Satellite Broadband

[Mersons]

Has anyone in the forum tried the Micronet Satellite Broadband service.  We've seen an ad in an English language newspaper in France and its tempting to try it because our village is not looking like having broadband for a long time, but I'd like to know if anyone else has installed it and if its all it seems from the ad and the web site.  Here's the site for anyone who's interested in taking a look.      http://www.getbroadbandanywhere.com/

Thanks in advance.

Sheila

[Jc]

Receive thro' your cellphone line;that sounds likely that it will be cheap??

[Will]

Satellite broadband is always worth considering, you can get very fast download speeds and good reliability - better than the local WiFi networks that are springing up in various parts of France. There are two disadvantages - it is far from being a cheap option, in respect of either equipment or airtime costs (paid either by time on line or by amount of data downloaded). Look very carefully as some operators have a lot of hidden charges. The other downside is that most systems only offer one-way communication, i.e. download only, you still need a landline connection for uploading. So for people who need to send data as well as receive, it is not usually a viable option.

[Le Scouse]

Hi,

 

Will's comments about the one way nature of typical Satellite Internet are as usual spot on.

I have clients who run a graphics company (web site designers basically). They relocated to a beautiful area but could not get broadband where they were.They took advice from a "Comms expert" and spent over £1500 getting a system which was totally unsuitable for them. They had an upload/download ratio of 30:1 and therfore spent a fortune on a dial-up connection, taking hours to send content to their customers at 56kps and had a patchy download experience (Ranging from perfect to pathetic) for occasional browsing.

Basically it will depend on what type of connectivity you need. If you just want to surf, and have a very clear line of sight then it "Might" be a good option, but it's expensive and without a landline, you'll be able to get your email, but typically not be able to reply to it

 

Lee

[Chrisdubna]

"They had an upload/download ratio of 30:1 and therfore spent a fortune on a dial-up connection, taking hours to send content to their customers at 56kps and had a patchy download experience (Ranging from perfect to pathetic) for occasional browsing."

That is not a problem with the Sat system they bought but with the advice they were given.  Basically there are two types of Sat System -

1 two way via sat - good download speeds and upload speeds from 256K depending upon how much you pay.

2 download only, upload via telephone in which case the upload speed is no better than an analogue telephone line.

In these circumstances I would have recommended a dual bonded ISDN line which is available on nearly all France Telecom lines and gives 128k upload - the maximum you can get without ADSL.

The answer, having bought the system, is not to sit there and watch it upload but to do it during the night.

CHRIS

[Owens88]

Cautionary Note

One satellite operator (Aramiska) seems to have gone bust on Friday leaving all sorts of communities and businesses in the lurch.

A point to check in any agreement is the equipment. There are reports that some people on Aramiska may be forced to continue paying an equipment charge, in effect to a leasing company, even though they aren't getting a service.

BTW Lots of satellite services are two-way nowadays (in reference to an earlier post which suggested they are one-way).