Slow broadband Vs satellite

Hi all,

We're moving to a new house soon and I will just checked out the broadband speeds available : 1mb to 3mb - eek!

We watch Netflix on the TV and I also play games on my Xbox

My question is:

Would it be better to go with standard broadband or satellite? I was looking at the bigblu connect silver - but their FAQs say first person shooters don't work well on satellite

What should I choose?!

xbox games on satellite - latency far too high

If the ADSL/ADSL2+ is stable it could provide a relatively low latency gaming connection and with the satellite used for those things that need the extra throughput.

Have you checked what fixed wireless or 4G options are at the location?

Had a look at 4g but can't find any provider with unlimited - worried about data usage (I'm not au fair with this stuff in general so no idea what a general household usage would be)

Fixed wireless - don't know what this is?

If it is a new house on a new estate check what the builder has provided the checkers may not show the correct situation on new builds. If it is a small development (under 30 houses) your fears may be correct.

A post code would help others check whether you are stuck with less than 3mb until the USO arrives.

In reply to a post by Hardius0:

Had a look at 4g but can't find any provider with unlimited - worried about data usage

3 have an unlimited sim only data plan if you can get signal.

It's a farmhouse - postcode sg5 3ru

What do you guys think to the three homefi solution? Best all rounder for me?

There is a whole thread about RobertoS's migration from landline to 3 unlimited data sim at https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/mobilebroadband/f/....

Perhaps if you persevere and plough through the whole of that topic it may answer a lot of your questions.

According to Threes coverage checker you'll have access to 4g.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Network/Coverage

Whether you'll get good speeds is another question. Three have great customer service, in my experience. So it's something you can certainly test out before committing to a 12/24 month contract. If you have a problem, they are a live chat/phone call away and always have a 14 day trial period with them.

Though, the coverage checker states that there are some problems in your area. You might not get a three signal at all going by what they said. Maybe best to get a sim from the shop to do a few speed tests on a phone.

"We're aware there's been a network problem in your area for some time. We're really sorry if your services are affected � we're doing all we can to fix it.

The site which normally covers your area is currently down and the only way to restore the service is to relocate and rebuild the site to restore the same level of coverage in your area. This is complex activity, although our engineers are working hard to get the coverage back up. We will keep you informed of any progress."

In reply to a post by Hardius0:

Had a look at 4g but can't find any provider with unlimited - worried about data usage (I'm not au fair with this stuff in general so no idea what a general household usage would be)

Fixed wireless - don't know what this is?

Three have two unlimited options.

SIM-only (inherently unlimited), see my sig. Currently at £24, 12-month minimum term, mine in December was £20.

I have it in my phone as a hotspot (which doesn't stop its normal usages at the same time) so of course no internet at home when I'm out, but during feasibility testing and speed testing with a £1 SIM from the paper shop and a 5GB topup I tethered an old phone via USB to my redundant DSL router. That worked fine except the phone performance wasn't as good as my present one.

Home MiFi router included SIM on 100GB + Unlimited add-on. £22pm on a 24-month minimum term.

Only problem for gaming would be the quite variable latency. That doesn't bother me as I don't game. Depending on your budget how about the landline DSL for gaming plus either of the Three options for all of the rest?

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 28-Mar-19 23:56:40)

I have recently gone for Three Homefi and it has been truly transformative. I already had a dongle so got a three pay as you go data sim to check signal and speeds etc. You can do the same with your phone as long as it is unlocked. Found I could get fairly consistent 40 mbs with the dongle. When checking if you can get a good signal you should try it all over the house, inside and out, you can install an antenna outside up high which can make a vast difference as it did in my case. I had a reasonably strong signal so went ahead with it. It was pretty good, getting 60mbs. I then installed an external antenna and purchased a top of the range 4G router to use instead of the supplied router. I now get 100 to 120 mbps down and 25 to 40 mbps up, with ping between 30 and 50ms. I am not a gamer so can�t comment that, but for us we have gone from despair (1.5mbps) to joy. We have ditched the landline altogether. We have incomparably better broadband with 4G and it is cheaper than our old rubbish landline broadband. Of course this is all highly location dependent, we are in a sparsely populated semi rural area with a cell tower within line of sight and our cell tower does not seem to get congested (yet).

In reply to a post by Hardius0:

Hi all,

We're moving to a new house soon and I will just checked out the broadband speeds available : 1mb to 3mb - eek!

We watch Netflix on the TV and I also play games on my Xbox

My question is:

Would it be better to go with standard broadband or satellite? I was looking at the bigblu connect silver - but their FAQs say first person shooters don't work well on satellite

What should I choose?!

Until we get the next gen of LEO sat the latency is rubbish for gaming and the data charges usually too steep.

I'd go with the others suggestion of 3 if you can get the signal (external aerial is better) The new USO may come to your rescue with something better in 12-18 months but until then unless ur prepared to wait thats ur best option.

Hardius

You are actually not far from places with a decent speed so if you have the money FTTPoD may be an option depending on where the aggregation node is. Especially if you can get all 6 Premises to order together.

The only speed test for the site is on Orange and that just tells you what not to pick!.

All the premises will have the same issue so an outside aerial will be essential but may still affect the bandwidth on the local mast.

The info on the thinkbrodband mapfor the postcode suggests that you may be able to claim £400 towards a greater than 2Mb service if it is below that, which looks likely.

"

�Details of the basic broadband subsidy scheme (2 Mbps USC) for your area are available on the Hertfordshire USC subsidy microsite.
The subsidy of up to £400 should cover the install and hardware for a basic broadband connection and in some cases can be aggregated.

Even with LEOs the latency will still be bad. There will be unknown factoirs such as which ground station tyhe traffic is routed through - which could change, will traffic be multihopped across satellites and more.