can't get 'traditional' broadband - help!

shona_2

Hi
we really need to get broadband as my we do a lot of internet stuff, and it would make it faster, free up the phone line etc... however, we live away from any town/village and cannot get broadband.
I've tried to find out about alternatives - eg satellite broadband, but am left confused... can anyone help?
Would this cost a fortune???

Thanks
Shona

Malestrom

Satellite broadband uses your phone line for the uplink and the dish for the downlink, so your uplink speed is normally limited to around 56k and it doesn't free up your phone line like traditional broadband does. You also still have to 'dial-up' to get connected. How far from your nearest BT exchange are you? Have you entered your postcode into the checker at BT's site to confirm you cant get it from them?

andy88_2

BT are extending coverage all the time and will have 90 or 95% availability by May or June. Is it worth asking them about their plans in your area, or are you asking here because they've already said no?

shona_2

Thanks.
I've tried on the web-site and there's no coverage - I think we're on an old fashioned exchange with very few others - so we can't get enough to sign up. Might be worth ringing them and asking - I'll try that.
Doesn't sound like the satellite stuff is much cop, though...

andy88_2

To ease your frustration at browsing speeds, but with no freeing-up-phoneline advantage, you might take a look at Onspeed, which is a compression/accelerator proxy. There's some discussion of it here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=33608&highlight=onspeed

I like it, but you will see some scepticism there as well. It compresses text-based pages like this by a factor of 15 to 20. I have the number of posts on a page on MSE set to 30; about 200k pages take 3 or 4 seconds. If you want to use it for work though, say sending a lot of quality graphics, it will be of no advantage at all, as you will switch it off to avoid degrading picture quality.

Paul_Varjak

If cable services like NTL or Telewest are available in your area, you can get cable broadband.

shona_2

Thanks Paul - I thought that you needed cables to have been physically run to the house, and thought 'no way'. But I checked Telewest with the postcode and while they said no, they said NTL do, and sure enough - their web-site has confirmed. Think I'll need to phone though, to make sure...
Wow - I'll be made up if I can get it!!!

shona_2

Update - NTL said I could only get it if BT was able to give me braodband, but as I am in an 'unviable' exchange, it's still a no-go... sniff...
thanks for your help anyway...

Shona