2 way satellite broadband or any other rural solutions?

[bigjimbishop]

Hi

I live in the Morvan, miles from ADSL

Can anyone recommend a 2 way satellite broadband provider.

The cheapest in the UK is Silvermead at £50 per month ans £1200 install.

I believe there is a French provider at around 75 Euro per month but who are they?

Jim

[Racerbear02]

Hi

this was covered quite extensively in this forum quite recently, look through the archives.

I used to use BT in UK but service was iffy at best, but thats BT I think, If you do a google for the providers you will find them.  I have sent you an email as well

Good luck

[Mpprh]

Hi

And there is more here :

http://www.drkeyboard.net/viewtopic.php?t=1493&highlight=satellite

Peter

[Mazan]

[quote]Hi I live in the Morvan, miles from ADSLCan anyone recommend a 2 way satellite broadband provider.The cheapest in the UK is Silvermead at £50 per month ans £1200 install.I believe there is a French pr...[/quote]

ISDN used dual-channel would be much cheaper to install and cheaper to use per month. More reliable too, and probably faster.

You can get a very reasonably priced ISDN dual-channel ISP service from 6am to 8pm every day for just 30Euros per month from NetBySky. Monthly ISDN line rental would be 26Euros. So the total monthly cost after the 100Euros installation fee would be under 60Euros. 24 hour dual-channel use would increase this to 110Euros.

NetBySky also do a sat service but I wouldn't bother with it.

[Paul_Gyn]

[quote]ISDN used dual-channel would be much cheaper to install and cheaper to use per month. More reliable too, and probably faster. You can get a very reasonably priced ISDN dual-channel ISP service from ...[/quote]

I pay 24E90. for unlimited access dual channel ISDN (128k) with N9UF Telecom, but this may only be available to existing customers; worth checking the site, though. You'll probably be better going to a big FT office to enquire about an ISDN (RNIS) installation, as so few people use it these days the information is not necessarily something the staff have at the tips of their fingers.

Those were my findings, at least, here in 44/85.

 

paul

paul

[Mazan]

[quote]I pay 24E90. for unlimited access dual channel ISDN (128k) with N9UF Telecom, but this may only be available to existing customers; worth checking the site, though. You'll probably be better going to ...[/quote]

I'm very surprised that you get dual-channel with 9Online for 25E. In fact I can give you names and addresses of hundreds of people who have had their 25E unlimited 9Online account cancelled for connecting dual-channel.

9Online no longer offer an unlimited dial-up package at all for new private subscribers anyway so the entire question is beside the point.

Only NetBySky and Creaweb offer dual-channel unlimited ISDN forfaits in France.

ISDN installation costs about 106E, nationwide. FT are legally obliged to supply it under the "service universel" laws. You may have to argue about this though.

[Paul_Gyn]

[quote]I'm very surprised that you get dual-channel with 9Online for 25E. In fact I can give you names and addresses of hundreds of people who have had their 25E unlimited 9Online account cancelled for conne...[/quote]

>".....ISDN installation costs about 106E, nationwide. FT are legally obliged to supply it under the "service universel" laws.

Mazan, I wouldn't dream of arguing with you. .. I know they are supposed to be obliged to supply it, however it's very hard to argue with an FT engineer who says where you live there are physically not enough bits of copper getting to your front door to provide an extra line - analogue or digital.

 >"...You may have to argue about this though......"

you're not wrong about that bit!

My local FT office happily took the booking to convert me from a single line to a ISDN pair, then I was rung up a week later by a desolee engineer who explained how impossible it was for me to have the service. it was only by persisting that some weeks later they eventually conceeded that it might just be possible, provided I forfited my original number.

My experience was simply that the FT salespeople I encountered were so geared up to selling ADSL (the Vendee proudly boasts that they can supply an ADSL service to every subscriber: I, unfortunately, live just across the boarder in Loire-Atlantique) that they had no experience of ISDN at all.

