30 Mbps today, you're seconds away*

Got this Avanti flyer through the post. Look at it, what a load of bull!
http://postimg.org/image/9htpv7cr9/

The wording is clearly designed to scare less tech savvy users into taking advantage of this "one time offer".
Not one mention of latency.
Since when was a 76cm dish small, its not exactly discreet is it.
If anybody actually needs a >24Mbps connection then I'm struggling to see how a 30GB data allowance can be considered adequate and there is not one mention of what charges you face if going over your measly data allowance.

No thanks Avanti, I wont be recommending this to any friends or neighbours
It is so disappointing that Aberdeenshire Council are supporting wide spread promotion of this sub standard solution.

Leicestershire county council is promoting it too : ( Mean while in the middle of north wales i have seen fibre to the distribution point being installed! Miles from any significant population!

Better to get 50gb of data from EE for £50 a month! 60 down, 30 up from my location!

Agreed ... and no "small" dish required

In the past I've favoured a 3Mb ADSL line over a satellite connection and faced with the same options again, I'd still prefer a slow ADSL line to satellite. Its a MASSIVE cop out to use this to meet BDUK targets.

To date the satellite service is meeting the 2 Mbps USC target generally, though there is a limited amount of trial work on the superfast versions.

USC I am just about OK with, but not happy with pushing it as a superfast option

Which part of Aberdeenshire?

Just wait until the new Viasat satellites are up - they have a potential total throughput of 1Tbps ... unfortunately not for a while yet.

My area is in the "Exploring Solutions" category and we have D-side cables which are about ~5km long and I'm told by local OR engineers, no space in ducts to run any more so I'm assuming that they are targeting properties at a postcode level for postcodes which have so far not received any benefit from BDUK and are causing them a problem to meet their BDUK targets within budget.

For me, it wouldnt matter how much throughput the satellites had, I'd still be against using geostationary satellites for broadband based on the latency issue alone. If the sat operators ever manage to get a constellation of Low-Earth-Orbit sats serving broadband, that might just be enough to get an acceptable latency.

ViaSat-2 - 2017
ViaSat-3 - 2019

In reply to a post by craski:

Since when was a 76cm dish small, its not exactly discreet is it.

You can get clear dishes, however you can still see the mounting kit and LNB and its arm.

Paul

I've been using Geo's for over 20 years. With a good connection latency is not really an issue except for time sensitive applications. I even use voice over them and once the delay is understood, conversation is not a problem either. With a Geo, the latency is consistent.

With Leo networks the delay can be extremely variable, switch through satellites and ground stations introduces other issues and what if you are connected to one satellite, that then passes the connection to a second then to a third before it is relayed back to the ground, potentially in a remote ground station.

In reply to a post by MHC:

I even use voice over them and once the delay is understood, conversation is not a problem either.

Yeah, I've spent months on boats working in North Sea using Geo sats for voice and data comms and you do get used to the voice delay but it needs both side of the conversation to understand the delay. Nowadays, people using VOIP dont normally expect a delay when calling their friend/family a few miles away on land so usually end up talking over each other on a high latency connection.

In reply to a post by 8skellerns:

Leicestershire county council is promoting it too : ( Mean while in the middle of north wales i have seen fibre to the distribution point being installed! Miles from any significant population!

Here in Cornwall, about 5 minutes from my house, FTTP is available for people whose houses are on tens of acres and who have to drive to their nearest neighbour!

BT's/BDUK's "FTTC at any cost, then maybe FTTP if it can't work, but probably satellite for the unlucky few" policy working well...

Satellite to me seems like a huge cop-out. Even a purpose built LTE network would be superior in many ways (and something BT could have done even before they bought EE, since they independently obtained 4G spectrum in the auction)

Edited by deleted (Mon 29-Feb-16 09:18:12)

I assume that "seconds away" is a reference to the inherent latency in geostationary satellite communications...

In reply to a post by TheEulerID:

I assume that "seconds away" is a reference to the inherent latency in geostationary satellite communications...

Brilliant

Would you be using VOIP in this situation? Don't think so.

is that same company who had a rep tell the committee that latency isnt a performance metric?
notice also the low usage limits.

Pretty sure that guy was Avanti and this leaflet is also "Powered by Avanti"

Not sure which situation you refer to ...?
Calling home when working offshore or calling friends/family when at home?
Pretty sure both of these happen all the time.