Community Broadband By Wireless

[Lazarus]

Having mentioned in passing on a few related Topics of late my intention to bin my rural copper landline with 1Mbps ADSL (On a good day) in favour of a 20Mbps Community Broadband scheme part funded by North Yorkshire County Council, I have an installation appointment for this coming Monday.

Up front cost of £150 for the Installation and the Kit (A Duplex Antenna aligned to a local relay point - which happens to be about 60 metres away, so not anticipating any signal issues - plus cable run to a network socket and initial configuration and demonstration).

Getting a new Wireless n Cable Router and also a VOIP Adapter.

Much to play with.

Can't wait!

 

[Captain Jack]

Excellent stuff, G. It's a shame that more councils aren't doing the same in rural areas...

 

[timo_w2s]

Looking forward to hearing more about this.

Still waiting for FTTC to be enabled at my cabinet in Bucks, it's been put back another year (!) to Dec 2015...

 

[sonnetpete]

I'm assuming this is similar to WiMax which here is usually an alternate offered to residents who are too far from the exchange to get any broadband speed. Recently in the village, a concrete pole has been installed which my expat friend and I have debated on being either a new electricity pole, a mobile phone mast or a WiMax relay. Time will tell I guess...(it's situated next to the cemetery so I'll refrain from saying it's in a dead spot.....oh damn, I've gone and said it now)....

 

[Channel Hopper]

Having mentioned in passing on a few related Topics of late my intention to bin my rural copper landline with 1Mbps ADSL (On a good day) in favour of a 20Mbps Community Broadband scheme part funded by North Yorkshire County Council, I have an installation appointment for this coming Monday.

Up front cost of £150 for the Installation and the Kit (A Duplex Antenna aligned to a local relay point - which happens to be about 60 metres away, so not anticipating any signal issues - plus cable run to a network socket and initial configuration and demonstration).

Getting a new Wireless n Cable Router and also a VOIP Adapter....

A 100m drum of CT125 and a couple of connectors would be cheaper and in the long run, more reliable.

 

[Lazarus]

Lol!

 

[Captain Jack]

Looks like India... or Nepal! I could actually touch the - thankfully, insulated - wire with my hand as it was about 2m above the ground...

 

[Lazarus]

My own Insulated Live and Bare Neutral (No Earth Wire) feed is only about 8ft off the ground.

 

[battenfan]

A 100m drum of CT125 and a couple of connectors would be cheaper and in the long run, more reliable.

http://historicaltimes.tumblr.com/post/89647269567/the-telephone-tower-in-stockholm-ca-1890s

 

[sonnetpete]

Is there a useage cap on the community broadband, G?

 

[Lazarus]

Is there a useage cap on the community broadband, G?

There's a small range of Packages:

Light is 5GB and 5Mbps @£15/mth
Medium is 20GB and 10Mbps @£20/mth
Heavy is Unlimited and 20Mbps Symmetrical @£25/mth
Business is as per Heavy plus a Static IP and daytime Priority @£35/mth

I'm starting on Medium and think that will more than suffice for my use.

 

[timo_w2s]

Heavy also sounds like a good deal to me, I think that's what I would go for if it was available in Bucks. 20Mb up would be very nice and no phone line rental either.

 

[Lazarus]

That's the thing: Currently my Line Rental Saver renewal comes in at £14/mth, with a discounted rate of £5.99 for ADSL, then there are Phone Call costs. The latest Broadband and Phone packages from PlusNet are far more expensive.

With the new system, I pay £20/mth for Broadband plus £2.40 to host my Ported Phone Number on Voipfone. Call costs are minimal @ 1.5p/min including most International and without the iniquitous "setup fee" <<<< How do BT etc. get away with that anyway?

And the clincher is never having to deal with a call centre.

@timo_w2s: Whilst researching how all this works, I discovered there is a surprisingly large number of Wireless delivered Broadband schemes around the UK, so maybe it's worth you doing a bit of Binging (Other Search Engines are available).

 

[timo_w2s]

One of the nearby villages had their own wireless system up about 10 years ago when they got fed up waiting for their exchange to be ADSL enabled but that has now closed down as ADSL and now FTTC is available with good speeds. As far as I know there are no other schemes around here as generally there is no demand as most exchanges now have ADSL, FTTC and even Virgin Media. My problem is just my cabinet is taking a long time, everyone else has had fibre available for over a year. I only want fibre for the increased upload really.

 

[Lazarus]

I remember giving you my Plusnet Username so I could get a discount when you signed up. Fat chance of that now!

 

[timo_w2s]

Yes, so I guess when I get fibre in 2021 there won't be much point in giving them your username anymore...

 

[Lazarus]

Well, we might have moved by then and gone back to a conventional system!

 

[Channel Hopper]

Well, we might have moved by then and gone back to a conventional system!

Our local charity shop has two ISDN terminal adapters (US Robotics) in the window, I could secure one for a fiver.

 

[2cvbloke]

I was wondering the other night if ISDN is even still going, been a long time since I heard about anything ISDN related...

 

[PaulR]

I think ISDN30 is still around giving multiple phone numbers for largish organisations.