Rural broadband

eddiemacthedog

Hi All,
I was wondering if anybody has had experience of my situation, what it is i live in a small village in NE Scotland about 6 miles from the local bt exchange and my broadband speed is an absolute joke, 0.25 meg absolute tops.

Ive had the engineer round and he says thats the maximum due to the distance from the exchange.

My point is i pay £16 a month for this service which states up to 8 meg speeds so essentially BT are not providing the service which i pay for.

I phoned BT and got nowhere nothing we can do blah blah blah, anybody else tried anything or got experience of this?

Thanks in advance

Mark_In_Hampshire

They are providing the service you pay for - up to 8Mbps. The "up to" is the key. The maxium attainable speed drops sharply with the length and quality of the line. The "minimum" is 160kbps, but that's still "up to 8Mbps".

We ditched our landline years ago as it can't manage more than 1.7Mbps, and we use 3G instead. This can work well if you're near enough to the cell and can get a decent signal, and in rural locations the main issue that affects urbans - contention - isn't as present since fewer people are using it.

Can you get a 3G service where you are?

eddiemacthedog

checked the 3g coverage and no providers have coverage apart from 3, not sure how quick it would be though and would probably work out more expensive.

saintlyboy

There used to be some small providers out there that provide broadband via satellite, although upload speeds are/were rubbish

Mark_In_Hampshire

The phone line isn't going to get any quicker - so your options are:

1. 3G - buy on PAYG first so you can take it back if it doesn't work out (no signal or slow) - £25 per 7GB on Three, no line rental to pay. Will run at anything from (doesn't work at all) to 21Mbps. Ours averages 5.4Mbps down 1Mbps up.
2. Local WiFi provider (if there is one) - as above, prices vary, availability limited - speeds can be excellent though
3. Satellite - setup circa £300, monthly isn't that dear, 10Mbps downstream possible
4. Bond e.g. six telephone lines together which might get you 1Mbps (6 lots of ADSL, 6 lots of line rental, cost of router - expensive for very little)
5. Leased line - install from £3,200 and monthly cost over £1,000.

macman

Have you maximised the speed you can get by plugging your router straight into the master socket (not using trailing extension leads), buying decent filters instead of the bog standard BT ones, etc etc?

Red_Doe

I'm in the far north west of Scotland (just down from Cape Wrath) and have similar problems, but I can recommend Plusnet to you, I switched to them after BT and not only are they cheaper but I get better speeds too.
We're about 8 miles from our exchange, we get 1meg. I have my line rental with them too and find them cheaper than BT, also the difference I have noted is, we tend to get a lot of line trouble here (old lines, lightning strikes etc) and where before, BT would make us go through hell before they'd send an engineer out, with Plusnet the troubles are seen to in no time at all.
I've come to accept though that we're never going to get decent broadband speeds living so remotely, but Plusnet give us better speeds than BT ever did.

macman

Since Plusnet are running over exactly the same network as BT (non-LLU), I don't see how your speeds can be any better?
However I would agree that Plusnet's CS is superior to BT (not that that's difficult).
You are aware that Plusnet is a BT-owned company?

Red_Doe

yup, I know that macman, but honestly, my speeds DID improve when I switched! Can't explain it but the proof is there, as it wasn't just us but another elderly couple nearby who also switched.
yes, their CS is also much superior.

macman

It can only be down to different routers, better filters, wireless set up etc.

west_is_best

We couldnt get broadband at all... living in a broadband not spot, but I got 3G installed and its absolutely fantastic... I only get anything up to 1MB but its so much faster than dial-up...

I cant fault it whatsoever.

What I did was, I got a broadband company to check a 3G connection before installing it... Its been up and running now for about 3 weeks, as yet, I cant fault it..