On the subject of my dual channel connection; I won't say anything if you don't!

paul

[Mazan]

>it's very hard to argue with an FT engineer who says
>where you live there are physically not enough bits of
>copper getting to your front door to provide an extra
>line - analogue or digital.

There is a big difference between one line and an extra line. If you already have a line then it can be transformed into an ISDN line and FT can't refuse to do this. However they can refuse to give you an extra line, unless you care to pay for having the extra cable run which may cost thousands if you live in the sticks.

I suppose that you fell into the second category. Of course if anyone really wants to use both channels then they may be obliged to have a second line, unless they are prepared not to be able to make voice calls when online.

[Charlie Nott<P>Many Thanks<P><P>Charlie Nott<P><P><a target=_blank href="http:www.giteshols.com">www.giteshols.com<A><P>]

Satellite broadband is very expensive and has reliability problems. FT seems to be phasing out ISDN2 by increasing the prices (maybe they need the bandwidth at their exchanges to support ADSL!!??).

I always question why people need Broadband. Are you likely to stream video or high quality audio? Are you working online to an office system?

If not then at the moment, until ADSL does eventually arrive to us poor (or lucky) people in the sticks, take your time, get a second analogue line (PSTN) installed, subscribe to an unlimitted ISP and pour another glass of wine or put the kettle on (depending on the time of day!) when you hit a slow website.

[bigjimbishop]

I write music for films and I am always receiving and sending big files (average 30 Mb) so Broadband is useful. I could camp out in the nearest Cybercafe in Chateau Chinon but the missus would leave me.

Would a second PSTN line be any better or cheaper than ISDN?

Would the wine taste better?

[Charlie Nott<P>Many Thanks<P><P>Charlie Nott<P><P><a target=_blank href="http:www.giteshols.com">www.giteshols.com<A><P>]

I pay 13 Euro per month (inc TVA) for the second line and 25 Euros per month for unlimitted Internet tiscali access (I think this is now 30 Euros for new subscribers).

As I live on the edge of the Bordeaux region with St. Emilion only just over an hour away the wine is usually good wherever we go!!

[Paul_Gyn]

[quote]I write music for films and I am always receiving and sending big files (average 30 Mb) so Broadband is useful. I could camp out in the nearest Cybercafe in Chateau Chinon but the missus would leave m...[/quote]

"....Would a second PSTN line be any better or cheaper than ISDN?...."

 

same price as a second PSTN, but faster

1 line = 64kb,  both lines bundled = 128kb

not the blistering speeds of ADSL, but then us beggers can't be choosers!

paul

[Mazan]

>Would a second PSTN line be any better
>or cheaper than ISDN?

No. After the initial one-off installation and modem costs (total about 150E), ISDN costs the same per month as two POTS lines and has nothing but advantages. Only if you expect to get ADSL at some point should you not go for ISDN.

You just need to make sure that you get the right dial-up ISP package and that now means either CreaWeb or NetBySky for unmetered use.

[Dave]

Hi,

this will not be of help to BigJim with his need to send and receive large music files (but they are working on it, i recently downloaded 'Onspeed' costs £24.99 for a year money back if you don't like it. it WORKS........i have a very slow connection speed here in the Lot sometimes down to 12 kbs. so going to the bank web site, meteo, ebay anywhere was slow. it works by compressing images on the sites even further and you can suppress 'popups' and some'ads' when a site opens the images are all pixelated but are unimportant, it's just quicker. if you get to a site and you want to have better quality images you can easily bring up the 'settings. window improve quality and then 'refresh' the current site....hey presto. Give it try, works with most browsers, Firefox, Opera, IE 6. Go have a read of the reviews om site at

www.onspeed.com

the download is small so is easy to install, for IE6 users there is no configuring of the browser it integrates in automatically.

