Satellite Broadband Options

[Danm54]

We've just moved into a rural cottage in Mid Wales and I'm currently looking at broadband options.

The best speed we've been guaranteed is 1Mb so the line in is pretty poor. There's also no fibre connection available.

We currently don't get phone signal around the house either, my partner is with Virgin and she gets a signal and 4g upstairs so I bought a Cel-fi booster but that didn't pick any mobile signal up. I was hopeful we could use the mobile network but that's not looking great either.

Last options are wireless broadband and satellite broadband, we're not in a wireless zone so that only leaves satellite.

I'm aware the installation cost is high and I'm fine with that, there is a Welsh grant scheme available but there's about a 6 week wait for approval and I'm not sure we can wait that long.
The biggest issue seems to be a lack of providers and capped data usage.

Does anyone here use satellite broadband and do you have a usage cap?

Or am I missing another way to do this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Avalon]

Isn’t the Welsh govt in the midst of trying to resolve the current mess of it’s rollout? You may find a local WISP or similar. A friend’s dad used Sat, they offered a capped and uncapped service, the broadband voucher scheme covered the install/equipment costs and it wasn’t that horrific each month, but the latency sucked (obviously).

 

[visibleman]

...my partner is with Virgin and she gets a signal and 4g upstairs..

What are speed tests like with Virgin(EE)/4G upstairs?
If it's not terrible, then i'd be looking at an externally placed MikroTik SXT (https://mikrotik.com/product/sxt_lte_kit), or similar, and a Virgin/EE data sim.

Satellite would be my last port of call to be honest.

 

[Danm54]

What are speed tests like with Virgin(EE)/4G upstairs?
If it's not terrible, then i'd be looking at an externally placed MikroTik SXT (https://mikrotik.com/product/sxt_lte_kit), or similar, and a Virgin/EE data sim.

Satellite would be might last port of call to be honest.

It's not great but it's usable, I've not ran a speed test or used it to be fair.
I'll look into that though, I'm with 02 so will change over to EE once a signal is sorted. The mobile data limits are much higher and cheaper though so could be a viable option.

Don't think there's a local WISP, most cottages we can see are used as holiday homes and I think you'd need to see a mask if I remember right?

 

[Danm54]

Bit of an update.

I bought a MikroTik as linked above and put an EE pay and go sim in. I'd bought the sim to check signal around the house and garden.

The MikroTik didn't come with any setup instructions so had a game downloading the App and some very basic instructions. I had a look through but didn't understand most of it really and kept losing connection to the MikroTik.
My partner came across a local company called Dyfed Telecom who have just started installing them, so we booked them to install and set up the one I'd bought.

They came Friday, turns out my router was playing up as well so I've also got a MikroTik router he supplied. Works great though and we can now stream tv etc without issues which is much better than our last house with a wired connection.

Dyfed Telecom offer an unlimited data sim for £40 + vat a month, so cheaper than the satellite and no data limits.
Not had the bill yet but I'm expecting ~£400 for the router and installation. Add the MikroTik and I'm in it for ~£520 and we may be able to claim the installation cost back from the Welsh scheme.

Speed test below.

 

[Avalon]

Glad you got sorted.

 

[ScoTTyBEEE]

That's not much different to our rural fibre connection, gotta be happy with that.

 

[Danm54]

That's not much different to our rural fibre connection, gotta be happy with that.

Definitely, for the past 5 years we've been on a copper connection which took an age to download a film in SD (forget HD) and streaming was out of the question.

Whilst this may not be an amazing speed it's a world away from our last place, considering we also live in rural Mid Wales it's better than we were expecting and perfectly usable.