Faster Internet in Rural Areas - Will it happen?

rzlosty

Hello,

I live in a rural area with a population of 50 houses. The nearest town is 5 miles away with a population of 4500.

I currently enjoy blistering fast (!) speeds of a whopping 1Mb download and 0.2 Mb upload.

The city folk are getting their slow 10Mb broadband upgraded to 80Mb+ with the help of Fiber Optic technology. While im still stuck with internet that makes it quicker to go to London on the train and get a CD from your friend with that important 1GB file than to transfer it via the superhighway!

"Ah well with prices as they are you cant complain" - Well actually i can.
Most companies are now advertising their plans by prices that only apply if you live in "Our Network" which (surprise surprise) i don't live in (because they wont pay to put there own equipment in the telephone exchange so have to pay BT to use theirs)

So that means, im paying more than inner city folk for 10% or less of the speed they get.

Anyway..
Do you ever think that ill be able to get internet that enables me to watch a YouTube video without buffering at least 4 or 5 times in 30 seconds?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Will

penrhyn

I take it you are on a Market 1 exchange i.e. BT only.
Check it by putting your number into samknows exchange search and report back.
You will never get cable broadband as it would not be financially viable for Virgin. Its possible you may get FTTC but only if all the residents club together and petition BT.

nilrem_2

Similar situation to you, 3Km from exchange with no LLU in exchange.

My router syncs with the exchange at 4160kbps giving a download speed of about 2.90Mb/s. I don't see much hope of much faster speeds in the near future either with BT concentrating on increasing the speeds of those already on high speed (as you comment).

OTOH it's not too long ago when I asked a BT man about the possibility of us getting Broadband in the village and he said very unlikely.

The government did announce that they were as a priority going to bring high speed BB to rural areas but from what I have seen it was just spin.

Also when they talk of rural areas they probably mean not cities rather than small villages and hamlets.

rzlosty

penrhyn wrote: »

I take it you are on a Market 1 exchange i.e. BT only.
Check it by putting your number into samknows exchange search and report back.
You will never get cable broadband as it would not be financially viable for Virgin. Its possible you may get FTTC but only if all the residents club together and petition BT.

Surprisingly "SamKnows" tells me that my exchange is a Market 2 exchange (having 3 - Sky, TalkTalk and BT in it).

Similar situation to you, 3Km from exchange with no LLU in exchange.

My router syncs with the exchange at 4160kbps giving a download speed of about 2.90Mb/s. I don't see much hope of much faster speeds in the near future either with BT concentrating on increasing the speeds of those already on high speed (as you comment).

OTOH it's not too long ago when I asked a BT man about the possibility of us getting Broadband in the village and he said very unlikely.

The government did announce that they were as a priority going to bring high speed BB to rural areas but from what I have seen it was just spin.

Also when they talk of rural areas they probably mean not cities rather than small villages and hamlets.

I totally agree about your comment re; rural area upgrades. North Yorkshrie is currently advertising some sort of questionnaire on their website about how good/bad your broadband is. They are saying "Look at us we installed a superfast wireless network in *Insert tiny village here* and now they are getting 10mb Broadband!" Thats cool and everything but unless they are prepared to do that to all the small towns/villages (which is seems their not)... when are we ever going to get any upgrades?

I find the whole thing of Internet quite strange really. You could argue that the internet is an integral part of a lot of peoples lives similar to electricity or water... yet people who live in rural areas are supposed to use candles while the cities get their oil lamps made into chandeliers...

penrhyn

Interesting so what is the downsteam attenuation of your line?

Find out how to obtain your routerstatistics and post teh results. Who is your ISP BTW?

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

hareng

rzlosty wrote: »

I live in a rural area with a population of 50 houses. The nearest town is 5 miles away with a population of 4500.

I currently enjoy blistering fast (!) speeds of a whopping 1Mb download and 0.2 Mb upload.Will

The exchange has to be closer than 5 mile to you if getting 1meg down. I was 6km the way the aluminium cables were laid and couldnt get 1meg often 0.3meg with 63.9db attn. ADSL2+ (LLU) thats 75db attn maxing out at 1.6meg with dropouts by the hundred a day.

For 50 houses and assume 15 take up i very much doubt if things will improve, sorry. Looking at 100's

As above provide your stats, it could well be your ISP, but LLU is available.

Itismehonest

8km from an exchange here & 1Mb would actually seem like megafast broadband to me ...... if we could ever get it

Timalay

I think the government are trying to focus on 4G for the slow internet fix in rural areas. Only problem with it is, it may rubbish caps on it.

hareng

Itismehonest wrote: »

8km from an exchange here & 1Mb would actually seem like megafast broadband to me ...... if we could ever get it

I spent many years at sub 1meg mostly 0.3meg to 0.5meg download. 63.9db attenuation i had to push the right buttons just to get an install 7 years ago Fixed 0.5meg.
A lot of the slowness is due to the ISP.


To the OP you can have superfast:beer:


Just choose an abode next door to a cab running FTTC, luckily mines about 400 yards away.

GlynD

I'm rural. 3 miles from the nearest town. I get 32mb fibre optic in a village of 3,500 - so it is happening.

danielanthony

By 2015 the government want to have the fastest broadband in Europe:

http://www.ashurst.com/publication-item.aspx?id_Content=6513

I think remote area's will be covered by LTE as it isn't economically viable to roll fibre out 100%, that's privatisation for you. Some small villages have been put on the list to get fibre but BT ran a competition to see which villages could generate enough interest but that's finished now.