Happy surfing

[Ron Avery]

I would wait a while before subscribing to a Satellite Broadband provider, Broadband is being rolled out a fast rate ( Well faster than in the UK) across France and many large towns and their surrounds across the country now have access it.  The French Government are committed to giving Broadband access across the country in the next few months or so,

No good to me I hear you say, I live miles away from a town in a small hamlet with few inhabitants and the line cost would be astronomical,  well the answer apparently is that it will be done via radio connections.  I would pop into FT and ask them when it is planned for your town/village/hamlet before commiting to an expensive option.

[bigjimbishop]

Thanks Ron

That's encouraging. But I believe that FT are still keen to get local support from the commune ie 100 interested subscribers and there are only 150 in my commune including kids.

I have decided to wait as you know 2 way sat is very expensive and unreliable.

Are you on a wireless network?

Is it wifi or wimax?

[Iceni]

Regarding FT rolling out broadband to rural areas, don't hold your breath. Their press release of Sept this year gives 90% broadband coverage by end of 2004 and 96% by end 2005 (this is on their site or an Internet search will pull it up). Now I would imagine that if it takes a year to get to 6% of outlying areas (and one area I know of has 600+ houses), then those in hilly 7 house hamlets might just have to wait for ever.

The Vendee claims to have 100% coverage, can anyone confirm that?????

Oh she of little faith.

[jorja]

i was looking at www.ses-astra.com today and thought it may be an option. it doesn't seem to matter where you live.

has anyone subscribed to this. it sounds like cheap sat broadband to me at about 22€ a month.

jorja

[Boghound]

[quote]Regarding FT rolling out broadband to rural areas, don't hold your breath. Their press release of Sept this year gives 90% broadband coverage by end of 2004 and 96% by end 2005 (this is on their site ...[/quote]

I can confirm it isn't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Moulin]

As a second home owner I’d settle for a decent dial-up connection at the moment, our house is in the Vendee and our dial-up connection is impossibly slow, 28Kb during the day, if I need to use the net for anything other than e-mails I can drink a bottle of wine between pages not just a glass.

Last time we were there I needed to do some on-line banking, which for security reasons takes you through several timed pages, and found the only way was to go on-line in the early hours of the morning!

I know speed varies between IPC’s so can anyone recommend a faster provider suitable for occasional use only?

[Moulin]

Sorry should have added that my current ISP is free.fr

[Iceni]

Moulin, are you using a French modem, I found I had this problem until I bought an external modem and the speed went up to a min of 44.0 kbps. I have just got a new PC from Dell in France and the internal modem gives me the same speed. My laptop and old Dell which have UK modems crawl. I now use the external Olitec modem with them to get the faster speeds. Also get ONSPEED - for £25 a year it is well worth having to speed up the sites.

Hope that this helps.

[Boghound]

[quote]Moulin, are you using a French modem, I found I had this problem until I bought an external modem and the speed went up to a min of 44.0 kbps. I have just got a new PC from Dell in France and the inte...[/quote]

My God. I've read everything now. So. Working on this hypothesis. If I live in Iraq/China (where most of them are made by the way)/ The States/ Germany/ and so on. I should have a modem made in the relative country!

Great.

Does this theory also work with other bits of machinery like cars. I always wondered why I always seemed to use more fuel in France driving the "308" then Italy.

[jorja]

[quote]As a second home owner I’d settle for a decent dial-up connection at the moment, our house is in the Vendee and our dial-up connection is impossibly slow, 28Kb during the day, if I need to use the net...[/quote]

you could try 'onspeed'. it only costs about £25 for a years subscription and def speeds things up.

www.onspeed.com

jorja 

[Iceni]

Boghound

I was given this information on this forum. In the same way that answerphones that work in the UK may need an adaptor in France to actually work correctly, so modems can have problems with the French phone system which is different. UK/US or other countries modems work, they just don't seem to be able to work at optimum speed or stay on line without dropping out. They are cheap and for me it was a very cheap way of getting up to full speed.

I think this was advice from Mazan - and as normal very good advice.

The day might come when everything is 100% compatible but I would not bet on it even in Europe.