'weapon grade' 4g/5g broadband and/or rural fibre connection
Discussion
Moving house to a semi rural place. House is on a private road and Gigaclear have not connected to our road - only about 15m or so from the nearest connected house. We won't own the private road. Gigaclear saying that they might consider extending the network to us but no guarantees.
Ms Rix works from home mostly, spending all day on teams video calls. Google tells me that 4/5g should be within coverage so current plan is a cellular router connected to our mesh. Download speed potential seems good but upload is severely hampered. For best chances I'm looking at a roof mounted directional attenea locked on to the nearest 5g mast.
Any advice/experience? Am I going to curse the bleeding wifi for ever and a day?!!
Ms Rix works from home mostly, spending all day on teams video calls. Google tells me that 4/5g should be within coverage so current plan is a cellular router connected to our mesh. Download speed potential seems good but upload is severely hampered. For best chances I'm looking at a roof mounted directional attenea locked on to the nearest 5g mast.
Any advice/experience? Am I going to curse the bleeding wifi for ever and a day?!!
Edited by rix on Friday 28th August 20:39
Old school copper broadband might be an option if the house already has it?
But I've heard people struggling to get anyone to offer the service.
4G can work adequately, or not.
I know people who get a reliable 20M or so from 4G, with a fancy antenna on a pole, lots of people do OK with it if the signal is strong.
It's a good idea to get SIMs for each real carrier and try them at the property.
5G presumably likewise.
Starlink while waiting for fibre seems like a very good option.
Can be cheaper than 4G/5G if you get a good deal and use a fair amount of data.
Only downside is that it uses more power and you might not like lining Elon's pockets.
But I've heard people struggling to get anyone to offer the service.
4G can work adequately, or not.
I know people who get a reliable 20M or so from 4G, with a fancy antenna on a pole, lots of people do OK with it if the signal is strong.
It's a good idea to get SIMs for each real carrier and try them at the property.
5G presumably likewise.
Starlink while waiting for fibre seems like a very good option.
Can be cheaper than 4G/5G if you get a good deal and use a fair amount of data.
Only downside is that it uses more power and you might not like lining Elon's pockets.
Starlink also seems to have upload throttled massively from what I've read, so probably no better IF the 4G/5G is reliable, but a good back up if not. Have been spoilt with mirrored down/up speeds with Gigaclear in the current house at real world 300mbps, it's lightning!
BT copper line is available but BT estimate 2-5mbps download, let alone upload!!!
For comparison... starlink estimates download 100 to 300 Mbps, and upload 15 to 35 Mbps.
5g: 80-300 down, 10-35 up
4g: 20-45 down, 5-12 up
Is 5mbps upload, as a worst case scenario, ok for teams video calls??
BT copper line is available but BT estimate 2-5mbps download, let alone upload!!!
For comparison... starlink estimates download 100 to 300 Mbps, and upload 15 to 35 Mbps.
5g: 80-300 down, 10-35 up
4g: 20-45 down, 5-12 up
Is 5mbps upload, as a worst case scenario, ok for teams video calls??
Edited by rix on Friday 28th August 20:56
rix said:
For added fun, did I mention that it's not on mains sewage (septic tank) and no gas supply??? Expect related threads soon!!
That’s normal isn’t it?Get Starlink.
We’ve had it for a few months now, to replace a perfectly usable 65mb BT wired connection. It’s much much better. No issues at all, and whilst upload speed isn’t as fast as download, it’s usually about 35mb which is plenty for what you, and we need.
When we moved into our current house it had atrocious connectivity (sub-10 meg) so bit the bullet and commissioned a FTTPoD (fibre to the premises on demand) - basically a build that wasn’t on openreaches schedule.
The nearest cabinet with fibre was probably around half a mile away but, for reasons I never really dug into, OR said they couldn’t connect from there and needed to go directly to an exchange (and not the most local one). Net result was out fibre being >10 miles long.
We commissioned it via Cerberus Networks and then transitioned a couple of years later to BT as the ISP. Cost was around £20k (around covid time) and was not a fast process. The actual network buildout was by openreach onto their network. If we hadn’t paid then we still wouldn’t have fibre here.
At another property we have Starlink. It’s good, but not as good as fibre. Installation is rapid (buy the kit and self-install) and lower initial costs. I’m using it as a stop-gap until openreach are able to provide connectivity without a bespoke build (we know they will run down a road just outside that property). We have the dish on top of one of our large sheds so it has a totally uninterrupted view of the sky - if you’re closer to the ground/have trees nearby then worth doing an on-site scan using their app.
The nearest cabinet with fibre was probably around half a mile away but, for reasons I never really dug into, OR said they couldn’t connect from there and needed to go directly to an exchange (and not the most local one). Net result was out fibre being >10 miles long.
We commissioned it via Cerberus Networks and then transitioned a couple of years later to BT as the ISP. Cost was around £20k (around covid time) and was not a fast process. The actual network buildout was by openreach onto their network. If we hadn’t paid then we still wouldn’t have fibre here.
