Considering 4G for a fixed install

The rural broadband thread in AH prompted me to post here.

I'm regularly told by my mam that their internet speed is terrible. In fairness it is, they're only on a 2Mb fixed wireless connection, but I'm trying to work out what to do about it. They live in rural Kerry, about 8km from the nearest town. Permanet have offered to increase their speed from 2Mb to 4Mb but this would cost them €10 more per month so I'd really like to see if there's anything better I can do.

While down there a few weeks back, I discovered that I could get a -90dBm LTE signal from Vodafone outdoors. I'm not sure where it's coming from, possibly Knockanore (KYKRE) or Listowel (KYLTL). Indoors it's pretty bad though, so I might need to mount an aerial outside.

Any recommendations on how I could pull this off? I assume I'd need an external aerial and a router which could accommodate one. I'm also a bit wary of performance, how good or bad would the latency be? - I'm aware that might be a "how long is a piece of string" type question.

As a bit of background, we always had problems at this location, even in dialup days. The local exchange was always a shambles; it wasn't upgraded to support DTMF until 1997 and even then, it was fed into the core network via an analogue microwave link, making V.90 connections impossible. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't enabled for ADSL either. Even the proposed FTTH scheme from Open Eir ends about 800m from their house.

mayo.mick

This thread might be of help http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057275471

RE*AC*TOR

Vodafone don't do a package with sufficient allowance to make it viable even for light users.
Meteor and Three, however, do.

With a decent signal even on 3G you could have a pretty decent service. I would go down the B593s-22 + external antenna route, grab a couple of sims to check the signal quality, pick one, or if no luck, just flog the stuff and back to square one.

Meteor have nothing except EDGE in the area. Three I don't know, but I don't rate them highly as a company so I'd be reluctant to try.

Regarding Vodafone's packages, I don't think my folks would use 30GB in a month. I'm still unsure about the latency though, my own 4G ping tests in Dublin have been quite variable.

ED E

This is what you want. Put an LTE modem in the attic, buy it SIM free for flexibility IMO, run a small antenna pole up on the gable and get as high as you can without anybody objecting.

Three AYCE if you can get a link, if not then Vodafone but just make sure you enable a limiter to prevent bill shock. B315 or B953 are the normal players, new revision supports CAT6 but that likely won't be of any benefit to you in that location.

RE*AC*TOR

Karsini wrote: »

Regarding Vodafone's packages, I don't think my folks would use 30GB in a month. I'm still unsure about the latency though, my own 4G ping tests in Dublin have been quite variable.

Sorry, I actually hadn't seen those Vodafone packages before (Red Ultra/Super/Plus). That would make them viable.

MichaelR

You might need to find some way to limit the consumption of data by streaming videos (Youtube/BBC/etc). With a fast connection they up the quality automatically and can eat through 30/50 gigs pretty fast.

MichaelR

MichaelR wrote: »

You might need to find some way to limit the consumption of data by streaming videos (Youtube/BBC/etc). With a fast connection they up the quality automatically and can eat through 30/50 gigs pretty fast.

That wouldn't be an issue, I have a router in place that supports data caps.

I'm not so sure I'll go ahead with it now though. Very little point in me going for a 3G solution, the pings on their FWA service are not bad at all, so it might actually feel slower. My own tests on 4G haven't been great but then again, I haven't tried it in their area yet; will be another few months before I'm there again. Imagine LTE is available in the area so I might push them towards that.

MichaelR

Imagine LTE is most definitely better than mobile 4G for the purpose. However, they have limited capacity. To avoid contention they allow 400 users per tower and not more. You might want to act fast...

smuggler.ie

Obviously you know this web site http://www.askcomreg.ie/mobile/siteviewer.273.LE.asp
If you go for external antenna gives you clue for pointing.

I went back to this again over Christmas. They didn't go with Imagine and my mother's new phone was taking an age to update on that 2Mb connection. I ended up tethering it to my phone outdoors as I was getting 31 Mb down and 30 Mb up on 4G!

Decided to order the Huawei E5186 and an external aerial for it. The 5186 is overkill for now but it will at least be future-proof. They'll experiment with a Three prepay SIM first.

I was down over the weekend and got it all set up. Long story short, it works really well!

Long story below for those interested...

I connected up the E5186 and it was only getting 2G indoors, as expected. So I connected up the external aerial and brought it outside. I ran my first test with my arm raised and pointing it towards Knockanore. Got a 4G signal and speed of 24.96 down and 7.24 up. So it looked promising. I carried out further tests on both sides of the house (by attaching the aerial to a telescopic handle used for painting) to ensure that I was pointing the aerial correctly - turns out I was. The upload improved significantly at this point - 27.64 down and 38.82 up!

So we installed the aerial on the roof and mounted everything permanently. A final test gave us 30.12 down and 36.51 up. And that's with the Three phone SIM. Very happy with the results.

givecredit

Karsini wrote: »

. They'll experiment with a Three prepay SIM first.

How far away is the Three 4g mast from your location?

I currently have Meteor 4g broadband. There is a Three 4g mast about 8-10 miles away. Three coverage map give 3g for my location, no 4g.

Would your setup be a runner in my case?

ED E

givecredit wrote: »

Would your setup be a runner in my case?

Three are changing everything up so its likely the AYCE data is going away.

givecredit

givecredit wrote: »

How far away is the Three 4g mast from your location?

I currently have Meteor 4g broadband. There is a Three 4g mast about 8-10 miles away. Three coverage map give 3g for my location, no 4g.

Would your setup be a runner in my case?

9.8 kilometres as the crow flies.

I don't expect it to keep working forever, will just have to get them a data SIM when it stops. It was always my intention to go with Vodafone anyway.