area. That might help if it will be done in the near future.

Ghdp

  • Joined Aug 2014
  • Conwy
Re: Broadband speeds
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2019, 07:51:35 pm »
We have this issue. BT has improved since we moved here but it was terrible to start with. To get by we used Europasat, now known as BigBlu, as our satellite provider. Great when it worked but absolutely useless customer service and assistance when it failed. Looking on the internet our experience after purchasing the stuff  was common.

GribinIsaf

  • Joined Aug 2015
  • Montgomeryshire
    • Gribin Isaf
Re: Broadband speeds
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2019, 09:27:50 pm »
We went from 50 Mbps in a city to 1 Mbps here.  Actually it was not as bad as we feared - we survived fine for email and average web browsing (if not in too much of a hurry)  It was even ok for YouTube type video but not really for iPlayer.

(Then the rural fibre roll out eventually reached us and we now have fibre to the premises with speeds of 75 Mbps!)

It might be worth seeing what plans there are for fibre coming to the area you are looking at.

(We did research satellite internet but there were two many negatives - our predecessors had tried it and abandoned it)

Buttermilk

  • Joined Jul 2014
Re: Broadband speeds
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2019, 10:20:42 pm »
We are living with very slow speed and regular dropout here.  Satelite is crap, three neighbours have tried it and given up.  The best seems to be a phone dongle.

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Broadband speeds
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2019, 12:05:07 am »
I've looked at 4G (seems too expensive for the amount of data required)


If you're in an area that can get 4G (even if this requires an external 'MIMO' antenna), it can be surprisingly workable and things are improving all the time, so don't let that put you off buying a place you love.


We currently pay £25 a month for 50GB allowance on O2 mobile broadband. It's reliable, and is just as fast as the internet in my office in town (usually at least 10mb/s). You just have to watch out for the data limit, that's all (i.e. no netflix or spotify).


"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

henchard

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Carmarthenshire
    • Two Retirees Start a New Life in Wales
    • Facebook
Re: Broadband speeds
« Reply #6 on: January 10, 2019, 09:39:40 am »
A subject close to my heart as many rural areas of Wales have been completely 'stitched up' by the Welsh Government.  Fast Broadband was promised to everyone here by 2015 (we have it in writing from the minister in respect of our property). But there has been a complete and scandelous failure by the Welsh government who have wasted millions on botched roll out contracts. I'm slowly gathering info on this .
BBC Wales covered some of our issues
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46468398
But in true BBC style were only interested in a quick sensational story rather than digging deep into the political mire.
For anyone in Wales I've started a Facebook Group to try and get those affected together
https://www.facebook.com/groups/312721569572553/

I'm actually one of the lucky ones in our valley because I can actually get a 4G signal and recently put in a 4G router and an external aerial; so I can at last get reasonable speeds (around 40 - 80 Mb/s download and around 25Mb/s upload) if I want to. I've attached a photo of my 4G external aerial

As for cost of 4G broadband an Ofgem ruling last year means that you can use an ordinary phone SIM for a 4G router (You don't need to buy an expensive Data SIM - although it's best to check all is working OK first before committing to a fixed term contract). This means that you can get unlimited 4G Broadband for £27 a month with the likes of a Three phone Sim  (I've seen it as low as £20 on Special offer) and you can also save £8 a month on your landline rental by not having Broadband via that route.
http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Plans_for_phones

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Broadband speeds
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2019, 11:31:17 am »
I can get between 1-5mb/s depending on time of day/contention etc. They did put fibre in the nearest town but that and the exchange is 3 miles away (line of sight) but I think the line wanders  rather than direct. No evidence we're ever going to get fibre here. In the early hours on a  calm dry night I can get 1 bar of a 4G signal a few yards away from the conservatory door but for a consistent daytime signal I'd have to walk at least 200yrs into the field. Nevertheless we can generally stream programs albeit with some bufering.

Maysie

  • Joined Jan 2018
  • Herefordshire/Shropshire Border
Re: Broadband speeds
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2019, 02:03:13 pm »
We get 3-4mb/s using our landline, but could get around 90mb/s with 4G.  Before we moved here, we used to get around 35mb/s at our last house. 

IMHO satellite BB is a total non-starter nowadays if you can get a 4G signal and use an external antenna. 

We both work from home and use the internet (land line) for 9hrs per day, 5 days per week, it isn't great, but is perfectly usable.  Our iPlayer is also fine in the evenings and weekends.  All of my PC data also backs up to the cloud still. 

Our issue with 4G is the amount of data that we use, which would get worse if we finally ditched the landline and switched to a full 4G broadband system as we cannot get 4G with Three (who do the cheap data allowance as mentioned already).  We also had some teething problems with our VOIP phones when doing a 4G trial a few months back and could only get the sound to work in one direction.   

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Broadband speeds
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2019, 09:44:32 pm »
Henchard ..... I will be asking to join your FB group!


To our property in Montgomeryshire we have an average download speed of 3.5 and upload of around 0.8.


The nearest exchange is about 3.5 miles away and we were told that we would be getting fast fibre to our door. We were to be the last property in our scattered community to get fibre as others were too distant from the exchange or too difficult to access.


The cable has been in place and ready for connection for TWO years!!!!!!!
The reels of cable are lying in coils on top of the hedges. They literally just need to be connected up. Apparently we have to wait for the next phase in the roll out of the fast broadband. Unbelievable!




CarolineJ

  • Joined Dec 2015
  • North coast of Scotland
Re: Broadband speeds
« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2019, 11:20:26 am »
We have the high-speed cable going within 700m of our house, along the A836, but because we're connected to the exchange 3 miles away we're too far from the cabinet to get higher speeds, though our previous highest speed of 3.5MB seems to have upped itself to 4.5MB since it went live.  Since we have the doctor's surgery for the whole area at the end of the road, I'm sure they'll put a cabinet in for the village at some point, but it's annoying.

 

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