Satellite Broadband?

[Ducky]

Just wondered if anyone uses satellite broadband on here? I'm in the process of moving house and currently have BT Infinity2 (I get 75Mb/19Mb), unfortunately after speaking to BT they say it's not available where I'm moving too and the ADSL service is dire (<256k down).

I need a decent connection for work, so have been browsing Satellite options, but the slow pings times could be an issue.

Anyone got/used one?

cheers
Chris

[Error404]

I'd be pleased with 256k
I looked into sat a while ago but the cost was outrageous.

[Ross]

My brother had this issue moving to the sticks, reliant on good broadband for work. I think it's in the region of 1k a year but it's the cost of living there for him, but ended up with some antenna on the house with a microwave connection at about 30-40mb. I think coverage is very limited and it's aimed at commercial users but it's worked out well for him.

[Ducky]

Do you know the company he used, I've googled a few 'microwave/wireless' providers but nothing of much use.

thx

[Colesy]

We use a company that provide long range wireless via a receiver on our chimney (line of sight is required), they offer up to 20Mb broadband when BT manage much less than 1Mb.

http://www.sugarnet.co.uk/

They are part of a larger group of companies who do this nationwide so it might be worth giving them a call to find out about the rest of the group. I can't find details on their website.

[ericd]

an idea of prices over the border:

£140 one-off install price for SM (Antenna + Wireless Router)

Then either £22-£40/month (dependent on what you want 5->30mb)

I think VOIP is available for a £5/month , number transfer + analogue adapter etc,etc

[Nuvo]

Which company is that Eric? Do you have this set up yourself?

[ericd]

speednet scotland, based in troon, a few of my neighbours have it , based on a mesh system , seems to be ok

[johne]

I'd be pleased with 256k

Me too on ADSL so I use a MiFi dongle on Three 3g. I pay £16 a month for 15GB and get a speed of around 8Mb at home, more if I'm on the move and in cities.

John

[Ross]

I spoke to my brother. He's gone down the directional wifi route. Think the 'microwave' term was in reference to the high frequency used in early providers.

Anyway looks like its what a couple of others are using here, 24-50mb seems typical around £25-40 a month. The ISP only covers shropshire/wales but Vfast and Quickline are the two ISPs your way, cover most of Kent, worth checking out.

[S2central.net]

I wish one of the high speed wireless providers was in my area too. I have special frustrations with BT regarding infinity as where I live is surrounded by homes which can receive the highest speed FTTC or FTTH services from the same exchange as us, but we are connected via some stupidly small street cabinet that they placed right smack between two other homes driveways so they cannot upgrade it without doing something non standard… more than once I have thought of renting a transit van for day and 'accidentally' driving into the cabinet so it can be replaced and upgraded at the same time…. The fricking main BT fiber route runs right past the end of our street but there aren't enough houses for BT to upgrade us.

I will have to explore the other options again - cracks me up that I pay BT the same for crappy 2Mbps service as I would on 100Mbps.

[S2central.net]

A quick look shows satellite broadband remains the only alternative for me - speeds look better than before but its the latency which sucks on those types of connection - useless for games & conferencing. The best of both worlds would be to have a router in the house with both connections active and configure the paths for video rich sites (youtube, iPlayer, netflix etc) statically onto the satellite link while everything else defaults to xDSL. Main trouble with that of course is just the high cost !