Rural Broad Band

[William]

Hi

I know that Broad Band is virtually unavailable in most rural areas in France but I wonder if anyone has information about 'satellite broadband' which may be the way forward? Will. 

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Hi

Satellite broadband is available - try http://www.opensky.net/ for one. Loads of info and it's in English.

[William]

Hi NDC,

          Many thanks for your help....the site is really helpful and has plenty of useful links.

                                                           Regards

                                                                    Will.

                                                                              

[Mpprh]

Hi

Broadband service seems to be a bit random. Some villages have it, some not.

We've been told that it will be late arriving here because the local exchange is antiquated.

We've also looked at several other options. Satellite was eventually rejected after a visit to a village that has installed it. It seems that it didn't work as well as expected because of the way the data is packed for transmission.

Does anyone use satellite for connection ? Can you tell us your experience ? And what exactly is latency ?

Peter

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Hi Peter

Latency in networking is basically the delay in data packets being sent over the network, usually translating into slow and /or intermittent response when surfing, - not noticeable as much when emailing though assuming you're using Outlook etc and not webmail. Most frustrating for surfing and makes any on-line services, radio etc unusable.

[fatboyslim]

Satellite has an inherent latency due to the satellite being over 30,000 Kilometres from Earth, this is normally for a one way journey ½ second so 1 second for a round trip earth – satellite - earth.   This does not affect transmission of large files such as MP3 however for small object base files such as HTTP, Telnet then it can become very slow.  The Good news is that most satellite operators have installed PEP or performance enhancement protocol that tricks HTTP and Telnet into thinking there is no delay and improves your surfing experience.  I hope this is makes sense but if you want more info don’t hesitate to ask.

 

As for companies offering two way services I would suggest that you use a DVB RCS terminal which is based on open standards so should work with other providers if you decide to change your provider.  Try www.satlynx.com or www.hispasat.com or a small English company www.avanti-communications.com.

 

Finally don’t expect to pay the price of a normal ADSL connection as satellite is far more expensive.

[Racerbear02]

We used a satellite system in the UK from BT. It was C**P and desperately expensive, the help desk knew less than we did and it was deranged by almost every passing cloud. latency was indeed a problem and almost all messenger / video chat applications would not work because of it. Straight downloads, programmes / music etc. were very good though when it was working.

We brought the system over here with us intending to use it as we knew we would not have broadband here but we never got round to reinstalling it (want to buy a one careful owner satellite system ?)

We decided to use Numeris Itoo from France Telecom via 9online, this system worked well and was relatively inexpensive but still not as good as ADSL which arrived here , 3.5kms from local little village last month. (want to buy a one careful owner isdn card and or modem? )

We now have 2meg ADSL although the distance from the exchange means that we rarely get over a 1meg connection.

In L'aisne the departement has a policy of providing ADSL to all communes however isolated and they are working through the region slowly, try asking at you mairie for information if your region has something similar.

Good luck

[Babnik]

You'll probably be surprised at how many rural areas do have broadband. We recently bought a place, which is about 2 kilometers from a very small village (pop. 249), and you would have thought 'ADSL? No way!', but a little investigation on the France Telecom site, told us that ADSL would be available in Dec 2004.....but that was the village. I phoned France Telecom, and gave them the actual phone number, and they confirmed it would be available 4 Dec 2004 on that number. So if you've got a telephone number, you can confirm when ADSL will be arriving. The Maire is always a good source of this information too.

Steve

[I1]

I'm sure everybody knows it, but just in case not, you can check broadband availability at http://www.agence.francetelecom.com/vf/navs/frame.php?fh=5&fg=5&cf=A/vf/internet_multimedia/haut_debit/index.shtml.

This link has a few problems giving information about future plans, so on the screen once you have entered your telephone number (if you get anything other than a "is available" response), enter your postcode (select commune, etc.) and the response to this (i.e. the postcode check) will sometimes give planned availability dates.

However, I am rural (couple of Km from nearest village) and have just got ADSL (i.e. they have just installed it to the area) and getting it and getting it working are different. Mine worked fine for the 1st week, then became decidely intermittent, then stopped. France Telecom detected there was a fault but cannot trace it (so it goes on).

Also, when changing from dial-up to ADSL (with Wanadoo), the interval between asking to change, and getting the ADSL box and France Telecom enabling ADSL and switching your line to Wanadoo took about 6 days during which my dial-up account stopped working very well (as Wanadoo switched my account to broadband and they then kept dropping the line after 1 min or so). If they re-enabled dial-up they would have to stop the ADSL enable by France Telecom - seemed their systems do not allow the switch-over very smoothly (at least that was my experience).

[Mpprh]

Hi

Seems this rural village is going to get ADSL in March 2005.

I have today received a pdf file from the Mairie. The letter is from FT saying that although we are small, we were very quick to pursue the matter.

After due consideration, talking to Mr le Maire etc. FT have decided to install it in March 2005.

I'm very pleased. There was pressure to rush into other expensive short term solutions that wouldn't have suited me.

Peter

[Hegs]

This is also a good link:

http://degroup.chti-host.com/

It will tell you which exchange you are connected to, if you can figure out the code, and the sort of speed you can expect if/when your exchange is upgraded.

http://www.ariase.com/fr/basdebit/france.html will give you the planned exchange upgrades for the next few months.

Apparently FT will upgrade all exchanges by the end of Dec 2006, more quickly if your department has signed a "departement innovant" accord.

All exchanges with ADSL will be upgraded to ADSL2+ next year, which will increase the range by 5-10% and increase the maximum speed for those close to the exchange.

Also, WiMax (high speed wireless, 70Mb/s over 30-50kms) should start appearing next year in some departments which will help those who are too far from an exchange.