Remote internet options

Musty Pie

Musty Pie

Musty Pie

Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2009
Posts
6,488
Location
Hertfordshire
Good afternoon all,

My sister has just moved into quote a remote property and the internet (as expected) is VERY poor 1MB

She is keen to look at ohter options, and i remember watching a video on Starlink a while back.

Both keen on the idea, seems a reasonable price for the service, but after anyone who has real world experience with it as a service?

Is there a way to check what speeds to expect in the area?
Is there a cancellation policy to navigate if the service is poor?

Any input on alternatives would be good too if anyone can suggest?

They ideally want something that can support 4k steaming and basic internet use (so anyhting above 30MB minimum)
 
Caged said:
Are there no 4G options?
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4g signal isn't great either as I did originally think about a 4g SIM and router option.

I'll test the 4g signal on my EE phone when I'm there on Friday. But wondered if there are other options people could suggest?
 
I use a 4g router and the Poynting Cross Polarised High gain 4G Panel LTE Antenna in my man cave at Rannoch. You are supposed to mount the antenna but I have mine on the window ledge. I get 50MB at night and around 30Mb during the day.
 
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Musty Pie said:
She is keen to look at ohter options, and i remember watching a video on Starlink a while back.

Both keen on the idea, seems a reasonable price for the service, but after anyone who has real world experience with it as a service?
Click to expand...

I've got some experience of it, I've used it in Sweden (about 60Km north of Stockholm) and Italy (near to Rome) in both cases to provide temporary internet access to a work facility. It worked absolutely fine, I was really quite impressed with it.

Performance was a bit variable but it wasn't variable enough that anyone on site actually noticed. The plan was to use it for the minimum contract period at both locations but it works so well that we're going to keep it long term.
 
the-evaluator said:
I've got some experience of it, I've used it in Sweden (about 60Km north of Stockholm) and Italy (near to Rome) in both cases to provide temporary internet access to a work facility. It worked absolutely fine, I was really quite impressed with it.

Performance was a bit variable but it wasn't variable enough that anyone on site actually noticed. The plan was to use it for the minimum contract period at both locations but it works so well that we're going to keep it long term.
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By variable performance, do you mean connection dropping at all? or just speed dips etc?

Ultimately they will use it for "home" internet use, streaming video, browsing on phones etc.
 
Does anyone offer a wireless broadband service in the area?

It won’t equal Starlink or fibre broadband, but it’s another option where you don’t have useable 4G service.
 
Musty Pie said:
By variable performance, do you mean connection dropping at all? or just speed dips etc?

Ultimately they will use it for "home" internet use, streaming video, browsing on phones etc.
Click to expand...

It was just speed dips, I seem to remember we had a couple of short connection drops on the Swedish connection whilst the one in Italy didn't seem to drop.
 
I'd definitely explore the 4G options first - results can be surprising especially with the right kit and a bit of luck - I'm in a somewhat remote location with not ideal setup terrain and distance to masts and so on wise and manage to get speeds rivalling a full FTTC line with a bit of luck. Though the latency doesn't come close to fixed line for gaming.
 
Yeah as mentioned i currently use a 4G Sim/Router combination for our "site office" at work and its surprisingly capable.

However if they are not getting good connections on 4G with their current phone providers (EE) doubtful many others will be much better, as arent EE one of the top NVMO's?

I have virgin SIM on my personal phone, so might try that when i pop there on Friday for connection test. And might take the router i have in the site office over there to test to see if its any better.
 
"Top" is a very subjective term. EE are fantastic at my house for example whilst Vodafone is very poor, but when I'm at the office EE is hopeless and Vodafone is the best option. It's well worth trying other options, grab a PAYG SIM for each of the major networks and see what results you get.
 
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Yeah it does seem the plot thickens.

Ive asked her to run some tests, currently results below:

ProviderSpeed
O2 4G (her mobile phone)17MB
BT Mini Hub24MB

BT provided them a "mini hub" yesterday - although no idea what that actually is, i guess a 4g SIM/ USB type thing?

Initial speeds were only around 1MB (when she told me about it yesterday) but seems this is picking up a bit, todays tests showed around ~24MB

Im going to take our Asus 4G router with EE sim card there later this week (probably Friday) to test that, and will also check the speeds of my Virgin Sim on 4G there at the same time to give a good understanding of some of the options.

Thanks for all the help so far. Will keep everyone posted.
 
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If there is any 4G signal whatsoever a good directional 4G set can give excellent results - certainly 15-40Mbps which is plenty for most uses.

My go-to devices are the Mikrotik SxT-LTE6 and the Mikrotik LHG-GG. The antenna gain on these units is phenomenal. If you know where the mast is they can pull in a signal even your mobile says there isn’t one.

mikrotik.com

SXT LTE6 kit | MikroTik

The evolution of affordable connectivity in remote areas
mikrotik.com mikrotik.com

mikrotik.com

LHGG LTE6 kit | MikroTik

LHGG LTE6 KIT – a great solution for great distances. With Gigabit Ethernet, an upgraded dual-core CPU, a powerful 17 dBi antenna, and a massive heat sink, you can trust the LHGG LTE6 kit to handle any challenge!
mikrotik.com mikrotik.com
 
I can't find many addresses in that postcode that don't have 24+Mbps broadband available to them. They are also due to get FTTP from Openreach.
 
Caged said:
I can't find many addresses in that postcode that don't have 24+Mbps broadband available to them. They are also due to get FTTP from Openreach.
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I guess its more of a "what you actually get" vs whats advertised scenario.

Mikrotik kit looks interesting - never seen these before - is it just a standalone thing you get to increase 4g connection?
 
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