satellite broadband nbs

mshaw43488

hi guys just to let you know got my satellite broadband fitted today on the nbs. so far all seems great nice tidy install dish not as big as i 1st thought. downloads speeds seem good was jst short of 5mb early eve. upload speed around 200kps. like everyone said ping is a problem skype is usable doesnt break up like it did with dongle but there is a delay. engineers were great and extremely professional fitted by satellite broadband ireland. if you want to know anything else give me a shout

ttm

Useful post, glad to hear some people are actually getting the nbs satellite option.

But the really really useful info was how you managed to get it in the first place. Was it easy hard take ages and loads of calls or just automatic once there was no was a dongle was going to work for you?

ruffmut

I am wondering how do you get the satellite option. I got the dongle last week and the repeater from 3 yesterday. The repeater has one bar signal on the input side and a full 3 bars on the output side but the dongle is not picking up any reception at all.

Our man in Havana

Keep complaining that it doesn't work.

mshaw43488

basically i had every other option starting with the indoor repeater then an externall antenna but it made no differance. mine was a speed problem not a signal problem. i was receiving a full signal all the time . i think there was just to many subscribers in my area. it was fine during the day but as more people come on in the eve it got worse and worse untill it was unusable. you 1st have visit from a three engineer think he was from cork and its up to him if he approves it or not. he was with me for about 2 hrs doing various tests etc then my satellite was installed within 10 days

ttm

ruffmut wrote: »

I am wondering how do you get the satellite option. I got the dongle last week and the repeater from 3 yesterday. The repeater has one bar signal on the input side and a full 3 bars on the output side but the dongle is not picking up any reception at all.

Hadockman has it right keep phoning keep complaing. I know a 3 rep and he reckons that it takes about 4 weeks from your first complaint untill you get satellite installed but thats only if you are very very very very very persistant and keep at them.

watty

Write letters, keep copies and send registered mail.

watty

ttm wrote: »

Hadockman has it right keep phoning keep complaing. I know a 3 rep and he reckons that it takes about 4 weeks from your first complaint untill you get satellite installed but thats only if you are very very very very very persistant and keep at them.

They prefer to lose the customers or con them into accepting sub NBS quality Mobile because the lose nearly €80 a month on Satellite. Unlike normal Mobile, the NBS contract has minimum speeds. Mobile can't ensure these of course.

ruffmut

I am on my 14 day trial still which is up next Tuesday. I am waiting still on when a engineer is going to call out.

What is the story if I don't get an engineer out by next Tuesday. I will be locked into a contract for 12 months and no signal or is the 14 day trial from when you have service and can use the internet?

If I cancel next Tuesday I presume I cannot get the satellite link then?

watty

They (3) are legally obliged to provide the Satellite service to those in NBS area with less than 1.2Mbps 3G signal...

Signal level is not relevant. Only speeds and Latency. It also must be "Always on", always connect. Inherently 3G is a mobile service thus can't provide this! Nor can 3's mobile service provide the 36:1 contention (sales per area, not users connected!)

Minimum for 3G "Dongle", MiFi, or Repeater users in NBS area

Minimum Service provided by a Device
1 Minimum download speed – minimum speed in Mbps that files are 
downloaded by a Customer from the Internet at 3’s ISP.  
[I]1.2 Mbps[/I]
2 Maximum contention ratio – maximum number of Customers that may be 
sharing the Service at any one time. 
[I]36:1[/I]
3 Minimum upload speed – minimum speed in which files are uploaded by 
a Customer to the Internet at 3’s ISP.
[I]200Kbps[/I]
4 Always On [Yes / No] [I]Yes[/I]
5 Minimum Data Cap (Uncharged) [I]15GB – Data Cap (Uncharged) 
12GB download, 3GB upload[/I]
6 Latency – The maximum round trip delay of a packet (ms) from the 
Customer to the Internet and back.
[I]~120ms[/I]

3 is Legally Obliged to negotiate a special NBS compliant package from the actual satellite Provider (Tooway in this case) if the 3G signal doesn't meet spec.

