Satellite Broadband - what are people experiences?

[timbrayford]

I don't have any knowledge of tooway but we get our broadband from wightwireless.

Because BT decided to run their antique copper cable through an Oak tree every time the wind blew our internet would drop down to dial up speed and it would take weeks to get it fixed, and only then after spending many hours speaking to unhelpful foreign call centres.

We now receive our broadband and VOIP phone from a transmitter a couple of miles away, more reliable and quicker than BT could ever manage!

 

[Hornet 6]

My response from EE checker I guess will be the same for many of you looking at this thread

No coverage - you've found one of the few spots in the UK where we're not currently providing 4G coverage.

I live in one of the flattest counties in the country and can only get 2g - go figure.

I was in Diss the other weekend, had no trouble getting sensible download speeds on my phone, did a few updates etc and
sent received emails plus found and bought on eBay, all on 4G EE
Granted not as fast as usual which is somewhere about 60mbps, but speed check gave 25mbps ( I checked before doing an update)

Neil.

 

[kes]

I now live in rural Monmouthshire. Had EE for mobiles which simply don't work here. The Welsh Government recognise the restrictions poor broadband provision has on business and pay up to £800 towards satellite kit. The previous owner had satellite and I continued with it. Europasat was our provider, £29.99 sign-up fee and 24.99 per month, both ex vat and for 10 gigs. I spoke to EE who have worked hard to help. We have very good deal with EE and an extra £36 ish pounds per month was annoying. We persevered with EE and they sent a new router and a signal amplifier. It worked like a charm on the incoming phone line.
Faster than Europasat and more reliable so I've binned the Europasat and saved £36. BT cabinet with fibre is 1 mile away and we arent even programmed for service into the future.
I went to a friends house who arranged for a demo by a chap (local) who has a system which intercepts mobile microwaves at a high level (chimney or higher) and provides (demo) 38MB/s via a mobile data card. You install it -£1200 and then agree a fee for a data only sim from your mobile provider - a lot faster and cheaper than satellite. My experence with satellite broadband is not good and 10 gigs isn't a lot. Installation of satellite receiver, modem etc is about £800 - £1000.
If I was having a problem with broadband now, I would look at mobile phone data receivers, there are several coming on the market and prices seem to be falling. If anyone wants a demo I'll pass on the phone number of the chap who did our demo and you could chat to him and see if it suits you. He's a small business and covers a huge area. He also has an agreement with EE so he has a link into a major provider for data cards. If our broadband fails or slows, I will be ringing him after talking to my friend who is due for the installation before Christmas.

 

[HAMMY]

I until recently had Sat Broadband via Q Sat. I was enabled through the Scottish Government scheme to enable rural Scotland by 2010. Initially it was supplied through Avanti who launched there own Sattelite, this company was then taken over by Q Sat, The Q coming from Niall Quinn former footballer who I believe owns the company. This company has customer service second to none, in the six years I had this the service NEVER let me down. It is expensive in comparison, but absolutely fantastic in my opinion.

Cheers Hammy

 

[BearStalker]

When I first came to Scotland (2014) I had to fight with BT for four months, just to get my telephone line connected. When I attempted to activate the broadband, it took over 6 hours just to download a 3 MB security program. BT was too lazy to install enhancers in their copper lines.

I talked with my neighbours and they all had the same problem and had to use Satnet. I had mine through TooWay and had nothing but good results. Although they are the only ones I know about, as far as I am concerned they are top notch. As mentioned, earlier, the high usage you go the more it will cost, and if you exceed you amount, you will have to wait until the next month bill is paid or contact them for a larger package (which will cost more). All said and done, if you are unable to get any of the others to connect you, via Fiber Optics, SatNet is the way to go. The wind blows too much to use Smoke Signals.

 

[TreeWorks]

People in Lancashire rural villages got so fed up of slow / non existent broadband they decided to get together and install there own superfast network. They now have 1Gb download and upload for £30 per month!

http://b4rn.org.uk/

 

[Treedave]

I'm looking at these guys after years of the usual BT service (phone & Bb off 3-4 times a year up to 4 weeks at a time, with a refund of £10-20 usual, against a £40 per month). Works on microwave with a 6" diameter dish, no line rental but can take my phone number and BT email address with me. I'm not sure if they go as far as srvet, but I'd be surprised if there aren't other providers out there.

http://www.kencomp.net/

 

[simonl]

If you can find anyone under about 5km away & within line-of-site and who is able to get a good fibre speed you can share their broadband reasonably easily. Beyond a couple of hundred yards it's fussy about proper line of site - no trees or buildings in the way.

As for satellite, there's no such thing as a free lunch - things like youtube & iplayer will rapidly slaughter your monthly allowance & then you'll end up paying excess charges or being rate shaped (slowed down). For business use & general surfing it's not bad though.

 

[mr_magicfingers]

I've had Tooway satellite broadband through Avonline for 3.5 years since we moved to Devon. It works, but it certainly doesn't give you the sort of speeds they promise. During the day, it's not bad but once you hit about 5pm, the speed falls off a cliff as kids come home from school and start using data. In the evenings we rarely get more than 3-4mbs and never enough to stream iplayer or anything like that.

I've talked to them repeatedly about this and they tell me it should all be fine but it's not. The problem is that Tooway have massively oversold their service and you have to deal with contention during busy times which are evenings and weekends when everyone want to use the net connection.

The other issue is volume of data: We originally paid for the unlimited service, £75/month, as we often work from home. After a while we contacted them to find out why things were so slow and they told us we were over the 50Gb data limit for that month. I was informed that unlimited doens't mean unlimited. Unfortunately when there's an OS update and your devices all need to be updated, it eats your data allowance and then you're stuffed until the end of the next month's data bracket.

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about it and there's, sadly, no other game in town so we've been stuck with it for 3.5 years. However, after years of badgering the various necessary people, we will soon have fibre connected straight to our house. Can't wait to rip that bloody dish off my wall.

 

[simonl]

The problem is that Tooway have massively oversold their service..

To be fair to them, it does cost maybe a billion USD to launch & maintain a satellite over its lifetime. When there's a bunch of business users & little of no flashy content it all works well. Add kids & youtube & iplayer etc and it undereperforms hopelessly when compared to the thoroughly commoditised ADSL/fibre services. When you need it & there's nothing else, it's a godsend though, albeit a pricey one.

 

[kes]

My friend who was due a bespoke installation based on a chimney mounted receiver and a data chip from a mobile provider phoned today. He's had his equipment installed and is getting 28 Mb/s.
The best round here with satellite is simply poor by comparison 2-4 Mb/s. £1200 and he's very pleased.