Installing Internet into village hall

Hello, This is my first post and please forgive my extreme lack of knowledge. Our village hall is looking into getting Internet. Can anyone advise about MIMO and MIFI systems please? Would this work with multiple users? Are download speeds of 300mb realistic. Which companies offer the best deals on a pay as you go ?
What are the advantages/disadvantages with this when compared to cable and fibre optic?
Any help greatly appreciated. The village hall committee are out of their depth and I'm worried we might not end up with the best choice for the village. Thank you

Hi Sue

Welcome along.

I think the fundamental thing to understand/for you to find out - is what broadband actually is available to order (or receive) at the village hall and what sorts of broadband download and upload speeds are desired/required.

As a start, knowing the address/postcode, you can very easily check what is available from Openreach (the "wires" part of BT these days).

Click on the address checker at the top of this link:
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

For example over the regular "BT" phone cabling you could receive either ADSL or FTTC based broadband. This may quite possibly the simplest/easiest option in the circumstances. Depending on the infrastructure connected to the premises or in the immediate vicinity - this could be a copper "line" that runs all the way back to the local BT exchange (called an EO - Exchange Only line) which will give the lowest performance or like the majority of connections these days it could run back to a local cabinet (this is FTTC - fibre to the cabinet) pretty reasonably decent performance, or indeed you may have FTTP (fibre to the premises) available, the highest level of performance.

Other options for cabled broadband may be Virgin Media using their own cable network (quite separate to Openreach/BT). But this option is completely dependent on them having network presence where the village hall is located. Again you can check their website with postcode / address details to confirm.

The other option I believe you may be alluding to when you say MIMO and MIFI is a mobile/cellular 4G or 5G based broadband. Much like a smartphone uses. This is of course an option also, but the performance is largely dependent on the sort of radio reception quality you could expect to receive from the local mobile operators mast(s) in the area. Which can vary quite a lot. Also the costs of mobile broadband in *general* are higher than fixed-line broadband, but this is to some extend driven by the volume of usage - although less of a concern these days than it once was.

There are finally other so called 'alt net' (alternate broadband network) providers. A couple of the larger more well known examples include CityFibre, Gigaclear and Hyperoptic which are laying their own dedicated complete fibre networks in many villages, towns and cities across the UK to compete with Openreach/BT and Virgin Media.

Finally I'm not sure if you've realised but you've posted into a topic area called "Other Broadband Technologies" which may limit the viewership of your post somewhat. Perhaps some kind soul might move your post somewhere a bit more visible/appropriate to your questions.

Others I'm sure will chip in with their own experiences and tips, advice...

Edited by Pheasant (Sat 27-Feb-21 09:35:08)