Broadband in rural areas...
 

We are looking at moving to a more rural area but one big thing for us is having broadband as both myself and my missus need a good connection speed for work, accessing VPN's and such.

I've done a broadband area check for speeds in the area we are looking and it's coming up with a general speed of 1mb:( Does anyone know if the broadband companies can speed this up or is it a case of that's what you get? I don't mind paying for them to instal hardware (within reason) if this means we will achieve faster speeds.

The line only serves about 10-15 houses at most in a barn conversion complex.

Any info apreciated:thumb:

no, the speed is the speed unless they upgrade the exchange and lines etc

You could look at wireless broadband if it's available or via a mobile phone network. My parents live in rural Kent, the BT guy couldn't stop laughing when he was asked to install ADSL. They are also a bit borderline for my Tesco Mobile SIM but when it works I get several meg down and 1 up. There is also a bunch that do a proper wireless Internet in Kent, forget their name, so these things exist to. But they won't be as cheap and latency over wireless probably means no good for gaming.

Yes, Orbital/VFast cover Kent. We've been using Orbital for many years at work as a backup line to our Fibre.

I lived in a Barn conversion with the same situation, 1Mbps (at best) and very flaky. Tried to get VFast but we weren't quite in sight of a transmitter since it was in a dip and surrounded by trees. Some more exchanges get fibre here soon, so see if one of yours is included.

Kedleston are you in the Derbyshire area? (Only guessing given the name) if you're coming towards Belper/ripley/Wirksworth area w3z offer a great service, which is a line of site radio service (which I'm using now) it's fast and cheap and more importantly reliable.

Jamo :)

I'm in a barn two miles from a village that happens to have a telephone exchange so get 6Mbps.

I've got 5mb on vodafone mobile internet out here in Croatia it's called Homebox and costs a bit less than £10 a month. my test for a good connection and speed is Skype video and Youtube if you can watch youtube un-interupted then your in business.:thumb:

Oh and it doesn't get anymore rural than where I am.:D

Yeah I'm currently centrally based but heading west slightly if the offer is excepted:wonder:

BT are currently trialling a fibre product to feed remote hamlets/villages. Probably going to be available later this year. Would be same as the FTTC products and available to different Service providers.
Wireless or mobile going to be your best option for the time being

You tease! Has it got a name? How's it going to work? Will it benefit people in town who also have long runs from their cabinets?

My 3G/H+ mobile data connection is better than my 5MB adsl home connection, especially when uploading, rural broadband is a joke/pathetic in the UK.

BT have told me that I can expect more than my current 1.5MB in a few years. Oh yippie.... That's the price you pay though to have no fcuking neighbours and nice scenery. I'd say it's a good compromise. :)

My H+ is better than my 13mb adsl connection. For downloads they are roughly the same but uploads my adsl does .5mb where as the H+ is around 3mb.

My exchange is FTTC enabled however I live in a road with overhead telephone lines so i'm assuming I won't ever get FTTC here.

I wish I hadn't bothered with the ADSL contract now and gone with mobile broadband and H+ connectivity. My previous house on FTTC I had 76mb down and 20mb up and do miss it.

You not got 4G round your neck of the woods?

Virgin are plumbing in a 150+ Megabit cable in for us next week at our new place, had been on 5MB at our last pad, it sucked balls.

Does that matter? Most properties are served by overhead lines. They must terminate in a cabinet reasonably nearby? Only on very small villages would I expect them to go straight to the exchange.

I thought it was a reason my road didn't have FTTC where as much of the village does. I didn't know they still did FTTC if there was overhead cables, i've only lived in areas before where it was all in the ground.

The exchange has been enabled for ages so perhaps they are just very slow at doing every road. I'll have to go and have a look now as to where they actually enter a cabinet.

The smaller overhead cables should go into a big cable, then either underground to a Fibre cabinet or to smaller one which then links to the big cab.

I moved a little while ago and my village is due to get FTTC at the end of June. The big cab is in place, but it's quite a way from my house. I've not spotted any others nearer yet.

I sync at 1019/8406 kbps now so I'm hoping that when fibre gets to the cab I'll get much better speeds.

FTTP (premises) takes fibre straight to the building, but FTTC still generally uses copper for the final runs.

FTTC (fibre to the cab) terminates in a fibre cab near the old copper/ali cab and then uses the old copper/ali (underground or overhead doesn't matter) to get to the house.
Only FTTP has a fibre direct to the house.
And BT's current trial of fibre to reach remote locations is being banded as FTTRN or FTTDP (remote node or distribution point, usually a pole)

Nope, not available in the nearest towns either... yet.

Yep good point, i did consider that to and closing my adsl/ISP account down and just tether my phone to my PC instead as i have unlimited data on my phone. However thats no good for anyone using their pc/lappies/etc from home when i'm not there i.e the mrs :D