Wireless broadband ( not wifi) experiences

1jim

Hi
Does anyone have any experience of wireless broadband. I live in a village with very slow broadband, we ae at the very limit if the copper line and service has been pretty temperamental in the past. I have learnt that a company is switching on a mast in my area which will allow me to access wireless broadband, has anyone used this type of service? Ay thoughts/ suggestions would be welcome,

The company is http://www.ineedbroadband.co.uk/ and are based locally. I have been old that speed could be up to 10Mb but this is not guaranteed but I could cancel without charge if I wasn't happy with speed ( have in writing ) my current speed is 512kbps with no sign of fibre out near us so you imagine my excitement at this prospect....

Any thoughts, experiences or advice would be really welcome

Thanks

macman

Depends on price and bandwidth (you don't say what they are offering per month), and the signal strength you will get at your property.
These systems are usually more expensive (both to run and to install) but good as a last resort if decent ADSL is not available.

1jim

Prices range from £ 20.50 for 2Mb access speed, £25.50 for 4Mb and £28.50 for 8Mb access speed

Costs an extra £5 a month for phone which is VoIP, Which includes free 01/02/03 calls day and night? If I took this I wouldnt need a landline so could save on that

Seems like an install cost of £70

Currently paying talktalk £6.50 for Internet at Around 512kbs and line rental of £14.50

The signal strength is an unknown as the mast doesn't go live until middle of may but have been told I can cancel with no charges if I'm not happy, will check if that includes install fee etc

It looks like fibre is someway off as no plans to upgrade local exchange at this time, Internet needs are really browsing etc but woul like to be able to watch catch up tv without the constant buffering, also would like to use sky's anytime plus.

Any more thoughts?
Has anyone used wireless Internet providers or this company in particular?

prowla

I've used O2 mobile internet (or whatever it's called at the moment) and I have to say that it is just plain no good.

It works at one end of my living room but not at the other, and when I tried to use it on a train I spent more time trying to reconnect than actually doing anything.

I got it free, and basically that was too much.

1jim

prowla wrote: »

I've used O2 mobile internet (or whatever it's called at the moment) and I have to say that it is just plain no good.

It works at one end of my living room but not at the other, and when I tried to use it on a train I spent more time trying to reconnect than actually doing anything.

I got it free, and basically that was too much.

We don't get a very good phone signal so suspect would be same as trying mobile Internet, what we have been told is available is wireless Internet via a radio mast sited somewhere close by and we would connect in via an aerial attached to chimney.

It doesn't seem that a lot of people use this type of connection, they offer much faster connections speeds than we can get from our line so I am very tempted..... Just wish I could get feedback from someone with experience of this system before jumping in, on the other hand, I might see of I can be a "show home" and see if we can do a deal

prowla

Yup - I've used the mobile internet when we've had a broadband outage, but it is painful.

Also, you need to consider the amount of data that will be used for downloads, including OS updates. If that is metered then you could find that you are paying a lot on background tasks.

baby_frogmella

I presume you're referring to a wimax connection? In that case, providing your wimax antenna gets a clear line of sight to your mast then you'll have no problems. Back in 2006 at my old address in Kent, i was with a company called Telabria (now known as Vfast) who installed a wimax antenna on my roof. I used to get 3000/512kbps speeds (big deal 6 years ago!) and also they installed a voip box which gave me unlimited UK calls..in total i paid £35 a month which wasn't too bad considering Telabria were one of the first companies in the UK to use wimax. Vfast are now offering 100meg speeds in some areas using wimax so i definitely recommend going for it if you're too far from the exchange and FTTC/P is not an option. The wimax antenna (fairly small) is fixed to your roof (usually discreet) and from there an ethernet and power supply cable runs to the room of your choice where it terminates at a router.

1jim

baby_frogmella wrote: »

I presume you're referring to a wimax connection? In that case, providing your wimax antenna gets a clear line of sight to your mast then you'll have no problems. Back in 2006 at my old address in Kent, i was with a company called Telabria (now known as Vfast) who installed a wimax antenna on my roof. I used to get 3000/512kbps speeds (big deal 6 years ago!) and also they installed a voip box which gave me unlimited UK calls..in total i paid £35 a month which wasn't too bad considering Telabria were one of the first companies in the UK to use wimax. Vfast are now offering 100meg speeds in some areas using wimax so i definitely recommend going for it if you're too far from the exchange and FTTC/P is not an option. The wimax antenna (fairly small) is fixed to your roof (usually discreet) and from there an ethernet and power supply cable runs to the room of your choice where it terminates at a router.

Not sure about term WiMAX but the mast, antenna etc sounds right to me, also offering VoIP so it sounds like similar company.
How did you find connection, any problems with weather etc? How did you find VoIP any issues with calls to be aware of?
Cheers

baby_frogmella

1jim wrote: »

Not sure about term WiMAX but the mast, antenna etc sounds right to me, also offering VoIP so it sounds like similar company.
How did you find connection, any problems with weather etc? How did you find VoIP any issues with calls to be aware of?
Cheers

I had absolutely no problems with Telabria, and my connection was fine in all weather conditions. The voip service was crystal clear and as good as a normal landline, i got rid of my BT landline once the whole system was up & running. Definitely go for it, you won't regret it

diamonds

I used a service in AU that was a long ranging wifi service. The modem did not use a sim card modem with chilli.net.au, 8MB service, was great but £65 a month in 2006/7 and much better quota than mobile broadband. Sounds like that here defo does not look like mobile "wireless" broadband on website.

1jim

Nope, you are right, it's not mobile wireless, just wireless Internet where signal comes from a mast to an antenna n my roof.

I have been told that the backhaul is wireless to fibre.
Am glad to find someone who has used this type of connection in the last, I desperately want to try it because speeds are promised to be great but am a little worried it won't be worth the extra expense