Rural broadband

garroff

Read an interview in yesterdays paper by a Vodafone executive. She said that 4G will bring increased broadband speed to rural parts.
I have a few questions that someone might be able to answer.
I live 2 miles outside a town. From my house I can see 2 telecom towers.
At present I have internet at 3MB (on a good day) from an Eircom land line.
When 4G is activated will I be able to get internet via 4G?
Will I need an external aerial?
Will I need to change my existing router?
Any idea of timescale.
Many thanks.

long_b

garroff wrote: »

Read an interview in yesterdays paper by a Vodafone executive. She said that 4G will bring increased broadband speed to rural parts.
I have a few questions that someone might be able to answer.
I live 2 miles outside a town. From my house I can see 2 telecom towers.
At present I have internet at 3MB (on a good day) from an Eircom land line.
When 4G is activated will I be able to get internet via 4G?
Will I need an external aerial?
Will I need to change my existing router?
Any idea of timescale.
Many thanks.

When 4G is activated will I be able to get internet via 4G?
Only if the towers are upgraded
Will I need an external aerial?
No
Will I need to change my existing router?
Yes - 4G is wireless, you're currently on a landline which is DSL.
Totally different technologies.
Any idea of timescale.
At a guess H2 2014 - depends on where you are.

garroff

I am in the SE.
If 4G is wireless how do I get the signal without an aerial?. Any idea of speed that might be available?.
Thank you for your reply

gctest50

Only about 150meg

http://www.speedtest.net/wave/76af0b8b0274b40f

garroff

gctest50....thank you...I think you mean 15meg not 150?

knotknowbody

garroff wrote: »

I am in the SE.
If 4G is wireless how do I get the signal without an aerial?. Any idea of speed that might be available?.
Thank you for your reply

I don't know much about 4G but I assume a device similar to a 3G dongle or hotshot modem will be used.

bealtine

garroff wrote: »

I am in the SE.
If 4G is wireless how do I get the signal without an aerial?. Any idea of speed that might be available?.
Thank you for your reply

That will depend on a number of factors but the biggest one will be the number of users sharing the sector, more users less speed for you.

Simi

garroff wrote: »

gctest50....thank you...I think you mean 15meg not 150?

It can be both. How fast it is will depend on the signal strength and how many people are using it at that moment in time. If you live in an isolated area with only a few people to share the signal with you might get lucky and have 50+mbps to yourself most of the day. In cities and towns it will most likely only be a little bit faster than 3G.

It will also depend on the provider. For example, in Sligo Meteor and Vodafone tend to have better 3G speeds than O2 and Three (in the areas I tested anyway), not because they offer faster speeds or have better coverage, but because Three and O2 are oversubscribed.

The last and arguably most important thing is how generous a download allowance providers are willing to give.

padraig.od

garroff wrote: »

I am in the SE.
If 4G is wireless how do I get the signal without an aerial?. Any idea of speed that might be available?.
Thank you for your reply

KK will be the first town to get 4G from Vodafone, and they will be rolling it out over the rest of the SE 2nd half of 2013. Hopefully my little parish will be included.

The 4G rollout is the bright shining light in the otherwise grim BB situation where I live.

Fingers crossed

bealtine

padraig.od wrote: »

KK will be the first town to get 4G from Vodafone, and they will be rolling it out over the rest of the SE 2nd half of 2013. Hopefully my little parish will be included.

The 4G rollout is the bright shining light in the otherwise grim BB situation where I live.

Only in your dreams and in the marketing departments of mobile telcos, as long as there are only a few subscribers on your cell site you'll be fine. We'll see what the reality brings

padraig.od

bealtine wrote: »

Only in your dreams and in the marketing departments of mobile telcos, as long as there are only a few subscribers on your cell site you'll be fine. We'll see what the reality brings

I live in hope, it's all I have left!

The local exchange is due to be upgraded by eircom fibre rollout Phase 459:pac: Currently getting about 1MB dl from eircom:mad:

Do eircom have any plans to move the NGB equipment from the upgraded fibre exchanges to some of the more rural ones?

When Rabbitte says I'll have minimum 30MB DL by 2015 I WANT TO BELIEVE

bealtine

padraig.od wrote: »

I live in hope, it's all I have left!

The local exchange is due to be upgraded by eircom fibre rollout Phase 459:pac: Currently getting about 1MB dl from eircom:mad:

Do eircom have any plans to move the NGB equipment from the upgraded fibre exchanges to some of the more rural ones?

When Rabbitte says I'll have minimum 30MB DL by 2015 I WANT TO BELIEVE

Yes that's a fair point...rural broadband sucks, I know that from bitter experience but I cannot see LTE delivering on the promises.

Most of the nonsense coming from the mobile telcos (imho) is a play to sell LTE/4G as broadband and convince the DECNR to go with mobile to the exclusion of real broadband.
Mobile is fine when used in the way it was designed and if you want to twitter or update your facebook status, because 20ms or 1 minute doesn't make much difference to that kind of traffic but to use it as a replacement for real broadband I'm not so sure.

garroff

I have a funny feeling in my water that Bealtine may be correct.