At another property we have Starlink. It’s good, but not as good as fibre. Installation is rapid (buy the kit and self-install) and lower initial costs. I’m using it as a stop-gap until openreach are able to provide connectivity without a bespoke build (we know they will run down a road just outside that property). We have the dish on top of one of our large sheds so it has a totally uninterrupted view of the sky - if you’re closer to the ground/have trees nearby then worth doing an on-site scan using their app.
Do make sure that you can actually get a decent 4g/5g signal.
We are semi-rural. Most of the coverage checkers say we can get a good 4g signal.
In reality, the best we can get is 2g (voice and SMS only, no data) upstairs. Nothing at all downstairs or in the front or rear gardens.
In the past we could get sporadic 3g data, but of course they have switched that off now.
Luckily we managed to get BT fttp last year, and rely on WiFi calling for the mobiles.
We are semi-rural. Most of the coverage checkers say we can get a good 4g signal.
In reality, the best we can get is 2g (voice and SMS only, no data) upstairs. Nothing at all downstairs or in the front or rear gardens.
In the past we could get sporadic 3g data, but of course they have switched that off now.
Luckily we managed to get BT fttp last year, and rely on WiFi calling for the mobiles.
If you need a good 5G/4G external router/antenna then Mikrotik kit is good. Needs a bit of setting up, you'll need to log into it with a laptop and adjust the settings etc.
Only downside is the SIM fits inside, so it is not easily accessible once mounted up on a pole. Try and mount it somewhere you can get to it. I have an older 4G version inside a loft, getting 100 down 50 up.
https://mikrotik.com/product/sxt_lte7_kit
Only downside is the SIM fits inside, so it is not easily accessible once mounted up on a pole. Try and mount it somewhere you can get to it. I have an older 4G version inside a loft, getting 100 down 50 up.
https://mikrotik.com/product/sxt_lte7_kit
Edited by megaphone on Saturday 29th August 11:26
We are rural, and both work from home. No prospect of fibre and the old BT copper line internet service was at best 20mbps on a good day and when the wind blows it often drops out. Finally gone down the Starlink route and I have to say it is very easy to set up, very competitively priced (£60 pcm with no equipment costs) and is night and day compared to what we had before.
Septic tanks are brilliant, if you have a good one. Ours never needs emptying (been here 17 years now). LPG for the gas hob, not a bother - just swap them over at the local garage every 6 months or so....
Septic tanks are brilliant, if you have a good one. Ours never needs emptying (been here 17 years now). LPG for the gas hob, not a bother - just swap them over at the local garage every 6 months or so....
Another vote for Starlink - installed it down here in rural Cornwall 12 months ago and it's been superb - took minutes to install.
450mbs, just checked the latency and its around 20ms - no service drop outs and works fine for Teams / Zoom / etc
Just check you have clear visibility upwards (i.e. no overhanging trees) - I don't know how it affects the signal but the app has a great little graphic showing obstructions which is quite hypnotic.
Edited to add : just ran a speed test and currently getting 294Mbs download and 67Mbps upload
450mbs, just checked the latency and its around 20ms - no service drop outs and works fine for Teams / Zoom / etc
Just check you have clear visibility upwards (i.e. no overhanging trees) - I don't know how it affects the signal but the app has a great little graphic showing obstructions which is quite hypnotic.
Edited to add : just ran a speed test and currently getting 294Mbs download and 67Mbps upload
Edited by kent_phil on Saturday 29th August 12:21
alfabeat said:
We are rural, and both work from home. No prospect of fibre and the old BT copper line internet service was at best 20mbps on a good day and when the wind blows it often drops out. Finally gone down the Starlink route and I have to say it is very easy to set up, very competitively priced (£60 pcm with no equipment costs) and is night and day compared to what we had before.
Septic tanks are brilliant, if you have a good one. Ours never needs emptying (been here 17 years now). LPG for the gas hob, not a bother - just swap them over at the local garage every 6 months or so....
AFAIK, BT/Openreach is due to turn off the old copper landlines in 5 months.Septic tanks are brilliant, if you have a good one. Ours never needs emptying (been here 17 years now). LPG for the gas hob, not a bother - just swap them over at the local garage every 6 months or so....
By then, all customers should have been moved over to fibre - Digital Voice and much faster broadband
alfabeat said:
We are rural, and both work from home. No prospect of fibre and the old BT copper line internet service was at best 20mbps on a good day and when the wind blows it often drops out. Finally gone down the Starlink route and I have to say it is very easy to set up, very competitively priced (£60 pcm with no equipment costs) and is night and day compared to what we had before.
Septic tanks are brilliant, if you have a good one. Ours never needs emptying (been here 17 years now). LPG for the gas hob, not a bother - just swap them over at the local garage every 6 months or so....
Am i correct in thinking that if you have an active internet connection on an old copper line, OR will (eventually) replace it for a fibre connection FOC?Septic tanks are brilliant, if you have a good one. Ours never needs emptying (been here 17 years now). LPG for the gas hob, not a bother - just swap them over at the local garage every 6 months or so....
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