Feed back from other users suggests that when 3's previous arrangment with a different supplier fell through (capacity exhusted probabily) that 3 are just suppling the closest package off the shelf.

People with 3's NBS Satellite provision need to check that their cap is a 30day/monthly 10Gbyte with no lesser limit or hourly/weekly /daily limit.

Minimum Service provided by Equipment (Satellite) Service Standards
1 Minimum download speed – minimum speed in Mbps that files are 
downloaded by a Customer from the Internet at the 3’s ISP. 
[I]1 Mbps [/I]
2 Maximum contention ratio – maximum number of Customers that may be 
sharing the Service at any one time. 
[I]48:1[/I]
3 Minimum upload speed – minimum speed in which files are uploaded by 
a Customer to the Internet at ISP.
[I]128Kbps[/I]
4 Always On [Yes / No] [I]Yes[/I]
5 Minimum Data Cap (Uncharged) 11GB – Data Cap (Uncharged) 
10GB download, 1GB upload
6 Latency – The maximum round trip delay of a packet (ms) from the 
Customer to the Internet and back.
< 800ms
Table 2

from http://www.three.ie/pdf/NBS_smallprint.pdf Both page 11


I'd check too that these agree with the NBS contract from Government.

If someone had enough money they could take Government and 3 to court and win as 3 only have a Mobile Phone service with iHSPA running on it and inherently it's impossible for it to meet the NBS spec.

Only the satellite part of 3's service has any chance of meeting NBS spec, and they have messed up on that too.

Sponge Bob

ruffmut wrote: »

I am on my 14 day trial still which is up next Tuesday. I am waiting still on when a engineer is going to call out.

If you are sure you are in an NBS area then wait for the engineer, if you are not sure you are in an NBS area then check and if not get rid of it. They are under no obligation to improve matters save in NBS areas.

mshaw43488

hi if you are in the nbs area iwould hang on , it only took a few days for the enginneer to come out. he foned one day and was here the next .

Sponge Bob

The Department have a help desk email if 3 are being shifty you know. Complaint Escalation procedures here.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055899295&highlight=dcenr

If you have a problem read it, if you find out anything interesting add to THAT thread please.

ruffmut

mshaw43488 wrote: »

hi if you are in the nbs area iwould hang on , it only took a few days for the enginneer to come out. he foned one day and was here the next .

Just an update. A couple of engineers came up to me today and they could not get a signal so it looks like I am going to be getting the satellite braodband.

mshaw43488 how are you getting on with the satellite broadband. What are your speeds like and have you tried voip with it?

jay93

voip on sattelite is not great at all pings in excess of 700ms+ which means it can be very unstable and you can even get a 3second or more delay in audio it will work tough just not all that great

mshaw43488

hi ruffmut everything is great now. there was a few teething problems at the start with the upload speed was very poor, worse than dial up was only getting around. 0.01mbs , after 1 call to satellite broadband it was sorted within an hour they are extremely helpfull. download speed is excellent never falls below 3mbs andhave seen it as much as 8mbs( i download a 1.4gb film in 45mins the other night) . it my cap on the 1st few days because i forgot to turn my updates off. i have now scheduled those to run during the night, since then no problems hitting my limit which iam actually quite surprised about. i do do all my downloading between 11pm and 7am as this doesnt count towards your limit. so now i can download dvds etc i wouldnt have been able to do this on the dongle as you dont have anough monthly allowance.
VOIP, works better than on the dongle no distorted voice or break ups its very clear. the only problem is they delay. it can take 2 secs to reach the receiver but you get used to it its no where near as bad as what i thoughtit was goingto be . i would rather have a clear conversation than one that breaks up all the time and have to repeat myself over and over again.
the modem is a modem only and not a router. so you need to purchase a wirless cable modem seperatly. there is one on littlewoods.ie at 37euro which is compatible. i have jst ordered this expecting it this week. seems to have quite good reviews on it.
if you need to know anything else feel free to ask
cheers martin

ttm

How long did it take to get it set up?

mshaw43488

10 days from when the three engineer aproved it.

ttm

mshaw43488 wrote: »

10 days from when the three engineer aproved it.

sorry wrong answer , so probably wrong question :pac:

I'll try again. From when you first reported a problem with the (3) nbs did you get and engineer to confirm/approve you getting a satellite connection?

ruffmut

ttm wrote: »

sorry wrong answer , so probably wrong question :pac:

I'll try again. From when you first reported a problem with the (3) nbs did you get and engineer to confirm/approve you getting a satellite connection?

I signed up to the nbs scheme on the 15th July. I got the repeater box from 3 on the 19th July.

I phoned 3 on the 20th July reporting my problems. I did various test with them on the phone with no sucess. They said they would send an engineer to fit an external aerial to the house. They came to me last Tuesday 3rd August. This did not work so they sent a report back to 3 who text me on the 4th August saying that they would contact me within 2 days to organize installation of the satellite broadband.

ttm

Its good to hear that things can be sorted out so swiftly. Correct me if I'm wrong but from start to finish it took about 3 weeks for you to get conformation you'd be getting the Satellite connection?

Don't forget to let us know when your Satellite connection is up and running.

mshaw43488

i got the extnernal antenna tried it out for a few days, still same problems foned three, engineer was outwithin 3 days, he foned his boss there and then and it was approved that day. report was sent to networks team in dublin i heard again about a week later saying i was defo getting satellite and was givin a installation date which was 10days after i got the phone call to say i was getting satellite. i was also kept informed by satellite broadband ireland . wasnt that stressfull at all really. the good news now is if i have any problemsiget to speak to an irishperson in S.B.I and not a 3 call centre in india.( dontget me wrong they were mostly very freindly and tried to be helpfull)

ruffmut

Just another quick update.

I got the satellite broadband in last Monday. Have it a week now and I find it very good. I am getting speeds up to 7.5Mbs.

The only thing is that it is not great to use it for you tube, downloading anything till after 11pm as it eats into your monthly allowance. As said before apter 11pm it is unlimited till 6am.

mshaw43488

good to here u got it fitted are u happy with it? do you find the upload speed can be really poor sometimes? especialy in the eve and it takesages for pages to load.

ruffmut

I have found it very good until this evening. It was a bit slow loading web pages. Downloading after 11pm has been very fast up to 8mbs. Upload speed is a bit slow alright. How are you getting on with yours now that you have it a while now

mshaw43488

most of the time mine is great but when the uploads speed slows down everything does .sometimes takes a few mins to load. download speeds are excellent like u say sometimes reaching 8meg. i had a major problem a few weeks back whilst using u torrent. even when my pc was switched off or u torrent closed data was being sent from the modem i couldnt understand how this could be possible. when i spoke to S.B.I about it they said u torrent keeps keeps track of the ip adress on the server and still uses it for sending data that is linked to my ip address. i went severly over my cap and couldnt use it for about 4 days. since then i have deleted utorrent and havent had any problems since. imade a 1hr skype call tonight with no problems at all. all in all a good service i think

jonniebgood1

mshaw43488 wrote: »

most of the time mine is great but when the uploads speed slows down everything does .sometimes takes a few mins to load. download speeds are excellent like u say sometimes reaching 8meg. i had a major problem a few weeks back whilst using u torrent. even when my pc was switched off or u torrent closed data was being sent from the modem i couldnt understand how this could be possible. when i spoke to S.B.I about it they said u torrent keeps keeps track of the ip adress on the server and still uses it for sending data that is linked to my ip address. i went severly over my cap and couldnt use it for about 4 days. since then i have deleted utorrent and havent had any problems since. imade a 1hr skype call tonight with no problems at all. all in all a good service i think

Can any of the guys using the satellite broadband confirm what average Ping times are???
Thanks

ruffmut

I just did a speed test and below is the result

yuloni

This post has been deleted.

yuloni

This post has been deleted.

ruffmut